Let’s take a trip to Hawaii today, where this week native Hawaiians honored Queen Lili´uokalani, the first woman and the last monarch to rule the islands.
The chain of islands that would become America’s 50th state was originally established as a monarchy by King Kamehameha I, who conquered the islands in 1795. His dynasty ruled Hawaii until 1874, when King David Kalākaua assumed the throne. The monarchy lasted another 21 years until a US-led overthrow deposed the Kalākaua’s second monarch, Queen Lili´uokalani.
Who was the queen, whose life is still revered more than a century after her death?
Lydia Kamakaeha was born in Honolulu on Sept. 2, 1838, the daughter of a high-ranking noble family. She was educated by Christian missionaries, considered appropriate for young Hawaiian nobility at the time. Hers was a modern education, comprised of academics, culture and art; Lydia in fact became an accomplished musician who over her lifetime would write more than 160 compositions. Her song “Aloha Oe” is considered a national anthem of Hawaii.
She became a member of the court of King Kamemaha IV, and in 1862 married John Owen Domines, son of a Boston sea captain. They adopted several children.
In 1874, Lydia’s brother David Kalākaua was chosen to be king. He named his second brother the heir apparent, but when he died in 1877 the king named Lydia the presumptive heir to the throne. From then on, she was known only by her royal name, Lili´uokalani.
As crown princess, Lili´uokalani spent 14 years representing the Kingdom of Hawaii in an official capacity, visiting the islands and helping to establish schools for Hawaiian children and banks for women, among other social programs. She took two world tours in 1881 and 1887, when she traveled to England as Hawaii’s official representative to Queen Victoria’s Crown Jubilee. There she was received by Queen Victoria and President Grover Cleveland, who became an important ally.
Meanwhile, the Hawaiian monarchy was in trouble. To curry favor with an elite group of (mostly white) businessmen, Kalākaua signed the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875, a free trade agreement between the United States and Hawaii that gave the US exclusive use of the port at Pearl Harbor. In 1887 the king was forced by the same group to sign the Bayonet Constitution, which essentially stripped the monarchy of its ruling power and restricted voting rights of native Hawaiians.
It was in this political environment that Queen Lili´uokalani ascended the throne after her brother’s death in 1891.
The first woman to rule Hawaii immediately set about restoring the political and constitutional power of the monarchy. However, she was a target from the start, especially from what Hawaiians called haole — foreign businessmen who wanted even more power.
In January of 1893, the haole and American businessmen — supported by the US ambassador and a Marine unit — staged a coup to depose Lili´uokalani. She agreed to step down to avoid bloodshed, and appealed to President Cleveland for help. Unfortunately, while he supported her reinstatement the provisional government refused to allow it.
In early 1895, Lili´uokalani was charged with treason and placed under house arrest after people loyal to her tried to overthrow the new Republic of Hawaii government. To spare them, she agreed to abdicate the thrown provided her supporters were pardoned. (She later claimed the agreement was invalid because she signed her married name and not her royal one, but it’s probably not a surprise that this was dismissed.)
“Think of my position,” she wrote in her memoir, Hawaii’s Story By Hawaii’s Queen, “ — sick, a lone woman in prison, scarcely knowing who was my friend, or who listened to my words only to betray me, without legal advice or friendly counsel, and the stream of blood ready to flow unless it was stayed by my pen.”
Liliuokalani was vehemently opposed to the United States annexing Hawaii, and she continued to fight against it. After the Republic of Hawaii granted Lili´uokalani a full pardon and restored her civil rights in 1896, she traveled to Washington, DC to make one final appeal to President Cleveland — but it was an election year and he wasn’t running.
When President William McKinley signed the annexation treaty in 1898, Lili´uokalani joined thousands of Hawaiians in boycotting the official handover ceremony in Honolulu.
The former queen withdrew from public life but continued to travel, write, compose music, and support public education and other causes important to her. She died on Nov. 11, 1911 and was given a full Hawaiian state funeral.
Today, Queen Lili´uokalani Statue (regularly covered with colorful leis) sits in Honolulu park halfway between the state Capitol and Iolani Palace, where she lived under house arrest. The Queen Lili´kani Trust, which she established in 1909 for the care of orphaned and destitute Hawaiian children, still operates today.
Every year, her birthday is celebrated with festivals across the islands.