01/17/1893: "Free market capitalists" overthrow Lili'uokalani, Queen of Hawaii

Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii was deposed in a bloodless revolution by a group of businessmen and sugar planters and a provisional government established, with annexation by the United States as its aim.

Lili'uokalani was arrested on January 16, 1895 (several days after a failed rebellion by Robert Wilcox) when firearms were found in the gardens of her home, of which she denied any knowledge. She was sentenced to five years of hard labor in prison and fined $5000, but the sentence was commuted to imprisonment in an upstairs bedroom of ʻIolani Palace until she was released in 1896, with the establishment of the Republic of Hawaiʻi. Failing in attempts to regain the throne, she unsuccessfully entered against the federal government claims totaling $450,000 for property and other losses, making personal claim to the crown lands. The territorial legislature of Hawaii finally voted her an annual pension of $4,000 and permitted her to receive the income from a sugar plantation of 6,000 acres (24 km²). She went home to Washington Place, where she lived as a private citizen until her death in 1917 due to complications from a stroke. She was 79. As expected, Hawaiʻi was annexed to the United States through a joint resolution of the U.S. Congress in 1898.

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