Rearview Mirror Chronicles

Black Lei: The Death of the Hawaiian Kingdom

Keith Hockton Season 1 Episode 53

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It was a coup masked as diplomacy, a theft veiled in legality, and the death knell of a kingdom.

In 1893, Queen Liliʻuokalani, Hawaiʻi’s first and last reigning queen—was overthrown not by her people, but by a cabal of American and European businessmen who hungered for land, sugar, and power. Backed by U.S. Marines and cloaked in false legitimacy, they moved swiftly, ruthlessly. The queen was forced to surrender her throne under threat of violence, believing justice would prevail. It didn’t.

Her appeals to President Grover Cleveland fell on sympathetic ears—but not powerful ones. While she waited for restoration, the conspirators built a republic. And in 1898, without the consent of the Hawaiian people—who had begged, petitioned, resisted—annexation was complete. The flag of the Hawaiian Kingdom was lowered. The Stars and Stripes were raised.

This is not just a story of political upheaval. It is the slow strangling of a sovereign nation under the boot of imperial ambition.

Join Keith as he unearths the dark, haunting story of the Hawaiian Kingdom’s fall—a tale of betrayal, resilience, and the voice of a queen silenced, but never forgotten.

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Queen Liliʻuokalani

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