Lydia Liliʻu Loloku Walania Kamakaʻeha
Queen Liliʻuokalani Of the Hawaiian Islands
The only queen regnant and last sovereign monarch of the Hawaiian Kingdom, ruling from 1891 until the overthrow of Hawaii in 1893, she became Queen after the death of her younger brother, King Kalākaua. She wrote her autobiography Hawai’I’s Story by Hawai’I’s Queen during her subsequent imprisonment.
During her reign, she attempted to draft a new constitution which would restore the power of the monarchy and the voting rights of the economically disenfranchised. Threatened by her attempts to abrogate the existing Bayonet Constitution, pro-American elements in Hawaiʻi overthrew the monarchy on January 17, 1893. The overthrow was bolstered by the landing of US Marines under John L. Stevens to protect American interests, which rendered the monarchy unable to protect itself. The provisional government established under pro-annexation leader Sanford B. Dole was officially recognized by Stevens as the de facto government. The Queen temporarily relinquished her throne to the United States, rather than the Dole-led government, in hopes that the United States would restore Hawaii's sovereignty to the rightful holder. The government under Dole began using ʻIolani Palace as its executive building.
The coup d'état established the Republic of Hawaiʻi, but the ultimate goal was the annexation of the islands to the United States, which was temporarily blocked by President Grover Cleveland. After an unsuccessful uprising to restore the monarchy, the oligarchical government placed the former queen under house arrest at the ʻIolani Palace. On January 24, 1895, Liliʻuokalani was forced to abdicate the Hawaiian throne, officially ending the deposed monarchy. Attempts were made to restore the monarchy and oppose annexation, but with the outbreak of the Spanish–American War, the United States annexed Hawaiʻi.
During Kalākaua's 1881 world tour, Liliʻuokalani served as Regent, and had to handle the smallpox epidemic of 1881 likely brought to the islands by Chinese contracted laborers. She closed all the ports, halted all passenger vessels out of Oʻahu, and initiated a quarantine of the affected. The measures kept the disease contained in Honolulu and Oʻahu with only a few cases on Kauaʻi.
Liliʻuokalani was active in philanthropy and the welfare of her people. In 1886, she founded a bank for women in Honolulu named Liliuokalani's Savings Bank and helped establish a money lending group for women in Hilo. In the same year, she also founded the Liliʻuokalani Educational Society, an organization "to interest the Hawaiian ladies in the proper training of young girls of their own race whose parents would be unable to give them advantages by which they would be prepared for the duties of life." It supported the tuition of Hawaiian girls at Kawaiahaʻo Seminary for Girls, and Kamehameha School.
One of her more notable trips was as part of an 1887 delegation to attend the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria in London sent by King Kalākaua. The party landed in San Francisco and traveled across the United States visiting Washington, D.C., Boston and New York City, where they boarded a ship for the United Kingdom. While in the American capital, they were received by President Grover Cleveland and his wife Frances Cleveland. In London, Queen Consort Kapiʻolani and Liliʻuokalani received an official audience with Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace, where they were greeted with affection, and stories of Kalākaua's visit in 1881. They attended the special Jubilee service at Westminster Abbey and were seated with other foreign royal guests, and with members of the Royal Household. Shortly after the Jubilee celebrations, they learned of the Bayonet Constitution that Kalākaua had been forced to sign under the threat of death. They canceled their tour of Europe and returned to Hawaii.
