Book excerpt: Introduction -- Emerging nations, emerging empires : inter-imperial intimacies and competing settler colonialisms in Hawai'i -- At the borders of nation and state : The 1894 Constitutional Convention -- How the Portuguese became white : The search for labor and the cost of indemnity -- "The Shinshu Maru Affair" : barred landings and immigration detention -- Historicizing the homestead in "Wahiawa Colony" : from "American family farm" to industrial plantation economy -- Conclusion.