The Last Queen of Hawaii
The life and achievements of Lili‘uokalani
Lili’uokalani, the first and only queen of Hawaii, was the last sovereign to rule over the islands. Her reign was ended, when she was deposed in a coup by foreign landowners in 1893, a move that was supported by the US military. A devoted monarch, she never wavered in her commitment to the people of Hawaii, even after she lost the throne.
Lili’uokalani was born in 1838 to Ali‘i Analea Keohokālole and Caesar Kapa‘akea, both high-ranking Hawaiian chiefs.
Her family was related to the House of Kamehameha, the ruling dynasty of Hawaii. Her mother, Keohokālole, was an adviser of King Kamehameha III, who had signed the first fully written constitution of the Hawaiian kingdom in 1840. As a young girl, the future queen was known as Lydia Kamakaeha, having been given the English name Lydia at her baptism.
By the time of Lydia’s birth, Christianity had been established in the kingdom thanks to the arrival of missionaries. As a result, she was taught by American missionaries at the Royal School, a boarding school for the nobility, where she received an extensive education and became fluent in English. After boarding school, she joined King Kamehameha IV’S court and becamea close friend of his wife, Queen Emma, her former classmate.
In 1860, she became engaged to John Owen Dominis, the son of a Boston sea captain, who had been raised in Hawaii and educated at the school next to Lydia’s. They married two years later and moved into Washington Palace in Honolulu, the Dominis family home that had been named after President George Washington.
Sadly, their marriage was unhappy, with rumours swirling about John’s infidelity – they also lived with John’s mother, Mary, who didn’t like Lydia. However, Lydia later noted in her memoir, Hawaii’s Story By Hawaii’s Queen, that Mary “became more and more a tender and affectionate mother to me as her days were drawing to a close”. The couple had no biological children but they did adopt three children together – one of whom was an illegitimate child that John had fathered with one of Lydia’s servants in 1883. Her husband would ultimately die just seven months into her reign as queen.
In 1872, Lydia’s future changed forever when King Kamehameha V died without leaving a successor to the throne. In accordance with the Hawaiian constitution, it was up to the legislature to establish a new line of succession. However, when their first elected choice – King Lunalilo – died after a year, Lydia’s brother Kalākaua was elected as king in 1874. Three years later, their brother and Kalākaua’s heir–apparent, WP Leleiohoku, died and Lydia was subsequently named as the new heir–presumptive. From that moment on, she became known by her royal name – Lili’uokalani.
As the next-in-line to the Hawaiian throne, Lili’uokalani threw herself into her new role. During this time, she got involved with various charitable causes and founded the Lili’uokalani Educational Society in 1886 to provide schooling for impoverished children. The following year, she accompanied her sister-in-law, Queen Kapi’olani, to London where
they represented their family at Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee celebrations.
This visit was part of a world tour that also saw Lili’uokalani meet US President Grover Cleveland.
At the same time, there was growing tension within the kingdom. For decades, foreign citizens, namely Americans and Europeans, had been demanding the right to own land in Hawaii. This led to the redistribution of Hawaiian land, known as the Great Māhele, in 1848, which required people to make claims for their land titles. Many indigenous Hawaiians were unaware of this and by 1850 land ownership became privatised thanks to the Kuleana Act. Foreign citizens were now able to purchase territory, leading to foreign plantations and mills becoming quickly established, while many indigenous Hawaiians lost their land.
Soon, the foreign landowners became eager to increase their political power within the kingdom. In 1887, the same year Lili’uokalani had travelled to
Britain, there was an attempted coup to overthrow the kingdom by the Hawaiian League, which was made up of non-native men. While they failed to remove King Kalākaua, they succeeded in threatening him to sign the Bayonet Constitution, which limited the power of the monarchy.
Lili’uokalani was shocked by the rebellion, later recalling that her brother had “signed that constitution under absolute compulsion”. She was also upset by Kalākaua’s decision to renew the Reciprocity Treaty that year, which granted privileged commercial concessions to the US and ceded the port of Pearl Harbor to them. Lili’uokalani would later state that the treaty “put in peril the independence of our nation”.
