Today in HERstory

On January 17th, 1893, the last monarch and only Queen Regent of Hawaii, Liliʻuokalani, was overthrown by the US government. She had taken the throne just two years earlier and angered US and British businessmen by drafting a new Constitution that would have reduced their growing power over the nation and restored voting rights to economically disenfranchised native Hawaiians and Asians. The businessmen began advocating for the US to annex Hawaii so that it could control its resources and economy, namely via the sugar trade, and eventually sent US troops to the Island. Facing a coup d’état that could spill the blood of her citizens, Liliʻuokalani relinquished her throne and her nation became the Republic of Hawaii in 1894, a “protectorate” of the United States. She was kept under house arrest for over a year after her abdication and died in 1917.


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