The splendor of the Kalākaua era is over. Power has shifted, been wrestled away by the conspiratorial acts of a group of missionary descendants, merchants and businessmen. The Queen, adamant that not one drop of Hawaiian blood be shed yielded to the “superior force of the United States of America until such time that its representatives shall undo its actions and reinstate [her] as Queen.” The coup de’tat would not have been successful were it not for the help of John L. Stevens, U.S. Minister to Hawaiʻi who, having conspired with the Thurston faction, landed marines from the U.S.S. Boston to intimidate the Queen.
That was January 17, 1893.
1898 Hawaiʻi is annexed illegally not by treaty but by joint resolution of Congress. Despite native protest evidenced by the 38,000 signatures collected in the petitions against annexation, the U.S. rushed to take us for our strategic position in the Pacific which would give them political advantage in the Spanish American War being waged in the Philippines.
Auē nō hoʻi ē.
E kūpaʻa mau a hiki i ke kanaka hope loa, no ke ea o ko kākou ʻāina aloha. Always stand fast, down to the very last Hawaiian person for the sovereignty of our beloved land.
Pehea kou manaʻo?
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