Kingdom of Hawaii

For nearly a century, Hawaii was an independent kingdom recognized by the world's major powers. Kamehameha I united most of the islands by conquest in 1795, and Kauaʻi joined peacefully in 1810. His successors built a constitutional monarchy with an elected legislature, a national school system, treaties with the United States, Britain, France and other nations, and diplomats abroad. ʻIolani Palace in Honolulu, completed in 1882 for King Kalākaua, had electric lights before the White House did.

Foreign influence grew with the sugar industry. On January 17, 1893, a group of American and European businessmen, backed by U.S. Marines landed from a warship, overthrew Queen Liliʻuokalani. Its leaders declared the Republic of Hawaii in 1894, and the United States annexed the islands in 1898. Hawaii became a U.S. territory and, in 1959, the 50th state. In 1993 Congress formally apologized for the U.S. role in the overthrow, and a Native Hawaiian sovereignty movement remains active today.

• Hawaii
  A volcanic island chain in the central Pacific became
• Honolulu
  Capital of Hawaii, on the island of Oʻahu capital
• Island of Hawaiʻi
  The Big Island, youngest and largest in the Hawaiian chain related
• Maui
  The Valley Isle, rebuilding after the 2023 Lahaina fire related
• Oʻahu
  The Gathering Place, home to Honolulu and two-thirds of Hawaii’s people related