The Hawaiian Kingdom (1795–1898) was the sovereign island monarchy that united Hawai'i under one crown, won recognition as an independent nation, and modernized on its own terms across a century of missionaries, traders, and empires. Founded by Kamehameha I, it adopted Christianity, a written language, and a constitution, while introduced disease collapsed the Native Hawaiian population. In 1893 a small group of mostly American planters, backed by US Marines, overthrew Queen Lili'uokalani; the United States annexed Hawai'i in 1898. The entry holds together the kingdom's genuine statecraft, the catastrophe of disease, the planter coup, and the still-living sovereignty movement.
In 1843 a British warship lowered the Hawaiian flag and raised its own, claiming the islands for the Crown. Five months later, when news reached London, the British government disowned the seizure and restored Hawaiian sovereignty. That same year Britain and France formally recognized Hawai'i as an independent nation, while the United States also dealt with the kingdom as a sovereign state. The Hawaiian Kingdom was no isolated chiefdom waiting to be discovered. It was a recognized Pacific state with embassies, treaties, and a constitution. Fifty years later, in 1893, a small group of American and European residents with US Marines at their backs overthrew its queen, and the kingdom that the great powers had recognized was taken from within.