Hawaiian Kingdom

The kingdom subsequently gained diplomatic recognition from European powers and the United States. An influx of European and American explorers, traders, and whalers soon began arriving to the kingdom, introducing diseases such as syphilis, tuberculosis, smallpox, and measles, leading to the rapid decline of the Native Hawaiian population. In 1887, King Kalākaua was forced to accept a new constitution after a coup d'état by the Honolulu Rifles, a volunteer military unit recruited from American settlers. Queen Liliʻuokalani, who succeeded Kalākaua in 1891, tried to abrogate the new constitution. She was subsequently overthrown in a 1893 coup engineered by the Committee of Safety, a group of Hawaiian subjects who were mostly of American descent, and supported by the U.S. military.^[12] The Committee of Safety dissolved the kingdom and established the Republic of Hawaii, intending for the U.S. to annex the islands, which it did on July 4, 1898 via the Newlands Resolution. Hawaii became part of the U.S. as the Territory of Hawaii until it became a U.S. state in 1959.


In 1993, the United States Senate passed the Apology Resolution, which acknowledged that "the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi occurred with the active participation of agents and citizens of the United States" and "the Native Hawaiian people never directly relinquished to the United States their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people over their national lands, either through the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi or through a plebiscite or referendum." Opposition to the U.S. annexation of Hawaii played a major role in the creation of the Hawaiian sovereignty movement, which calls for Hawaiian independence from American rule.

Military[edit]

The Hawaiian army and navy developed from the warriors of Kona under Kamehameha I. The army and navy used both traditional canoes and uniforms including helmets made of natural materials and loincloths (called the malo ) as well as western technology such as artillery cannons, muskets and ships. European advisors were treated well and became Hawaiian citizens. When Kamehameha died in 1819 he left his son Liholiho a large arsenal with tens of thousands of soldiers and many warships. This helped put down the revolt at Kuamoʻo later in 1819 and Humehume's rebellion on Kauaʻi in 1824.


The military shrank with the population under the onslaught of disease, so by the end of the Kamehameha dynasty the Hawaiian navy dissolved and the army consisted of a few hundred troops. After a French invasion that sacked Honolulu in 1849, Kamehameha III sought defense treaties with the United States and Britain. During the Crimean War, Kamehameha III declared Hawaiʻi a neutral state.^[42] The United States government put strong pressure on Kamehameha IV to trade exclusively with the United States, threatening to annex the islands. To counter this threat Kamehameha IV and Kamehameha V pushed for alliances with other foreign powers, especially Great Britain. Hawaiʻi claimed uninhabited islands in the Pacific, including the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, many of which conflicted with American claims.


The royal guards were disbanded under Lunalilo after a barracks revolt in September 1873. A small army was restored under King Kalākaua but failed to stop the 1887 Rebellion by the Missionary Party. The U.S. maintained a policy of keeping at least one cruiser in Hawaiʻi. On January 17, 1893, Liliʻuokalani, believing the U.S. military would intervene if she changed the constitution, waited for the USS Boston to leave port. Once it was known that Liliʻuokalani was revising the constitution, the Boston returned and assisted the Missionary Party in her overthrow. Following the establishment of the Provisional Government of Hawaii, the Kingdom's military was disarmed and disbanded.

Territorial extent[edit]

The Kingdom formed in 1795. In the Battle of Nuʻuanu Kamehameha conquered Maui, Molokaʻi and Oʻahu. Kamehameha I had conquered Maui and Molokaʻi five years prior in the Battle of Kepaniwai. They were abandoned when the Big Island became at risk and later reconquered by the aged King Kahekili II of Maui. His domain then comprised six of the major islands of the Hawaiian chain. With Kaumualiʻi's peaceful surrender, Kauaʻi and Niʻihau joined the kingdom. Kamehameha II assumed de facto control of Kauaʻi and Niʻihau when he kidnapped Kaumualiʻi, ending his vassal rule over the islands.


In 1822, Queen Kaʻahumanu and her husband King Kaumualiʻi traveled with Captain William Sumner to find Nīhoa, as her generation had only known of it through songs and myths. King Kamehameha IV later sailed there to officially annex the island. Kamehameha IV and Kalākaua would later claim other islands in the Hawaiian Archipelago, including Holoikauaua or Pearl and Hermes Atoll, Mokumanamana or Necker Island, Kauō or Laysan, Papa‘āpoho or Lisianski Island, Hōlanikū or Kure Atoll, Kauihelani or Midway Atoll, Kānemilohaʻi or French Frigate Shoals, Nalukākala or Maro Reef and Pūhāhonu or Gardner Pinnacles, as well as Palmyra Atoll, Johnston Atoll and Jarvis Island. Several of these islands had been claimed by the United States under the Guano Islands Act of 1856. The Stewart Islands (Sikaiana Atoll) near the Solomon Islands, were ceded to Hawaiʻi in 1856 by its residents, but the cession was never formalized.