The Treaty Archive.
Twenty-six bilateral treaties. Every major world power. All documented. The Hawaiian Kingdom was not a territory — it was a treaty partner of the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, and seventeen other sovereign nations. These treaties are the primary evidence.
Under international law, the capacity to enter into treaties with other states is one of the four criteria for statehood under the Montevideo Convention (1933). The Hawaiian Kingdom met this criterion more than sixty years before the Montevideo Convention codified it.
Between 1826 and 1893, the Kingdom signed bilateral treaties with 20+ nations across six continents. The originals are preserved in the U.S. Library of Congress, the Hawaiʻi State Archives, and the national archives of each treaty partner. Every treaty listed here is a primary-source document establishing that the Hawaiian Kingdom was, at the time of signing, a recognized sovereign state under international law.
What the treaties prove is largely undisputed. What is contested is what they imply about today. Weigh what each side draws from the same record.
- The Hawaiian Kingdom signed and ratified treaties with 20+ nations between 1826 and 1893.
- The U.S., U.K., France, and Germany all entered into bilateral treaty relations with the Kingdom.
- The 1898 Newlands Resolution was a joint resolution of Congress, not a ratified treaty of annexation.
- Whether pre-1893 treaties continue to bind third states under the international-law doctrine of state continuity.
- Whether the Kingdom's international personality was extinguished by U.S. domestic annexation acts.
- 1849 Treaty of Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation; 1875 Treaty of Reciprocity.Source: Avalon Project, Yale Law
- Anglo-Franco Proclamation (1843) — joint recognition of Hawaiian independence.Source: Yale Law — Avalon Project
- Kingdom's international personality extinguished by U.S. constitutional acts.Source: Newlands Resolution (1898); Organic Act (1900); Admission Act (1959)
- Apology Resolution disclaims any legal remedy.Source: Hawaii v. OHA, 556 U.S. 163 (2009)
Instruments Signed Under the Council of Regency (Post-1993)
The Council of Regency, established by Dr. Keanu Sai's Hawaiian Kingdom Government, has executed instruments asserting the continuing existence of the Hawaiian Kingdom under international law.
Why this archive exists.
Each treaty in this archive is a primary source document — not a political claim, not an opinion, not an interpretation. When the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, and seventeen other sovereign nations signed bilateral treaties with the Hawaiian Kingdom, they were legally recognizing it as a sovereign state under international law.
That recognition cannot be retroactively erased by a domestic joint resolution of the U.S. Congress. The Newlands Resolution of 1898 was not a treaty. It was not signed by the Hawaiian Kingdom. It was not ratified by the Hawaiian people.
Under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (1969), Article 52, any instrument procured by the threat or use of force is void. These treaties remain in the historical and legal record.