Hawaiian Kingdom Timeline

Captain James Cook was the first European to encounter the Hawaiian Islands, on his third Pacific voyage (1776–1780).

Cook was killed at Kealakekua Bay on Hawaiʻi Island in 1779 in a dispute over the taking of a longboat.

Image source: Death of James Cook

Under Queen Kaʻahumanu's rule, Catholicism was illegal in Hawaiʻi, and in 1831 French Catholic priests were deported.

Image source: Edict of toleration

Under the threat of war from French captain Laplace, King Kamehameha III signed the Edict of Toleration on July 17, 1839, agreeing to Laplace's demands regarding religious freedom.

Timoteo Haʻalilio, William Richards and Sir George Simpson were commissioned as joint ministers plenipotentiary on April 8, 1842, to seek international recognition of Hawaiian independence.

Image source: Haʻalilio

President John Tyler recognized the independence of the Hawaiian Kingdom on December 19, 1842.

On February 13, 1843, Lord George Paulet seized the Hawaiian Kingdom. Rear Admiral Richard Darton Thomas arrived at Honolulu harbor on July 26, 1843, apologized to Kamehameha III for Paulet's actions, and restored Hawaiian sovereignty on July 31, 1843.

Image source: Paulet affair

On March 17, 1843, King Louis Philippe of France recognized Hawaiian independence at the urging of King Leopold I of Belgium.

On November 28, 1843, at the Court of London, the British and French governments formally recognized Hawaiian independence.

In 1849 the United States formally recognized Hawaiian independence.

In August 1849, French admiral Louis Tromelin arrived in Honolulu Harbor with La Poursuivante and Gassendi, and the invasion sacked Honolulu. Afterward, Kamehameha III sought defense treaties with the United States and Britain.

Image source: French invasion of Honolulu

The Stewart Islands (Sikaiana Atoll) near the Solomon Islands were ceded to Hawaiʻi in 1856 by their residents, but the cession was never formalized.

Image source: Sikaiana

In 1873 the Hawaiian Kingdom was represented at the World's Fair in Vienna.

Image source: 1873 Vienna World's Fair

The Reciprocity Treaty of 1875 gave Hawaiian exporters an advantage in trade to the United States, which lasted until the tariff changes of 1890 rescinded it.

Image source: Reciprocity Treaty of 1875

In 1886, King Kalākaua sought to consolidate control of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands by annexing Kure Atoll, and entered negotiations with the United States to transfer Midway Atoll, which the US had previously claimed, to the Hawaiian Kingdom.

Image source: Kure Atoll

In 1886, Kalākaua's minister of Foreign Affairs, Murray Gibson, sent a delegation to Samoa to meet with King Malietoa Laupepa to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the First Samoan Civil War. The delegation met Malietoa in 1887 and signed a treaty establishing a Polynesian confederacy including Hawaii and Samoa. Gibson also sent the 'homemade battleship' Kaimiloa to Samoa in 1887.

Image source: Walter M. Gibson

In 1782, the warrior chief who became Kamehameha the Great started a military campaign to unite the islands that would last 15 years.

Image source: Kamehameha I

Under Kamehameha (1795–1819), sandalwood was exported to China, reshaping the islands' economy.

The Hawaiian Kingdom was established in 1795 when Kamehameha I conquered Oʻahu, Maui, Molokaʻi, and Lānaʻi with the help of western weapons and advisors such as John Young and Isaac Davis. The Battle of Nuʻuanu unified all main islands except Kauaʻi and Niʻihau under one government.

Image source: Battle of Nuʻuanu

In 1810, the Hawaiian Islands were fully unified when Kauaʻi's chief Kaumualiʻi voluntarily swore allegiance to Kamehameha, joining Niʻihau to the Hawaiian Kingdom.

In 1822, Kaumualiʻi and his wife Queen Kaʻahumanu traveled with Captain William Sumner to find Nīhoa, as their generation had only known of it through songs and myths.

Image source: Nīhoa

King Kamehameha IV expanded the kingdom's territorial claims beyond the archipelago by commissioning Captain Samuel Allen to annex Johnston Atoll in 1858, and commissioning Captain Zenas Bent to annex Palmyra Atoll in 1862. He also annexed Nihoa, Laysan and Lisianski Island in 1857.

In 1887, King Kalākaua was forced to accept a new constitution after a coup d'état by the Honolulu Rifles, a volunteer military unit recruited from American settlers. Drafted by Lorrin A. Thurston, the constitution empowered citizens to elect members of the House of Nobles and increased property requirements to vote above the Constitution of 1864.

Image source: 1887 Constitution of the Hawaiian Kingdom

By rescinding the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875, the new McKinley Tariff eliminated the previous advantage Hawaiian exporters enjoyed in trade to the U.S., devastating the sugar economy.

Image source: McKinley Tariff

From 1893 to 1894, royalists organized political resistance. While lobbying continued during 1894, supporters of the monarchy formed a sustained effort to restore Liliʻuokalani to the throne, called the Hawaiian royalist movement.

Image source: Hawaiian rebellions (1887–1895)

In 1893, local businessmen and politicians, composed of six non-native Hawaiian Kingdom subjects, five American nationals, one British national, and one German national, all living in Hawaiʻi, formed the Committee of Safety.

Image source: Committee of Safety (Hawaii)

Queen Liliʻuokalani proposed a new constitution to abrogate the 1887 Constitution, but it was never ratified by the legislature. Many who had forced Kalākaua to sign the 'Bayonet Constitution' became alarmed when three cabinet members informed them the queen planned to unilaterally proclaim her new constitution.

U.S. forces took up positions at the Legation, Consulate and Arion Hall on the afternoon of January 16, 1893, supporting the coup against the queen.

Image source: Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom

On January 17, 1893, Liliʻuokalani, believing the U.S. would side with her, yielded her authority. She was overthrown in a coup engineered by the Committee of Safety, mostly of American descent and supported by the U.S., ending the monarchy.

On July 17, 1893, Sanford B. Dole's Provisional Government faced President Cleveland's investigation into the overthrow. The Republic of Hawaii was requested to wait for the end of President Cleveland's second term before annexation.

Image source: Provisional Government of Hawaii

Between December 14, 1893, and January 11, 1894, a standoff known as the Black Week occurred between the United States, the Empire of Japan and the United Kingdom against the Provisional Government to pressure them into returning the Queen.

Image source: Black Week (Hawaii)

Despite royalist resistance, the provisional government was reorganized as the Republic of Hawaii in 1894, further consolidating power and excluding royalist influence.

Tensions culminated in January 1895 with an armed royalist uprising led by Robert Wilcox. The failure of the 1895 rebellion effectively ended major royalist resistance.

Image source: 1895 Wilcox rebellion

On January 24, 1895, while under house arrest, Liliʻuokalani was forced to sign a five-page declaration as 'Liliuokalani Dominis', not written by her, which states that she formally abdicated the throne.

The Republic of Hawaii remained in control until 1898, when it was dissolved and the Hawaiian Islands were annexed by the United States via the Joint Resolution known as the Newlands Resolution, signed July 7, 1898.

Image source: Newlands Resolution

In 1993, the United States Senate passed the Apology Resolution, apologizing 'for the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii on January 17, 1893 with the participation of agents and citizens of the United States' and acknowledging that indigenous Hawaiians never directly relinquished their claims to inherent sovereignty over their national lands.

Image source: Apology Resolution