Queen Liliuokalani
Liliuokalani tried to end the planters' "Bayonet Constitution" and, on the morning of 14 January 1893, she proclaimed her intention to initiate a new constitution that would restore actual rule to her as the sovereign queen of Hawaii.
|
Provisional Government
That afternoon a "Committee of Safety" met with US Minister John L. Stevens and on 17 January 1893 they overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy. US troops from the "USS Boston" came ashore in Honolulu, and a provisional government took control of Hawaii, led by Lorrin Thurston, John L. Stevens and Sanford Dole.
Republic of Hawaii
The planters and businessmen in Honolulu set up the Republic of Hawaii, and Sanford Dole was its first president. Princess Kaiulani went to Washington, DC, to plead Hawaii's case, and President Grover Cleveland made a speech to the US Congress condemning the overthrow of the monarchy, calling it "a misuse of the name and power of the United States."
In 1895 Robert Wilcox and the Kamehameha Rifles again led a revolt to return the Queen to power, and again he was captured. This time however it was the US who saved Wilcox before his death sentence could be carried out.
In the meantime, Queen Liluokalani was held prisioner in the Iolani Palace in Honolulu by Dole's government. She was summarily tried, found guilty of treason and forced to abdicate the royal throne of Hawaii in late 1896.
It was while she was imprisoned in the palace that she wrote the song "Farewell to Thee," which is better known as "Aloha Oe."
The U.S. Territory of Hawaii
President Cleveland had refused to annex Hawaii, though the US Congress had passed annexation legislation, but in 1898 the new President McKinley had no such qualms when the US battleship "Maine" blew up in the harbor of Havanna, Cuba.
Hawaii was already an important supply base for US ships in the Pacific, and with war with Spain on the horizon, the US Navy wanted a secure Hawaiian base at Pearl Harbor.
The official annexation ceremony was carried out in Honolulu 12 August 1898, and Hawaii became an official territory of the United States in 1900.
Had it not been for the paramilitary power of wealthy American businessmen the history of Hawaii probably would have been much different. How much so we'll never know, but the strides that the Kamehameha kings and Hawaiian royalty made toward democracy, peace and prosperity for all of the islanders is a proud legacy that has never been forgotten.
