Last updated · JUNE 20, 2026
Primary SourcesA working bibliography of treaties, statutes, petitions, and government reports that any honest discussion of Hawaiian sovereignty must reckon with.
Joint declaration by Britain and France recognising Hawaiian independence as a sovereign and independent state.
Source: British Foreign Office Archives; French Ministère des Affaires étrangères.
Bilateral treaty between the United States and the Hawaiian Kingdom establishing reciprocal recognition and commerce.
Source: U.S. National Archives, Treaty Series 161.
Imposed under threat of armed force on King Kalākaua; dramatically curtailed monarchical authority and disenfranchised most Native Hawaiian and Asian subjects.
Source: Hawaiʻi State Archives, M-93.
The Queen yields her authority to the United States — not the Provisional Government — under protest, pending review by the President of the United States.
Source: U.S. State Department, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1894 App. II.
Findings of Special Commissioner James Blount concluding that U.S. diplomatic and military forces were complicit in the overthrow of the lawful Hawaiian government.
Source: U.S. House Executive Document 47, 53d Cong., 2d Sess.
21,269 signatures collected by the Hui Aloha ʻĀina opposing annexation; presented to the U.S. Senate, contributing to the defeat of the proposed annexation treaty.
Source: U.S. National Archives, Record Group 46.
Joint resolution of Congress purporting to annex the Republic of Hawaiʻi; passed during the Spanish–American War after two annexation treaties failed in the Senate.
Source: 30 Stat. 750.
Establishes the Territory of Hawaiʻi and the framework of territorial government.
Source: 31 Stat. 141.
Provides for admission of Hawaiʻi as a state and transfers certain federal lands to the state for the benefit of the public, including Native Hawaiians.
Source: Pub. L. 86-3, 73 Stat. 4.
Joint resolution acknowledging the "illegal overthrow" of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi and apologising on behalf of the United States.
Source: Pub. L. 103-150, 107 Stat. 1510.