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Content: As the Islands' sugar industry grew, large numbers of contract laborers were imported first from China, then from Japan and other countries, to work on the plantations -- the beginning of Hawai`i's present multicultural population. Plantation ownership and control of the business community were in the hands of men of American or European blood. King Kalakaua was forced to sign the Bayonet Constitution in 1887, sharply curtailing his powers and diminishing the Native Hawaiians' voice in government. ( Hawai`i Visitors Bureau) 
In 1887, during the reign of Lili`uokalani' s brother, King Kalakaua, a group of planters and businessmen, seeking to control the kingdom politically as well as economically, formed a secret organization, the Hawaiian League. Membership (probably never over 400, compared to the 40,000 Native Hawaiians in the kingdom) was predominantly American, including several missionary descendants. Organizer and fire brand of the league was Lorrin A. Thurston, a lawyer and missionary grandson, who would later be a leader in the overthrow of the monarchy, with many of the same men. Lorrin Thurston , grandson of American missionaries, was the firebrand behind the revolution against the Hawaiian Monarchy. ( Hawai`i State Archives) 
Their goal, for now, was to "reform" the monarchy. But reform, like beauty, was in the eye of the beholder. The Native Hawaiians looked up to their sovereigns with respect and aloha.