Laplace Affair

Laplace Affair
L'Artémise
Date July 10, 1839 Location Kingdom of Hawaii Result Kamehameha III agrees to demands Hawaii issues the Edict of Toleration July 17 Hawaii paid $20,000 in compensation.
Belligerents
French Kingdom	Kingdom of Hawaii
Commanders and leaders
Captain Laplace	Kamehameha III
Strength
1 frigate 300 Marines

Kamehameha III agrees to demands

1 frigate

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.

After the 1819 death of King Kamehameha of the Hawaiian Islands, queen regent Kaʻahumanu 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 Kaʻahumanu II.

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

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