The Hawaiian League went outside the law to gain control over Hawaii by forcing King Kalakaua to sign a new constitution at gunpoint.
By 1887, the Missionary Party of Hawaii was very frustrated with Kalakaua. They blamed him for the growing debt of the kingdom, accusing him of being wasteful. Some foreigners wanted to force King Kalakaua to abdicate and place his sister, Lili'uokalani on the throne, while others wanted to end the monarchy completely and annex the islands to the United States. Those in favor of annexation formed a group called the Hawaiian League. In 1887, members of the League, armed, met. The king, frightened by this show of force, offered to transfer his powers to foreign ministers representing the United States, the United Kingdom or Portugal. On the contrary, the members of the league asked him to sign a new constitution.
This Constitution, known by the nickname of the Bayonet Constitution of 1887, deprived the king of much of his executive power, depriving most Native Hawaiians of their right to vote. The legislative assembly could now annul the right of veto exercised by the monarch, who could no longer take action without the approval of the council of ministers. It also incorporated a provision that allowed non-Hawaiians to vote.
The correct choice is 2) Forced King Kalakaua to sign a new constitution at gunpoint.
Further Explanation:
The Hawaiian League was a group of thirteen members comprising of Americans, native Hawaiians who were members of the Missionary party. They resented the monarchical government of Hawaii and planned to achieve the annexation of Hawaii by the United States after launching a military coup against the monarchy. The 1887 Constitution of the Hawaiian Kingdom aimed at reducing the power of the monarchy considerably and initiating a transfer of power to the American and the native Hawaiian elites. The armed wing of the Hawaiian League, the Honolulu Rifles, called for the dismissal of the king’s cabinet which was highly unpopular with the people. The king’s minister was almost assassinated, as the demands for writing a new Hawaiian Constitution took a new turn. Cornered by the political opposition from the rebels, King Kalakaua made an attempt to gather international support in favor of the Hawaiian monarchy and called in his American, French, British and Japanese representatives, who, judging by the severity of the situation, asked the king to comply to the demands of the rebels. A new minister, Thurston, replaced Gibson and commenced the drafting of the Bayonet Constitution along with a group of lawyers who were associated with the Hawaiian League. On July 6, 1887, the Hawaiian King signed the document under military compulsion, which stripped him of most of his authority and empowered the elected legislatures and the cabinet to form the government of the State. The transfer of power was thus a combination of political maneuvers and the display of the military might of the rebels, which forced the king to accept his reduced position and ratify the constitution. However, the New Constitution remained unaccepted in the newly formed state legislature. Thus, the monarchy of Hawaii had been transformed into Constitutional monarchy.
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Answer Details:
Grade: High School and Graduation
Chapter: The era of decolonization in the 19th century.
Subject: History
Keywords:
Missionary Party, Monarchical Government, annexation, military coup, transfer of power, political opposition, Bayonet Constitution, Constitutional monarchy.
