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Backyard Empire: The U.S. in Latin America · Episode 11 of 14 · 50 min

How Sugar Barons Stole the Hawaiian Kingdom

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In Hawaiʻi the American sugar interests took the country itself. In January 1893 a committee of mostly American businessmen, backed by the U.S. minister and Marines from the USS Boston, overthrew Queen Liliuokalani, and the United States annexed the islands five years later. The Big Five then ran Hawaiʻi until a united 1946 strike broke their grip.

Who's who

Where it happens

Timeline

  1. January 17, 1893Committee of Safety overthrows Queen Liliuokalani with Marines landed from the USS Boston
  2. 1893Cleveland's Blount Report finds the overthrow unlawful; Dole refuses restoration
  3. 1898Congress annexes Hawaiʻi by joint resolution
  4. 1946ILWU strike shuts nearly every plantation for 79 days
  5. 1993Congress passes the Apology Resolution for the overthrow

Still debated

Whether to call the 1893 events a revolution or an overthrow remains contested, as does the legality of annexation by joint resolution rather than treaty. The episode keeps the Native Hawaiian perspective central.

hawaiioverthrowannexationsugarbig fivelabor strike
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