Hawaii Annexed: U.S. Flag Replaces Kingdom's Banner

The Hawaiian flag descended from Iolani Palace for the last time on August 12, 1898, replaced by the Stars and Stripes in a ceremony that completed one of the most brazen acts of territorial acquisition in American history. The transfer formalized what a group of American sugar planters and businessmen had engineered five years earlier when they overthrew Queen Liliuokalani with the help of U.S. Marines. Hawaii's path to annexation began with sugar. American plantation owners who had settled in the islands during the mid-19th century grew wealthy under favorable trade agreements with the United States. When the McKinley Tariff of 1890 eliminated their preferential access to American markets, the planters concluded that only annexation could protect their profits. In January 1893, with the covert support of U.S. Minister John L. Stevens and 162 Marines from the USS Boston, they staged a coup against the Hawaiian monarchy. Queen Liliuokalani surrendered under protest, yielding authority "until such time as the Government of the United States shall, upon the facts being presented to it, undo the action of its representative." President Grover Cleveland, after investigating, declared the overthrow illegal and called for the queen's restoration. The provisional government simply refused to comply. A Republic of Hawaii was declared in 1894, and the plotters waited for a more sympathetic American president. They found one in William McKinley. Annexation passed Congress in 1898 as a joint resolution, bypassing the two-thirds Senate majority required for a treaty that supporters knew they could not achieve. Native Hawaiians had submitted a petition against annexation signed by 21,269 people, representing more than half the indigenous population. Congress ignored it. The ceremony on August 12 was attended by annexationists; many Native Hawaiians stayed away, mourning the loss of their sovereignty.