Overthrowing the Monarchy

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Overthrowing the   Monarchy

After the Annexation

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        Akaka Bill

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     "The decade of the 1850s witnessed a struggle between those planters seeking annexation to avoid U.S. sugar tariffs and a monarchy attempting to preserve its  sovereignty while fending off military interventions and a growing foreign element in the Kingdom." [1] 

       At this point in Hawaii's colonization, haole filled the government. They overwhelmed the lands, culture, and even the government.  

Now the center of power had changed hands and haole cabinets that advised the king were creating the laws and controlling the Kanaka Maoli. They were trying to pass treaties for annexation even though the only population pushing for annexation was the haole sugar planters that wanted to avoid the United State's sugar tariff on foreign sugar. The conflict was this, should the monarchs sign an annexation treaty to help the economy and get rid of the sugar tariff, or refuse annexation and preserve the Hawaiian culture.

     Many monarchs were against annexation. However, the haole kept pushing the monarchs for annexation treaties. For example, groups formed falsely titled the  "Hawaiian League" and "Honolulu Rifles" that only were interested in the rights of haole sugar plantation owners. The "Hawaiian League" successfully gained control by forcing King Kalakaua to sign a constitution creating a legislature that required citizens with an income of $600 or $3,000 worth of property. This elite upper class was made up of mostly haole, causing the Kanaka Maoli minority to lose power. 

     When King Kalakaua died in 1891, his sister, Queen Liliuokalani (shown above) gained control of the government. She was determined to keep Hawaii a separate nation. However, despite her perseverance, a group of American and European politicians and businessmen created a "Committee of Safety" and overthrew Queen Liliuokalani, in 1893. The committee set up what they called a "Provisional Government."  Sanford B. Dole, who later became the founder of "Dole Foods", claimed himself president until Hawaii was annexed by the United States.

[1] Trask, Haunani-Kay, From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawaii, (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1993), 7