Last reviewed · SEPTEMBER 7, 2026
Source RecordsA 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.
An executive-branch investigation, not a court ruling. Special Commissioner James Blount concluded that U.S. Minister Stevens and U.S. forces improperly assisted the overthrow. President Cleveland described the events as an act of war and a substantial wrong. The 1894 Morgan Report, a Senate investigation, later reached contrary conclusions concerning U.S. responsibility.
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 annexing the Hawaiian Islands, passed during the Spanish–American War after two annexation treaties failed in the Senate. Annexation was carried out through a domestic joint resolution rather than a ratified bilateral treaty. Hawaiian continuity / international-law argument: sovereignty-continuity advocates argue that domestic U.S. legislation could not by itself transfer title to the territory of an independent foreign state. U.S. domestic-legal position: United States law treats the Newlands Resolution and subsequent Organic Act, Admission Act, and governmental exercise of authority as legally effective.
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.