The overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom (1893) and annexation (1898)

On January 17, 1893, a group of mostly American businessmen, backed by U.S. Marines landed from the USS Boston, overthrew Queen Liliʻuokalani. She yielded under protest to avoid bloodshed. After a failed attempt to restore her in 1895, she was imprisoned in ʻIolani Palace and forced to abdicate. The U.S. annexed Hawaiʻi in 1898, and in 1993 Congress formally apologized.

• January 1893: the Committee of Safety, with U.S. troops ashore, declared a provisional government; Liliʻuokalani yielded 'to the superior force of the United States' rather than risk her people's lives.
• 1894 to 1895: the Republic of Hawaiʻi was declared; after a failed royalist uprising, the queen was imprisoned for months in an upstairs room of ʻIolani Palace and abdicated.
• Annexation: the Newlands Resolution annexed Hawaiʻi in 1898 despite petitions signed by tens of thousands of Native Hawaiians opposing it; Hawaiʻi became a U.S. territory in 1900.
• Apology: Public Law 103-150 (1993) acknowledged the U.S. role in the overthrow and apologized to Native Hawaiians.
• Visit: ʻIolani Palace (tours; see the museums category), the Queen Liliʻuokalani statue between the palace and the State Capitol, and Washington Place, her former home. She also wrote the beloved song 'Aloha ʻOe.'

Sources: U.S. Statutes: Apology Resolution, Public Law 103-150 (1993) · Cultural Survival: the overthrow and annexation

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