8.2 Overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani

Events and Key Players in the Overthrow

The overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani in January 1893 was not a sudden event. It grew out of years of tension between the Hawaiian monarchy and a small but powerful group of foreign businessmen and politicians who wanted to bring Hawaiʻi under American control. Understanding the overthrow means tracing a chain of events that started six years earlier with the Bayonet Constitution.

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Events of Queen Liliuokalani's Overthrow

The roots of the overthrow go back to 1887, when a group of mostly American and European businessmen called the Hawaiian League forced King Kalākaua to sign a new constitution at gunpoint. This Bayonet Constitution stripped the monarchy of real governing power, gave the legislature and cabinet control over key decisions, and changed voting requirements so that wealthy foreigners could vote while most Native Hawaiians and all Asian immigrants were disenfranchised. It reshaped Hawaiian governance to serve haole (foreign) business interests, particularly sugar planters.

When Queen Liliuokalani ascended to the throne in 1891 after her brother Kalākaua's death, she understood that her people wanted the Bayonet Constitution replaced. She drafted a new constitution that would restore the monarch's authority and return voting rights to Native Hawaiians. On January 14, 1893, she announced her intention to promulgate this new constitution.

That announcement set the overthrow in motion. The Committee of Safety, a group of 13 mostly American and European businessmen and politicians organized in 1892 by Lorrin A. Thurston, used the queen's constitutional effort as their justification to act. They had already been planning to remove the monarchy and push for annexation to the United States. The queen's move gave them the political cover they needed.

U.S. Military in the Hawaiian Overthrow

The Committee of Safety could not have succeeded without American military backing. Here's how the U.S. military presence unfolded:

• The USS Boston, a U.S. Navy cruiser under Captain Gilbert C. Wiltse, was already anchored in Honolulu Harbor.
• On January 16, 1893, U.S. Minister to Hawaiʻi John L. Stevens ordered 162 Marines and sailors ashore, claiming they were needed to "protect American lives and property."
• These troops were positioned strategically near ʻIolani Palace and key government buildings, creating an armed presence that made clear any royalist resistance would face American military force.
• The troops did not fire a shot or engage in direct combat. But their presence was the decisive factor. Hawaiian royalist forces, though willing to fight, recognized that resisting would mean confronting the U.S. military.
• Stevens went further: he officially recognized the Provisional Government even before Queen Liliuokalani had formally yielded her authority. This gave the new government immediate political legitimacy and made restoration of the monarchy far more difficult.

The official American justification was "non-intervention" and protection of U.S. citizens. In reality, Stevens had been conspiring with the Committee of Safety and actively coordinated the troop landing to support the overthrow.

Native Hawaiian Resistance Efforts

Queen Liliuokalani chose to yield her authority temporarily on January 17, 1893, specifically to avoid bloodshed among her people. She did not surrender to the Provisional Government. Instead, she yielded to the "superior military forces of the United States" and appealed directly to the U.S. government to investigate and restore her throne.

Hawaiian resistance took several forms in the years that followed:

• Hui Aloha ʻĀina (Hawaiian Patriotic League) organized a massive petition drive known as the Kūʻē Petitions. They gathered over 21,000 signatures from Native Hawaiians opposing annexation, representing the vast majority of the Native Hawaiian population at the time. These petitions were delivered to the U.S. Senate in 1897 and helped defeat the annexation treaty (though annexation later passed through a joint resolution in 1898).
• In 1895, Robert Wilcox led a royalist counter-revolution attempting to restore the queen. The attempt failed, and the Provisional Government used it as a pretext to arrest Queen Liliuokalani herself, charging her with knowledge of the plot. She was imprisoned in ʻIolani Palace.
• Cultural resistance continued throughout this period. Hawaiians preserved their language, hula, mele (songs and chants), and other traditions even as the new government actively suppressed Hawaiian cultural practices.
• Legal challenges were also pursued, contesting the legitimacy of the overthrow in U.S. courts and through appeals to international law.

Aftermath of the Hawaiian Monarchy's Fall

On January 17, 1893, the Committee of Safety proclaimed a Provisional Government with Sanford B. Dole as president. Minister Stevens immediately raised the U.S. flag over government buildings and declared a protectorate, with the U.S. assuming responsibility for Hawaiʻi's foreign relations.

The U.S. response was not unified, though. President Grover Cleveland, who took office in March 1893, sent James Blount to investigate. The Blount Report, completed in July 1893, concluded that the U.S. military presence was decisive in the overthrow and that Stevens had acted improperly. Cleveland called the overthrow an unjust act and attempted to restore Queen Liliuokalani to her throne.

The Provisional Government simply refused. Dole and his allies rejected Cleveland's demands, and Cleveland lacked the Congressional support needed to use force. Without a mechanism to compel restoration, the effort stalled.

In 1894, the Provisional Government reorganized itself as the Republic of Hawaiʻi, still under Dole's leadership. This republic was never approved by Native Hawaiians and existed primarily to position Hawaiʻi for eventual annexation. That annexation came in 1898, during the McKinley administration, pushed through by a joint resolution of Congress rather than a treaty (which would have required a two-thirds Senate vote the annexationists knew they couldn't get).