Lili`uokalani Portrait

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In 1891, Lydia Lili`uokalani succeeded her brother David Kalakaua to the Hawaiian throne. Two years later, in 1893, a small group of American and European businessmen, feeling threatened by her political intentions, staged a bloodless coup deposing her from power. For 8 months, Lili`uokalani was imprisoned in `Iolani Palace. Hers was the last Hawaiian monarchy.

(Historically, during 65 succeeding years, Hawai‘i passed from the Provisional Government of Hawai‘i to the Republic of Hawai‘i on July 4, 1894 ... to a U.S. Congressional Joint Resolution of Annexation on July 7, 1898, when the Republic became a territory of the United States ... and finally, after U.S. Congressional approval of statehood on March 12, 1959, and acceptance in a plebiscite among Hawai‘i 's voters on June 27, 1959 ... to becoming the 50th State in the Union on August 21, 1959.)

ca. 1900

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