Title: Queen Liliʻuokalani, first and last queen regnant of Hawaii | Amazing Women In History
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Content: She started writing a new constitution that would restore the veto power to the monarchy, and voting rights to economically disenfranchised native Hawaiians and Asians. When they heard of Queen Liliʻuokalani’s new constitution, American and European businessmen and residents started organizing to depose her. They wanted Hawaii annexed to the United States so that their businesses could have the same sugar bounties as domestic producers. In 1893, they formed a “Committee of Safety” to accomplish their goals of overthrowing the Hawaiian Kingdom and deposing the Queen, and the annexation of Hawaiʻi to the United States. On January 16th in 1893, sailors and marines aboard the USS Boston in Honolulu Harbor came ashore under orders of neutrality. The presence of these troops, ostensibly to enforce neutrality and prevent violence, were effectively a threat to Queen Liliʻuokalani and made it impossible for the monarchy to protect itself. Liliʻuokalani believed in peaceful resistance. She did not want the blood of Hawaiian people to be shed. Hoping that the US would eventually restore Hawaii’s sovereignty to the rightful holder, the Queen temporarily relinquished her throne to the superior military forces of the United States: I, Lili’uokalani, by the Grace of God and under the constitution of the Hawaiian Kingdom, Queen, do hereby solemnly protest against any and all acts done against myself and the constitutional government of the Hawaiian Kingdom by certain persons claiming to have established a Provisional Government of and for this Kingdom.