AllHawaii-Cruises.com - The Independence of Hawaii

In the latter part of the l9th century, American and European business leaders in Hawaii found themselves increasingly at odds with the last two Hawaiian monarchs: King David Kalakaua, who ruled from 1874 to his death in 1891, and his sister, Queen Liliuokalani, who succeeded him.

During Kalakaua’s reign, the royal government became more corrupt and extravagant. The king also encouraged the revival of traditional Hawaiian chants, forms of medicine, and other practices that had been discouraged since the missionaries’ arrival. Although Kalakaua often was attacked by other Hawaiians for cooperating with the powerful Americans, the Americans saw him as too nationalistic, anti-American, and unpredictable.

In 1887 a group of American and other white business leaders, backed by an armed militia they had founded, imposed on the king a new constitution that sharply limited his powers. The so-called Bayonet Constitution also placed new conditions on the right to vote, consolidating the influence of wealthy whites. It required that voters have a yearly income of $600 or own $3,000 in property, a rule that disenfranchised about three-fourths of the native Hawaiian voters. European and American males could vote, even if they were not Hawaiian citizens, but Asian immigrants were excluded.

When Queen Liliuokalani took the throne in 1891, she attempted to regain some of the power the monarchy and native Hawaiians had lost. Much loved by her people, Liliuokalani opposed efforts of the white business community to have Hawaii annexed by the United States, sharing the overwhelmingly popular view that they were motivated by greed. On January 17, 1893, after the queen attempted to impose a new constitution, powerful white leaders occupied the government office building in Honolulu and overthrew the monarchy. The rebels were helped by the official United States representative in Hawaii, who ordered troops from a U.S. warship to land in Honolulu, on the pretext of protecting American lives and property. The rebels proclaimed a provisional government headed by Sanford B. Dole, the son of an American missionary.

Two days after taking over, the new government sent representatives to Washington to negotiate a treaty of annexation. In February a treaty was signed and submitted to the U.S. Senate.

Before the treaty could be approved, President Benjamin Harrison’s term of office expired in March 1893 and he was succeeded by Grover Cleveland. The new president, who strongly opposed imperialist enterprises, withdrew the treaty from the Senate and supported efforts to return Liliuokalani to the throne. However, by that time the revolutionaries were firmly entrenched in power, and they refused to yield to Cleveland’s pressures for a return to monarchy. Instead, realizing that annexation was not imminent, they began to arrange for the establishment of an independent republic. On May 30, 1894, a constitutional convention was convened in Honolulu. On July 4 a constitution creating the new Republic of Hawaii took effect, naming Dole as the first president.

In March 1897 William McKinley succeeded Cleveland as president of the United States. Both McKinley and the U.S. public favored the annexation of Hawaii. The next year both houses of Congress approved a joint resolution to annex Hawaii. President McKinley signed the resolution on July 7, 1898, and the formal transfer of Hawaiian sovereignty to the United States took place in Honolulu on August 12, 1898. On June 14, 1900, Hawaii became a U.S. territory, making all its citizens U.S. citizens. Dole was appointed the first territorial governor.

The native Hawaiian people were overwhelmingly demoralized. Since the arrival of whites they had lost their native religion, their land, and their traditions; with the overthrow of the monarchy they lost even their independence. The descendants of early missionaries and other whites had gained complete economic control of the islands, establishing a political system run by a few powerful men that was essentially undisturbed for half a century.

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History of Hawaii

There are several topics we could cover when talking about Hawaii History. We have chose a few of the most popular topics.

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