The Kingdom of Hawaii: A Sovereign Nation

The Kingdom of Hawaii was a sovereign, internationally recognized nation that existed from 1795 until 1893. It had its own monarchy, constitutions, and treaties, and it maintained diplomatic relations with countries around the world. Understanding that Hawaii was an independent country is essential to understanding the islands today.

A sovereign nation

For most of the 1800s, the Hawaiian Kingdom operated as a modern state. It signed treaties with the United States, Britain, and others, sent diplomats abroad, and adopted written constitutions. This standing is central to the ongoing conversation about Hawaiian sovereignty, which connects to the wider history of Hawaii.

Unification under Kamehameha

Before unification, the Hawaiian Islands were divided among multiple independent chiefs (aliʻi nui) who ruled separate territories and frequently engaged in warfare. Through a series of military campaigns beginning in the 1780s, Kamehameha I brought most of the islands under his rule. The Battle of Nuʻuanu on Oʻahu in 1795 was decisive: Kamehameha's forces drove the defending army up the Nuʻuanu Valley and over the cliffs of the Pali, killing hundreds. By 1795, Kamehameha controlled Hawaiʻi Island, Maui, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, and Oʻahu.

Kauaʻi and Niʻihau remained independent under Chief Kaumualiʻi until 1810, when Kaumualiʻi ceded the islands peacefully, completing the unification. This founded the Hawaiian Kingdom as a single unified state under the Kamehameha dynasty, with Kamehameha I recognized as the kingdom's founder. The unification brought an end to inter-island warfare and created the political foundation for the monarchy that would last nearly a century.

The monarchs

The kingdom was led by eight monarchs across two royal dynasties. The Kamehameha dynasty (1795-1872) included Kamehameha I, II, III, IV, and V, who consolidated the kingdom, established written law, signed treaties, and modernized the government. The line ended with Kamehameha V, who died without an heir in 1872.

The subsequent elected monarchs included Lunalilo (1873-1874), who reigned for only one year before his death; King David Kalākaua (1874-1891), who revived hula and Hawaiian arts during what is called the Hawaiian Renaissance of the 1880s, traveled the world as the first reigning monarch to circumnavigate the globe, and built ʻIolani Palace, the only royal palace on U.S. soil; and his sister Queen Liliʻuokalani (1891-1893), a composer, author, and the last reigning monarch, who was overthrown in 1893.

How the kingdom ended

In 1893, a group backed by American business and military interests overthrew Queen Liliʻuokalani. The kingdom was replaced, Hawaii was annexed by the United States in 1898, and it became a state in 1959. Read the details in our pages on the 1893 overthrow and Hawaii statehood.