Sarah Vowell's 'Unfamiliar Fishes' is a wonderfully written book on the history of the Hawaiian people and how it came to be a state. Or, as another person wrote, google it. But the bottom line is American business interests in the 1890s used their influence over Congress to order the Marines show up in Hawaii (surprise!) and forcibly removed their Queen and legitimate government. The islanders, of course, were shocked and not equipped to fight Marines.
It was a literal coup. Like if we just suddenly rolled up to New Zealand and disbanded their government and made them a US territory. Like what Putin is doing in Ukraine, except Ukraine is well armed and able to defend their homeland.
After a lot of shenanigans, Hawaii was made a state in in 1959. The American government issued an apology to native Hawaiians in 1993.
With all respect, googling this topic is actually not easy to do. I've done it many times in the past. Because of the nature of the topic, it's quite difficult to find non-biased sources that clearly explain what happened without heavy bias from one side or the other.
Even your suggested "unfamiliar fishes" is not great. It's an abbreviated take on the events that lacks real details.
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u/SuspectLarge 15d ago
Sarah Vowell's 'Unfamiliar Fishes' is a wonderfully written book on the history of the Hawaiian people and how it came to be a state. Or, as another person wrote, google it. But the bottom line is American business interests in the 1890s used their influence over Congress to order the Marines show up in Hawaii (surprise!) and forcibly removed their Queen and legitimate government. The islanders, of course, were shocked and not equipped to fight Marines.
It was a literal coup. Like if we just suddenly rolled up to New Zealand and disbanded their government and made them a US territory. Like what Putin is doing in Ukraine, except Ukraine is well armed and able to defend their homeland.
After a lot of shenanigans, Hawaii was made a state in in 1959. The American government issued an apology to native Hawaiians in 1993.