Kalākaua trusted his sister’s ability to rule the kingdom enough that he named her as acting regent on his behalf between 1880 to 1881 when he went on a world tour. He also asked her to assume the regency again in 1890 when he travelled to California and San Francisco, despite her pleas for him not to go on account of his ill health. However, the king ignored his sister’s concerns and in January 1891 he passed away in the US after falling into a coma following a stroke.
Now the queen of Hawaii, Lili’uokalani was determined to restore the power of the monarchy which had been lost over the years to the US. In her quest, she enjoyed the support of the indigenous Hawaiians, who wanted to protect the kingdom’s democratic practices. However, she faced fierce opposition from the foreigners who, realising that she was a threat to their ambitions, wanted to suppress her royal authority.
Thanks to the US increasing import rates on sugar from the islands, there was a growing number foreign landowners who wanted Hawaii to be annexed by the US – if Hawaiian sugar could be sold in the US without paying duties, then the landowners could reap greater profits. In the meantime, Lili’uokalani refused to accept the Bayonet Constitution, proposing a new one in January 1893 that would restore power to the crown as well as removing the right to vote for American and European residents, which had been awarded in 1887.
Unfortunately, the queen was stopped in her tracks when her cabinet refused to support her draft for a new constitution, concluding that it would cause a huge backlash. Shortly afterwards, her opponents gathered and formed the Committee of Safety, a 13-member group that wanted to overthrow Lili’uokalani and for Hawaii to be annexed by the US.
The Committee was unofficially led by Lorrin Thurston, a lawyer, businessman and descendant of missionaries, who was one of the authors of the Bayonet Constitution. With the assistance of US minister John L Stevens, who ordered marines from the USS Boston to land ashore to support Thurston, the Committee gathered across the street to the Iolani Palace, the queen’s royal residence, demanding her surrender.
Even though there were armed Hawaiians ready to defend her, Lili’uokalani wanted to avoid bloodshed and forbade her people from fighting the American troops and citizens, and she surrendered. The Committee subsequently
“Lili’uokalani never gave up hope that Hawaii could regain independence and she dedicated herself to the cause”
announced that the queen had been deposed and that the monarchy was abolished, with a Provisional Government established in its place. Sanford B Dole – once a member of the queen’s privy council – was installed as president.
Lili’uokalani appealed to President Cleveland to reinstate her and he agreed, but only if she granted amnesty to those who had taken part in the coup. Lili’uokalani initially refused before she agreed to the condition. However, Cleveland’s request for her reinstatement was ignored by Dole and the Provisional Government. Hawaii was then declared a republic in 1894 with Dole as president. An anti-imperialist, Cleveland refused the foreign landowners’ offer to join the United States.
In January 1895, royalists led an insurrection in their queen’s name which was ultimately suppressed.
In the aftermath, Lili’uokalani was accused of treason and placed under house arrest in the Iolani Palace by the republic. While she had been aware of the plot she had played no part in it, but regardless Lili’uokalani was convicted and imprisoned in her bedroom. While incarcerated, she formally renounced her claim and abdicated to secure pardons for her supporters who had been jailed following their revolt, fearing that they would be executed.
Although Cleveland opposed the annexation of Hawaii, his successor William Mckinley supported it. There were petitions against annexation and Lili’uokalani led the Onipa’a movement, protesting against any move to annex the islands. In 1896, along with her niece and designated heir, Kaiulani, Lili’uokalani travelled with a group of activists to Washington, D.C., where they presented their petitions to the Senate. Despite their efforts, Hawaii was annexed in 1898 by the US, which did not allow the Hawaiians to vote on the matter.
But Lili’uokalani never gave up hope that Hawaii could regain independence and she dedicated herself to the cause, alongside her charity work. In 1909, she established the Queen Lili’uokalani Trust for orphaned and destitute children in Hawaii, which remains today and is a big part of her legacy.
A gifted composer and songwriter, she also wrote over 160 songs and chants. Lili’uokalani famously composed Aloha Oe (Farewell to Thee) in 1878, a song that has been cherished by Hawaiians ever since. Also known as the farewell song, it is interpreted as the queen’s sorrow at the loss of her country and its independence.
After six decades, Hawaii was officially made a state of the US in 1959, but to this day many indigenous Hawaiians still protest the colonisation of their lands. As for Lili’uokalani, the beloved queen and humanitarian died at the age of 79 in Honolulu in 1917 having never achieved her dream for Hawaiian independence.