Laplace affair


The Laplace affair or the French Incident was a military intervention by the Kingdom of France to end the persecution of Catholics in the Kingdom of Hawaii, which had been promoted by Protestant ministers. Under the threat of war, King Kamehameha III agreed to the French demands to stop the detention of Catholic citizens and pay reparations.

Background

After the 1819 death of King Kamehameha of the Hawaiian Islands, queen regent Kaahumanu came to power, the powerful newly converted Protestant widow of Kamehameha the Great. New England Protestant ministers convinced her to illegalize Catholicism in Hawaii. Following the enactment of the new policy, chiefs loyal to her forcibly deported French Roman Catholic priests on to the Waverly in Honolulu Harbor on December 24, 1831. Native Hawaiian Catholic converts were arrested and imprisoned. Most of these prisoners were released once Protestant ministers had beaten them into rejecting Catholicism. The prejudice against the French Catholics missionaries remained the same under the reign of her successor, the Kuhina Nui Kaahumanu II.

Intervention

On July 10, 1839 Captain Laplace of the French frigate Artémise sailed to Hawaii under orders to:

Agreement

Under the threat of war King Kamehameha III issued an Edict of Toleration on July 17, 1839 and paid the $20,000 in compensation for the deportation of the priests and the incarceration and torture of converts, agreeing to Laplace's demands. The kingdom proclaimed:
The Catholic missionaries returned unpersecuted and Kamehameha III donated land for them to build a church as reparation.