Hawaiian Kingdom

The Hawaiian Kingdom was a sovereign state forged in 1795 when Kamehameha I, armed with Western weapons and shrewd diplomacy, united the warring islands under one crown. For nearly a century it navigated the pressures of foreign trade, missionaries, and great-power rivalry while remaining independent and internationally recognized. Its end came not in battle but in a coup: in January 1893 a group of mostly American sugar planters and businessmen, backed by US Marines, deposed Queen Liliuokalani. A short-lived republic followed, and in 1898 the United States annexed the islands. Congress formally apologized for the overthrow a century later, in 1993.