it’s genuinely wild how hawaii’s independence isn’t like, a huge and widely recognized issue. that’s one of the US’s biggest and most glaringly memorable crimes and it just continues on and on instead of being righted in any way. like holy shit how is hawaii still a state. it’s downright fucked that people just casually live there and visit there to this day in 2024 knowing full well that, at the very least, it was a sovereign nation that the US conquered by force in the late 1950’s. there are people alive now who are older than hawaii’s statehood. idk it’s one of those things that just baffles me. stop going to hawaii, leave them alone
This is a INCREDIBLY misleading date. Hawaiʻi was not ‘conquered by force’ in the 1950s, the more accurate date was about 130 years ago in the 1880s. And it’s way more complicated than a lot of other American adventures in imperialism.
It’s possible that you may be thinking of the Rebellion of 1887 (largely driven by white residents) and the subsequent Bayonet Constitution, which King Kalākaua was forced into signing, that reduced the monarchy’s power.
But even that is more complicated than most colonial enterprises…
As background, Hawaiʻi had been ruled as an absolute monarchy since Kamehameha, a chieftain of the island of Hawaiʻi (the Big Island), conquered the entire Hawaiian Island chain in a series of bloody invasions of the other islands. His conquest was wildly successful in part due to Western weapons acquired through John Young and Issac Davis, two Westerners from the UK. With his victory, he established the Hawaiian Kingdom as a dynastic monarchy in 1795. Once his position was secure, he strengthened it by establishing diplomatic relations with both the UK and US.
Fast forward to 1887. The Bayonet Constitution imposed upon King Kalākaua transferred much of the power from the king to the legislature. And while it allowed for voting by Kānaka Maoli (native Hawaiians), it also raised the economic requirements for suffrage to an amount that basically excluded the majority of the Kānaka population. In practice, it meant that it was largely rich, white planters and other residents who were able to vote.
Kalākaua was still considered king, however. But the next year, there was another rebellion: the Wilcox Rebellion of 1888. This one was lead by Kalākaua’s (somewhat distant) cousin, Robert Wilcox, and his sister, Liliʻuokalani, and a few others. They were attempting to depose Kalākaua and replace him with Liliʻuokalani. It failed, but hardly mattered because Kalākaua died a few years later (natural causes), and Liliʻuokalani assumed the throne anyway in 1891.
Liliʻuokalani tried to return full power to the monarchy. With that goal in mind, she attempted to rewrite the constitution. It didn’t go well.
On January 17, 1893, Liliʻuokalani, and the Hawaiian Kingdom, was overthrown. The ones who did so were a group that called themselves the “Committee of Safety” and were composed entirely of either foreign-born residents or island-born kingdom subjects who were descended from mainland Americans. The coup was primarily led by Lorrin Thurston, born in Hawaii of American parents.
They organized a non-native militia of about 1500 armed men, who basically staked out the palace and put Queen Liliʻuokalani under house arrest. A policeman, a native Hawaiian man named Leialoha, was shot by this militia and wounded when trying to stop them from moving their weapons in. He was the only injury in the coup and there were no deaths.
The Committee then reached out to to John Stevens (the American Minister to the Hawaiian Kingdom, aka a diplomat representing the American government in Hawaiʻi), spinning a tale of woe that they worried American citizens were under threat in the kingdom. They asked for US military support. Stevens sent the USS Boston and a company of Marines to defend the US consulate and other US buildings. The Marines did not participate in the coup, but their presence was clearly meant as a threat.
Needless to say, the coup was successful. Liliʻuokalani, who had no army, was deposed. The Committee was in charge now.
The Committee then attempted to get the US to immediately annex the islands, but US President Cleveland refused. As a matter of fact, Cleveland wasn’t very happy about the whole thing and requested an investigation into the actions of the US military and the local diplomat.
The main conclusion of the report is quoted as: “United States diplomatic and military representatives had abused their authority and were responsible for the change in government.”
Stevens, who had authorized the use of the USS Boston, was removed from his position. The military commander was also forced to resign.
Cleveland later said: “Substantial wrong has thus been done which a due regard for our national character as well as the rights of the injured people requires we should endeavor to repair the monarchy.”
But other US politicians didn’t see it the same way. And later, Senator Morgan (from Alabama… why is it always Alabama?) commissioned a competing report that exonerated Stevens and encouraged annexation in strong terms.
But annexation still didn’t happen right away. And the Committee formed a provisional government composed almost entirely of the Committee conspirators and other high-placed whites from the planter class. This served as an interim until a formal government, the Republic of Hawaii, was established. They installed Sanford Dole (yes, Dole as in pineapples) as President.
Notably, voting rights were extended under this new Republic to all men (but no women) who were either natural born citizens of the previous Hawaiian Kingdom or naturalized citizens of the Republic. This excluded the majority of the foreign plantation workers from China, Portugal, the Philippines, and Japan. But it DID enfranchise native Hawaiians, who represented the largest number of voters in the Republic–almost two-thirds of all voters. Native Hawaiians also had the majority in the Republic’s legislature. The Speaker of the House was also Native Hawaiian.
That said, voter turnout was very low. And petitions against annexation were run during this time gaining around 200,000 signatories–representing over half of the native Hawaiian population. While some Kānaka might have been on board with the Republic, annexation definitely didn’t have full support.
In 1895, Robert Wilcox was back. And he and deposed Queen Liliʻuokalani attempted a new rebellion to overthrow the Committee’s government. The royalists assembled around 500 armed supporters and smuggled arms and ammo from California. They fought a handful of battles against the Republic’s militias, but many of their force was captured. Others deserted. The Counter Revolution failed. Liliʻuokalani was arrested, tried, and forced to officially abdicate her throne.
It still wasn’t enough to get Cleveland to annex Hawaiʻi. But in 1897, his term in office ended and President McKinley was now in charge.
McKinley had no aversion to annexing the islands. In fact, he was quite keen on the idea. He tried twice in his first year in office, but failed. Then in 1898, he signed the Newlands Resolution that would annex the islands as a territory of the United States.
In 1919, Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole–a chief of Hilo and father of former Queen Kapiʻolani–was the first to propose statehood for Hawaiʻi, but the white planter class was not interested in statehood. Being a Territory served their business interests better.
It was not until 1959, however, that Hawaiʻi was made a US state with the Hawaii Admission Act in US Congress. A referendum in the territory that year yielded 94.3% voting in favor of statehood.
This was less a violent military colonial conquest than it was a capitalistic, business-led one.
So, no… the Kingdom of Hawaii was not overthrown or conquered by force in 1959. That is simply not true.
But the real story is a strong cautionary tale in what happens when businessmen and self-serving politicians have free rein to subvert governments and rule of law for their own personal monetary gain, at the expense of a nation’s sovereignty.