The Hawaiian Monarchy

The Hawaiian Kingdom emerged from the arrival of Polynesians from other Pacific islands and later the unification of the islands by Kamehameha the Great. The Kingdom of Hawaii had a monarchy government system, where the rulers were of the same family and royal blood. King Kalakaua was the last king of Hawaii and Queen Lili’uokalani was the last ruler of Hawaii. While Queen Lili’uokalani was locked away from her throne, she sat under house-arrest in the hopes the next heir to the throne, Princess Ka’iulani would make a change for the better of Hawaii’s sovereignty. Into the present, the Hawaiian Monarchy has been overthrown, annexed and in control by the United States of America. Many factors and events have led and caused the overthrow of the

The Bayonet Constitution’s purpose was to take control of Hawaii, by removing the power from Native Hawaiians and to give it to the wealthy foreigners, especially to the members of the Committee of Safety. The malevolent group was led by Lorrin Thurston and Sanford Dole. The Committee of Safety was a group of 13 members from the Annexation Club, made up of mainly Americans and Europeans. To add on, the Bayonet Constitution changed the voting rights to include noncitizens that were American or European and to only those that met an economic requirement. The constitution also diminished the power of the king and gave all the power to the Legislatures and cabinet. Through the Bayonet Constitution, it signed some of the members of the Committee of Safety into the Legislative and cabinet roles. The Bayonet Constitution was forcefully signed by King Kalakaua, under the threat of death at gunpoint of the Committee of Safety’s own

The high economic requirement to vote created by the signing of the Bayonet Constitution is one of the economic effects. Most Hawaiians couldn’t reach the requirement for money, leaving only the American and Europeans on Hawaii having the ability to vote. This correlates to the overthrow because it weakened the Native Hawaiians power on the government because they weren’t as wealthy as most foreigners on Hawaii. Another economic effect of the Bayonet Constitution was after King Kalakaua’s powers were taken from him, the only thing Kalakaua could do was to renew the Reciprocity Treaty with the United States. The renewal of the Reciprocity Treaty continued the duty-free importations of sugar. This economically benefited foreigners more than Native Hawaiians because almost all sugar plantations were owned by Americans and foreigners. The economic effects of the Bayonet Constitution correlate to the overthrow because the more money foreigners made, the more their greed increased for control of Hawaii to increasingly benefit their own