Title: 
Headings: 

Content: The Overthrow of the Monarchy
Return to the Hawaiian Independence Home Pageor the 
View this article text only, or just the images with captions
The Overthrow of the Monarchy
By Pat Pitzer
''Spirit of Aloha,'' May 1994
(The in-flight magazine of Aloha Airlines)
The statue of Queen Lili`uokalani, which stands between `Iolani Palace and the State Capitol, was draped with leis for last year's centennial observance of the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy. ( Photo by Linda Ching.) Winds of profound change swept over Hawai`i in the 1890s, turbulent times that altered the islands' future forever
`Iolani Palace , bedecked in Hawaiian flags for King Kalakaua's birthday celebration, proudly recalls the days of Hawai`i's monarchy. ( Photo by Brett Uprichard)
Hawai`i entered the decade of the 1890s as a kingdom and emerged from it as a Territory of the United States, with a provisional government and a republic in between. It was a time of monarchs and "mission boys," of royalists, republicans and revolutionaries. The storm that had been gathering broke on Jan. 17, 1893, when the Hawaiian monarchy ended in a day of bloodless revolution. Armed insurrection by a relatively small group of men, most of them American by birth or heritage, succeeded in wresting control of the Islands with the backing of American troops sent ashore from a warship in Honolulu Harbor. To this "superior force of the United States of America," Queen Lili`uokalani yielded her throne, under protest, in order to avoid bloodshed, trusting that the United States government would right the wrong that had been done to her and the Hawaiian people. Sugar and a coerced constitution played roles in the drama -- intertwined themes of economics and politics. Sugar was by far the principal support of the Islands, and profits and prosperity hinged on favorable treaties with the United States, Hawaiian sugar's chief market, creating powerful economic ties.