The Republic of Hawaiʻi was a short-lived one-party state in Hawaiʻi between July 4, 1894, when the Provisional Government of Hawaii had ended, and August 12, 1898, when it became annexed by the United States as an organized incorporated territory of the United States. In 1893 the Committee of Public Safety overthrew Kingdom of Hawaii Queen Liliʻuokalani after she rejected the 1887 Bayonet Constitution. The Committee of Public Safety intended for Hawaii to be annexed by the United States but President Grover Cleveland, a Democrat opposed to imperialism, refused. A new constitution was subsequently written while Hawaii was being prepared for annexation.
Sanford Ballard Dole was a lawyer and jurist from the Hawaiian Islands as a kingdom, protectorate, republic, and territory. A descendant of the American missionary community to Hawaii, Dole advocated the westernization of Hawaiian government and culture. After the overthrow of the monarchy, he served as the President of the Republic of Hawaii until his government secured Hawaii's annexation by the United States.
John Leavitt Stevens was the United States Minister to the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893 when he was accused of conspiring to overthrow Queen Liliuokalani in association with the Committee of Safety, led by Lorrin A. Thurston and Sanford B. Dole – the first Americans attempting to overthrow a foreign government under the auspices of a United States government officer. Apart from his work as a politician and diplomat, he was also a journalist, author, minister and newspaper publisher. He founded the Republican Party in Maine and served as Maine State Senator.
James Henderson Blount was an American statesman, soldier and congressman from Georgia. He opposed the annexation of Hawaii in 1893 in his investigation into the alleged American involvement in the political revolution in the Kingdom of Hawai'i. Blount was a prominent spokesman for white supremacy and strongly opposed adding a new non-white element to the American population.
The Provisional Government of Hawaii, abbreviated "P.G.", was proclaimed after the coup d'état on January 17, 1893, by the 13-member Committee of Safety under the leadership of its chairman Henry E. Cooper and former judge Sanford B. Dole as the designated President of Hawaii. It replaced the Kingdom of Hawaii after the overthrow of Queen Liliʻuokalani as a provisional government until the Republic of Hawaii was established on July 4, 1894.
The legal status of Hawaii—as opposed to its political status—is a settled legal matter as it pertains to United States law, but there has been scholarly and legal debate. While Hawaii is internationally recognized as a state of the United States of America while also being broadly accepted as such in mainstream understanding, there have been essays written denying the legality of this status. The argument is that Hawaii is an independent nation under military occupation. The legality of control of Hawaii by the United States has also been raised in the losing side in cases in the U.S. Supreme Court, and in U.S. District Court.
The Morgan Report was an 1894 report concluding an official U.S. Congressional investigation into the events surrounding the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, including the alleged role of U.S. military troops in the overthrow of Queen Liliʻuokalani. Along with the Blount Report submitted in 1893, it is one of the main source documents compiling the testimony of witnesses and participants in the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom in January 1893. The Morgan Report was the final result of an official U.S. Congressional investigation into the overthrow, conducted by the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, whose chairman was Senator John Tyler Morgan, Democrat of Alabama.
The overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom began on January 17, 1893, with a coup d'état against Queen Liliʻuokalani on the island of Oahu by subjects of the Hawaiian Kingdom, United States citizens, and foreign residents residing in Honolulu. A majority of the insurgents were foreigners. They prevailed upon American minister John L. Stevens to call in the U.S. Marines to protect United States interests, an action that effectively buttressed the rebellion. The insurgents established the Republic of Hawaii, but their ultimate goal was the annexation of the islands to the United States, which occurred in 1898.
The Blount Report is the popular name given to the part of the 1893 United States House of Representatives Foreign Relations Committee Report regarding the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii. The report was conducted by U.S. Commissioner James H. Blount, appointed by U.S. President Grover Cleveland to investigate the events surrounding the January 1893 overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii.
Hawaiian Kingdom–United States relations refers to the historical relationship between the independent Hawaiian Kingdom and the United States. Relations included several treaties and exchanges of trade and diplomatic representatives from 1820 to 1893.
The Hawaiian rebellions and revolutions took place in Hawaii between 1887 and 1895. Until annexation in 1898, Hawaii was an independent sovereign state, recognized by the United States, United Kingdom, France and Germany with exchange of ambassadors. However, there were several challenges to the reigning governments of the Kingdom and Republic of Hawaii during the 8+1⁄2-year (1887–1895) period.
Opposition to the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom took several forms. Following the overthrow of the monarchy on January 17, 1893, Hawaii's provisional government—under the leadership of Sanford B. Dole—attempted to annex the land to the United States under Republican Benjamin Harrison's administration. But the treaty of annexation came up for approval under the administration of Grover Cleveland, a Democrat, anti-expansionist, and friend of the deposed Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii. Cleveland retracted the treaty on March 4, 1893, and launched an investigation headed by James Henderson Blount; its report is known as the Blount Report.
Robert Crichton Wyllie was a Scottish physician and businessman. He served for twenty years as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Kingdom of Hawaii.
Ladd & Company was an early business partnership in the Kingdom of Hawaii. Its founders were William Ladd (1807–1863), Peter Allen Brinsmade (1804–1859), and William Northey Hooper (1809–1878). The company was behind the first commercial sugarcane plantation and first international land speculation in the Hawaiian Islands.
Hermann Adam Widemann was a businessman from Germany who was a judge and member of the cabinet of the Kingdom of Hawaii.
John Adams Kuakini Cummins was a member of the nobility of the Kingdom of Hawaii who became a wealthy businessman, and was involved in politics as the kingdom was overthrown.
Joseph Apukai Akina was a lawyer, politician and minister of the Kingdom of Hawaii and later Territory of Hawaii. He served as a statesman during the reign of Queen Liliʻuokalani and later became the first Speaker of the House of Representatives in the Hawaii Territorial Legislature.
John Ena Jr. was a Hawaiian business magnate and politician. He was an advisor to both King Kalākaua and Queen Liliʻuokalani. After the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, his advisory position was retained during the Provisional Government and the Republic of Hawaii. Ena Road in Waikiki is his namesake.
Hui Aloha ʻĀina were two Hawaiian nationalist organizations established by Native Hawaiian political leaders and statesmen and their spouses in the aftermath of the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom and Queen Liliʻuokalani on January 17, 1893. The organization was formed to promote Hawaiian patriotism and independence and oppose the overthrow and the annexation of Hawaii to the United States. Its members organized and collected the Kūʻē Petitions to oppose the annexation, which ultimately blocked a treaty of annexation in the United States Senate in 1897.
