Politics7 July 1898 (annexation resolution) · 12 August 1898 (transfer of sovereignty)

US Annexation of Hawaii

Also called: Annexation of Hawaii, Newlands Resolution

After American planters overthrew the Hawaiian Kingdom, the US annexed Hawaii during the Spanish–American War.

Lowering the Hawaiian flag at ʻIolani Palace in the annexation ceremony, 12 August 1898
Lowering the Hawaiian flag at ʻIolani Palace in the annexation ceremony, 12 August 1898

Frank Davey · Public domain · Source

American sugar planters dominated the politics of the Hawaiian Kingdom. In January 1893, when Queen Liliʻuokalani sought a constitution restoring royal power, they deposed her with the support of US Marines and set up the Republic of Hawaii (1894). As the Spanish–American War made a Pacific naval base important, the US completed the annexation resolution on 7 July 1898 and raised the American flag at ʻIolani Palace on 12 August. In January 1903 about a hundred Korean immigrants landed in Honolulu to work on the sugar plantations, and Hawaii later became a base for the Korean independence movement in America.

The map in 1898

OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles © OpenStreetMap contributors

States and rulers at the time
Kingdom of Hawaii · annexed
United States · annexing power — President William McKinley

People

  • Liliʻuokalani1838 – 1917

    related figure · Last monarch of the Hawaiian Kingdom (1891–1893), deposed in a coup by American planters

Before and after

Themes that include this event

  • Imperialism and the Partition of the World1839 – 1914

    From the Tanzimat to Sarajevo — seventy-five years in which the powers carved up West Asia, India, Southeast Asia, Africa and the Pacific, and the peoples there answered with reform and resistance