The Hawaiian Kingdom (1795-1898)

After defeating rival chiefs, culminating at the Battle of Nu'uanu in 1795, Kamehameha I brought all the major Hawaiian islands under one ruler as the chiefdom of Kaua'i accepted his overlordship in 1810 without a final battle. The unified Hawaiian Kingdom became the foundation of nearly a century of indigenous Hawaiian statehood.

Location: Hawaiian Islands

In a joint proclamation at London in November 1843, Britain and France formally recognized the independence of the Hawaiian Kingdom, following an earlier American statement of recognition. The kingdom went on to conclude treaties with the world's major powers and established more than ninety legations and consulates, participating in the international state system as a sovereign equal.

Location: Honolulu, Hawaii

The Reciprocity Treaty of 1875 allowed Hawaiian sugar to enter the United States duty-free, producing a sugar boom that tied the kingdom's economy to the American market. The treaty's expansion in 1887 included the lease of Pearl Harbor to the US Navy, deepening the strategic as well as economic entanglement that later shaped annexationist politics.

Location: Washington, D.C., United States

Armed militia associated with the business elite forced King Kalakaua to accept a new constitution, drafted by Minister of the Interior Lorrin Thurston, under threat of force, hence its historical name. It stripped the monarch of much of his power, imposed property qualifications that disenfranchised most Native Hawaiians, barred Asian residents from citizenship and voting, and allowed Americans to vote while retaining United States citizenship. Queen Lili'uokalani, then a princess, was among those who condemned it.

Location: Honolulu, Hawaii

Kalakaua died in San Francisco in January 1891 and his sister Lili'uokalani became queen, inheriting a kingdom in economic crisis: the American McKinley Tariff of 1890 had removed the sugar advantage granted by the Reciprocity Treaty, pressuring the plantation economy and the government's finances at the very moment constitutional power struggles were intensifying.

Location: Honolulu, Hawaii

The Committee of Safety, a thirteen-member group of mostly American and European descent led by Lorrin Thurston, proclaimed a Provisional Government under Sanford Dole.

Location: Honolulu, Hawaii

President Grover Cleveland ordered an investigation by former congressman James Blount, whose July 1893 report concluded that US diplomatic and military representatives had abused their authority and were responsible for the change of government; Cleveland called for the queen's restoration.

Location: Washington, D.C., United States

The Provisional Government proclaimed the Republic of Hawaii on 4 July 1894 with Sanford Dole as president, a state whose declared purpose was to campaign for annexation to the United States. Its constitution required voters to swear an oath against the monarchy, effectively excluding loyal Native Hawaiians from political participation.

Location: Honolulu, Hawaii

A royalist uprising led by Robert Wilcox in January 1895 failed within days. After arms were found on the palace grounds, Queen Lili'uokalani was arrested, tried before a military tribunal, convicted of misprision of treason, and imprisoned in her own home, where on 24 January she formally abdicated, ending the Hawaiian monarchy's claim to the throne.

Location: Honolulu, Hawaii

After the Senate twice failed to ratify an annexation treaty in 1897, despite anti-annexation petitions signed by the vast majority of Native Hawaiians, Congress annexed the islands by joint resolution, the Newlands Resolution, signed by President McKinley on 7 July 1898 amid the Spanish-American War. At the ceremony in Honolulu on 12 August, most Native Hawaiians stayed shuttered in their homes while the Hawaiian flag was lowered to the anthem Hawai'i Pono'i. A century later, in 1993, the US Congress adopted a formal Apology Resolution acknowledging that the overthrow had occurred with the participation of agents and citizens of the United States and that Native Hawaiians never directly relinquished their claims to sovereignty.

Location: Washington, D.C., United States