Security· Late 19th Century Foreign Interventions
Hawaii - Overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani
One of the most controversial Marine deployments of the century, the landing that helped topple a kingdom.
On 16–17 January 1893, as an American-backed Committee of Safety moved to overthrow the Hawaiian monarchy, Marines and sailors from the USS Boston, the Marine guard under Lieutenant Lucien Young, were landed at Honolulu, ostensibly to protect American lives and property. In fact, by posting themselves near the palace and the government buildings, they overawed the queen's forces and made resistance to the coup hopeless. The provisional government under Sanford Dole took power without bloodshed, and no casualties resulted. The propriety of the landing was disputed at once: President Cleveland denounced the intervention, and a century later the United States Congress formally apologized for the Marine role. The republic that followed was annexed by the United States in 1898. The episode remains a byword for the use of military presence to settle a political outcome.
Record no. 477