The history of Hawai’i is rarely discussed beyond the understanding that it became the 50th state of the union on Aug. 21, 1959, following 61 years as a territory of the U.S. But even though Statehood Day is a legal holiday in Hawai’i , the way the islands became a part of this country is not a celebrated story. Historically settled by the Polynesians , the indigenous archipelago was exploited as early as 1778 when the first documented non-Polynesian arrived. After that, more and more Europeans took interest in Hawai’i, bringing with them diseases that killed large swaths of the original population. On Jan. 16, 1893, a U.S.-supported coup d’etat invaded O’ahu to overthrow Queen Lili’uokalani , causing her to give a conditional surrender. Then President Grover Cleveland is said to not have wanted to take Hawai’i by force but seemed unable to make legal changes to the overthrow of the kingdom. His successor President William McKinley negotiated a treaty and Hawai’i officially lost its...
