The Rule of Queen Lili'uokalani and the Annexation of Hawaii

Queen Lili'uokalani rose to the throne of the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1981 as the first ruling female in Hawaii's history. She succeeded her brother who had died 9 days before she became queen. Her brother, King Leleiokohu, had signed a the Bayonet Constitution, a constitution for Hawaii written under the heavy influence of the American government. Imperialism was soaring at this time and the United States had its eyes set on annexing Hawaii in order to take greater control of the Pacific. Queen Lili'uokalani's first task as queen was to rewrite Hawaii's constitution to bring the power back to the monarchy and the voters. She was also very intent on bringing these voting rights to those of a lower socioeconomic status. Queen Lili's attempts to bring power back to the Hawaiian government threatened the United States, so John L. Stevens led the US Marines to Hawaii in order to stage a coup d'étât, effectively stripping the monarchy of its power and leading to the annexation of Hawaii by the United States. Hawaii was not immediately annexed but after the Spanish-American war and the US's gain of Cuba, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico, they had little power to resist their own annexation. Hawaii was officially annexed in 1895.