I yield to the superior force of the United States of America, whose minister, his excellency John L. Stevens,has caused United States troops to be landed at Honolulu. ... Now, to avoid any collision of armed forces and perhaps the loss of life, I do, under this protest, and impelled by said force, yield my authority until such time as the government of the United States shall undo the action of its representative and reinstate me.
There is another side to the picture postcard of the hula girl swaying in her grass skirt under the coconut tree with the American flag in the background. In five quick years, Hawai`i moved from independent nation/state to a colony of the United States of America. Following an armed invasion in 1893, by 1898, the U.S. claimed Hawai`i, without the consent of its constitutional monarchy or the Hawaiian nationals. For a time, Hawai`i was lost from the arena of international presence other than as a historical footnote.
The Hawaiians belong to the brown race. It is supposed that they came from the Society Islands in about the 6th century. They were skillful Seamen and sailed their, large double bottomed boats far away from their native shores. The Spaniards discovered the Hawaiin Islands in 1555. Two hundred years later Captain Cook touched on their shores. He named them the Sandwhich Islands after the Earl of Sandwhich in England. The Islands were independent and had native kings and queens until after a revolution. Two years as a republic, 1898, they were annexed to the United States.