Queen Liliʻuokalani of Hawai'i
Note: When using terms that existed at the time, I am using the name and the English-language spelling as they then stood "Hawaii." When discussing the place itself, I am using the current version: "Hawai'i."
January 17, 1893: The Hawaiian Kingdom is overthrown, ending the 98-year Kamehameha Dynasty, and bringing the Hawaiian Islands under corporate control.
Kamehameha the Great established the Kingdom in 1795, and united the Islands in 1810. He was succeeded by his son, Kamehameha II, in 1819. He died in 1824, and was succeeded by his brother, who became Kamehameha III. He died in 1854, and was succeeded by his nephew, who became Kamehameha IV. He died in 1863, and was succeeded by his brother, who became Kamehameha V.
He died in 1873, and the line of succession had to go back to a grandnephew of Kamehameha I, a first cousin of Kamehamehas II and III, who took the name Lunalilo. But he died after only 13 months on the throne, and they really had to go back in the line of succession, finding Kalākaua, a first cousin once removed of Kamehamehas IV and V.
He died after only 2 years, and, with no available legitimate male heir, the throne passed to his sister, Lili'uokalani. She and her husband, a white man from Schenectady, New York named John Owen Dominis, had no children of her own, but adopted 3. It's not clear who would have succeeded her. Dominis died in 1891, shortly after his wife became Queen.
American and British commercial interests pushed for autonomy, with sugar plantations, and the shipping of their product, making rich men richer. The Kings made one concession after another, but, as is usually the case for rich men, no amount is ever enough.
On January 20, 1887, the United States began leasing a naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu. Shortly afterwards, a group of mostly non-Hawaiians calling themselves the Hawaiian Patriotic League began the Rebellion of 1887. They drafted their own constitution on July 6. Greatly diminishing the monarchy's power, it was written by Lorrin Thurston, the Hawaiian Minister of the Interior, who used the Hawaiian militia as threat against Kalākaua. Kalākaua was forced, under threat of assassination, to dismiss his cabinet ministers and sign what became known as the "Bayonet Constitution."
Both candidates for office and voters were now required to own property valuing at least $3,000, or have an annual income of no less than $600. (In 2022 dollars, those figures would be about $92,500 and $18,500, respectively.) This resulted in disenfranchising 2/3rds of the native Hawai'ians, as well as other ethnic groups who had previously held the right to vote. Asian immigrants were completely shut out and were no longer able to acquire citizenship or vote at all.
Lili'uokalani became Queen upon her brother's death on January 20, 1891. The McKinley Tariff -- written by Representative William McKinley of Ohio, starting the economic downturn that Governor William McKinley pledged to stop, and President William McKinley did so only with the Spanish-American War -- had removed the duties on sugar imports from other countries into the U.S., eliminating the previous Hawaiian advantage gained via the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875.
Liliʻuokalani wanted to scrap the Bayonet Constitution for a new one, an idea that seems to have been broadly supported by the Hawaiian population, improving voting rights for natives and removing them for non-natives. But when she told her Cabinet, they ratted her out to the legislature, where Euro-American business elites held disproportionate power.
On January 16, 1893, the Marshal of the Kingdom, Charles B. Wilson, was tipped off by detectives to the imminent planned overthrow. Wilson requested warrants to arrest the 13-member council of the Committee of Safety, and put the Kingdom under martial law. Because the members had strong political ties with John L. Stevens, the U.S. Minister to Hawaii (who had founded the Republican Party in Maine and served as a U.S. Senator for that State), the requests were repeatedly denied by Attorney General Arthur P. Peterson and the Queen's cabinet, fearing if approved, the arrests would escalate the situation.
Using the excuse of being concerned about Japanese imperialism -- nearly half a century before such concerns became a reality in Hawai'i -- Stevens obliged the Committee's request for official American backup, and summoned 162 U.S. sailors and Marines from the cruiser USS Boston, one of the U.S. Navy's earliest steel warships, to land on Oahu, under orders of neutrality.
Henry E. Cooper
On January 17, Henry E. Cooper, the Chairman of the Committee of Safety, addressed a crowd assembled in front of 'Iolani Palace, the official royal residence, and read aloud a proclamation that formally deposed Queen Liliʻuokalani, abolished the Hawaiian monarchy, and established a Provisional Government of Hawaii, under President Sanford B. Dole.
The deposed Queen was kept in ʻIolani Palace under house arrest. The American sailors and Marines did not enter the Palace grounds or take over any buildings, and never fired a shot, but their presence served effectively. The Queen never had an army, the local police did not support her, and no one mobilized any pro-royalist forces. Due to the Queen's desire "to avoid any collision of armed forces, and perhaps the loss of life" for her subjects and after some deliberation, at the urging of advisers and friends, the Queen ordered her forces to surrender.
President Benjamin Harrison was a lame duck, having been defeated in the 1892 election by former President Grover Cleveland. When Cleveland took office on March 4, 1893, he called for an investigation into the overthrow. As a result, Minister Stevens was recalled, and the military commander of forces in Hawaiʻi was forced to resign his commission.
President Cleveland stated, "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 a large majority in Congress, including in his own Democratic Party, was in favor of annexation, and Cleveland's efforts to restore the Islands' sovereignty and to put the Queen back on the throne stalled. Shortly after he took office, the recession that led to his election became a depression with the Panic of 1893, and even people who favored the liberation of Hawai'i, especially Cleveland himself, had other priorities.
Queen Liliʻuokalani remained in Hawai'i, living in exile until her death in 1917, at the age of 79. John L. Stevens did not live to see the annexation, as he died in 1895. So did Arthur P. Peterson, as he and Stevens were both already ill in 1893.
Sanford B. Dole served as President of Hawaii from the overthrow until the annexation in 1898, at which point he was named Territorial Governor. He held that post until 1903, when he was appointed Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Territory, serving until 1915. A cousin, James Dole, took advantage of Hawai'is pineapple crop, and founded the food production company that bears the family name. Sanford Dole died in 1926. So did Charles B. Wilson. Henry E. Cooper died in 1929, and Lorrin Thurston in 1931.
Congress formally annexed Hawai'i in 1898, making it a U.S. Territory, and granted it Statehood on August 21, 1959, making it the 50th State, and, so far, the most recent one. There is an independence movement in Hawai'i, but it is not as big as the one in Puerto Rico, which has lost a lot of steam in recent years.
ʻIolani Palace, the only royal palace on U.S. soil, remained the capitol building of the Republic, the Territory, and the State until 1969, when the current Hawaii State Capitol opened. The 1968-80 CBS crime drama Hawaii Five-O featured exterior shots of the Palace, suggesting that it was the headquarters of the fictional eponymous law-enforcement unit.
In 1993, the 100th anniversary of the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, Congress passed a resolution, which President Bill Clinton signed into law, offering an apology to Native Hawai'ians on behalf of the United States for its involvement in the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
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January 17, 1893 was a Tuesday. Baseball and football were out of season. Hockey was all-amateur. And basketball was a brand-new sport. So there were no scores on this historic day.
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