King Kamehameha V (Lot)

In November 1863 Alexander's older brother Lot began his rule as Kamehameha V. He was a stern, strong-willed man of 375 pounds. His reign of eight years brought in a new era of Hawaiian identity and restored some of the power of the local chiefs, but during his reign the influence of European planters and businessmen continued to increase.

Lot resembled his great-grandfather, Kamehameha I, in appearance and in temperment, but he never married and Kamehameha V was the last of the Kamehameha kings.

King Lunalilo

In 1873 the Hawaiian legislature chose Prince William Lunalilo to be king. He was a cousin to Lot, and though exceedingly popular, he had never exercised power or responsibility before being king. Then suddenly he died from tuberculoses after only one and a half years in power.

To succeed him the Hawaiian lawmakers chose Colonel David Kalakaua, Lot's half-brother, in February 1874. Queen Emma's (she was the wife of Kamehameha IV and a beacon of the "golden age") followers rioted in the legislature against Kalakaua, but were overwhelmed by armed marines from the British and American ships in Honolulu harbor. Kalalaua became king.

King Kalakua

King Kalakua loved the good life but also encourged the revival of old Hawaiian traditions. For this, he was also known as the "Merry Monarch," but at the same time more and more sugar profits were pouring into the islands, into the hands of foreign businessmen, who were afraid of native controls.

In 1881 Kalakua took a world trip to meet heads of state, who were surprised to find out that Kalakua was interested in merging Hawaii into an Asian federation of nations. This made many people in Hawaii nervous, but when he returned to Honolulu, he staged a Buckingham Place-style coronation that reassured the big companies they were safe.

However, while the king settled into being the Merry Monarch again, nervous foreigners formed secret groups like the Hawaiian League and paramilitary groups like the Hawaiian Rifles, and because of them, the king was forced to accept the "Bayonet Constitution" in June 1887 that made him a powerless figurehead and allowed whites to vote.

In 1889 a pro-Hawaiian uprising led by Robert Wilcox and the Kamehameha Rifles against the Bayonet Constitution and the planters' Hawaiian Rifles was put down easily. Shortly thereafter Wilcox was acquited of charges by an all-Hawaiian jury and Wilcox became an Hawaiian hero.

King Kalakua and Queen Kapiolani often traveled abroad, and while he did, his sister Liliuokalani ruled in his stead, so that when Kalakua died in 1891 in San Francisco, California, Liliuokalani became Queen. She had no children and named her niece Princess Kaiulani as her heir.