How white planters usurped Hawaii's last queen
In her Honolulu palace, Liliʻuokalani wavered over the piece of paper that, once signed, would remove her standing as the country’s queen. If she abdicated, six of her most ardent supporters would be released from the prison where they awaited execution for treason. The men had rallied a small army of fewer than a hundred to defend her position as the ruler of Hawaii, but after a few unsuccessful skirmishes, they had stood down.
“For myself, I would have chosen death rather than sign it,” she wrote in her autobiography. “Think of my position…the stream of blood ready to flow unless it was stayed by my pen.”
With her signature on January 24, 1895, generations of a Hawaiian monarchy came to an end. The islands Liliʻuokalani once ruled would soon be annexed by the United States at the behest of white settlers who had come to see Hawaii as a cash cow. The legacy of that loss to a wealthy minority still resonates today.
A sugar boom leads to political crisis
Historically, each island had been ruled by a hereditary chief. After the first European explorers arrived in 1778, contact with the outside world brought trade opportunities and advances like a written language. A warrior named Kamehameha from Hawaii Island—also now known as the Big Island—took advantage of the weapons they had brought to wrest control from most of the islands’ chiefs. He united the Hawaiian Kingdom under a constitutional monarchy in 1795, ending years of interisland conflict. As a united nation, Hawaii was better insulated against a potential takeover by foreign interests.
-more-
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/how-white-planters-usurped-last-hawaiian-queen
= new reply since forum marked as read
99% of Americans do not know that Hawaii was stolen with blood. That is just my guess, but I would bet it's true.