(mystical music) - Hi friends, how are you? I hope you're having
a wonderful day today. My name is Bailey Sarian
and I'd like to welcome you to the library of Dark History. Applause, thank you.
(cheers and applause) I'm here all day. This is a safe space for all
the curious cats out there who are like, hey Bailey. Isn't history really
super boring, actually. Let me tell you, no, this is not boring. This is actually very interesting
stuff we're talking about. We're gonna learn all
the dark, mysterious, dramatic stories that
maybe you didn't learn about in school, okay? It's a lot of fun. It sounds boring, but it's a lot of fun. I'm having a blast. Are you? Great, so today's story is about Hawaii, so, you're probably wondering, well, what the heck is
going on with Hawaii? Like, what could be dark about that? Well, I mean, first of all, it wouldn't be surprising if
George Lucas heard the story of Hawaii and that's how
he came up with Star Wars. Seriously, this story
has real life rebels, a legit evil empire and its very own Princess Leia. (claps) Yep, that's right. But I'm not talking about
a galaxy far, far away. I'm talking about a little bit
of paradise in the Pacific. That would one day become the 50th state. Now, before I get into this story, Hawaii has a very complicated history that crosses over international waters into some crazy legal shenanigans. There are some important things
we won't have time to cover, but I definitely suggest you
do some digging on your own. If you're a curious cat like myself and think of that as maybe homework. I know, I'm sorry, I don't
mean to give you homework, but it's like extra homework. If you wanna know more, it's an option. Also, if you're new here, hi, my name is Bailey and I
cannot pronounce names, okay. And this story (laughs), let me tell you, it's got some names that are
gonna be challenging to me and I don't mean any disrespect. I'm going to try my damnest best. Damnest best, is that a word? So, don't drag me in the
comments too bad, okay. I'm gonna this up, but I'm trying my goddamn best, that's all that matters is
that you try your best too. Thank you, that was my
motivational speech for today. Okay, so let me open up
my book to chapter Hawaii. Here I go. You know, this book is
getting heavier and heavier as time goes on. It's just full of dark secrets. Oh, here we go. Mm. Ooh. It's not looking good, hmm. When does it ever? Okay, you ready, Joan?
(crow cawing) Come on girls (vocalizes playful music). Let's go, girls. So, this story takes
place a long time ago, on some islands, far, far away. Okay, we're going back to 1778. There was a British sailor
named Captain James Cook, who was sailing around the Pacific ocean with the few of his men. He's looking for different lands that the British empire could colonize. Now, James was actually
looking for Australia, when he came across a
beautiful tropical paradise. It was untouched by colonization. It turns out this place
James had landed on, was a series of islands known
as the Kingdom of Hawaii. Captain James received a warm
welcome from the Islanders because their mothers raised them right. And also because it was makahiki, which was a time of celebration and peace. At the time, Hawaii had two seasons, peace season and war season. The seasons were determined
by their harvesting calendar, basically, during the rainy season, war and fighting was forbidden. So that the land could be
nourished and undisturbed to help for the next year's harvest. So, the first time James was there, it was like, no fighting time. No, fighting, right. James was not a very good house guest. And he took advantage
of their hospitality. When James left the Kingdom of Hawaii, he would tell his friends on the ship that the people of Hawaii
considered him a God. And he couldn't wait to return
to settle the land there, which is kind of a weird
thing to say about a place that's already settled with
thousands of years of history. But, sure James, sure. James ran into some crazy storms and his ship ended up getting damaged. And he had to turn back around. By the time James returned to the islands, it was no longer the season of peace and the Hawaiian people
were not gonna put up with his shit this time. James wasn't used to being told, no. And when Hawaiians refused his demands, James started fights with the local chiefs and burned down people's homes. In retaliation, the
people of Hawaii stole one of James' rowboats, and James was very upset about this. He was like, how could they do this to me? I am a God to these people. So, James gets his men
together and kidnaps many of the women in the villages, as well as the Hawaiian king, to use as a bargaining chip. From here, all hell breaks loose. At one point in the battle, a Hawaiian chief named Kanaʻina
grabbed James from behind and it was just pure chaos all around. And it was all over a fricking rowboat. That's what they were fighting over. Kanaʻina and another chief
ended up killing captain James in defense during the violent clash. Well, as you can imagine, it off Captain James' soldiers and they decided to retaliate. Now, eventually the fighting died down and everybody went their separate ways. Even though Captain James
had pulled all that shit, the Hawaiian people still wanted to be diplomatic about his death. So, they ended up giving
him a traditional burial on the islands and gave his
soldiers some of his bones so that they could do a burial at sea. The Hawaiians weren't
intimidated by Europe or England, but they wanted to have a
good relationship with them. They didn't want anything bad to happen. Even though the Hawaiians
successfully fought off James and his men, they didn't stop others from trying to get a piece of Hawaii, for themselves. Hawaii was a paradise, full
of riches that everyone wanted to get their hands on. And this will be a reoccurring theme. So by 1791, a King by
the name of Kamehameha, I am so sorry, I know I got that wrong, but I'm, Kamehameha, no disrespect, ascended to the throne. He was a well liked king
because he always said he cared for the Hawaiian people
first and foremost, but also he had an eye towards the future. You see, Kamehameha, knew that
there were outsiders coming and not only was Hawaii on a trade route. It was full of money making potential, from fertile farmlands to pearls to whales that could be killed for oil. I mean the possibilities were endless, and not only this, but missionaries were
making their rounds as well. One thing the British realized
while they were living on Hawaiian land, was how
easy it was to grow sugarcane. Which was a hot commodity. Other than being where sugar comes from, sugarcanes used for all sorts of stuff. I mean, from baking bread
to making alcohol, you know. So, they set up huge
plantations all over the place and started growing the stuff. And it sold like crazy. Suddenly the sugar industry was exploding and attracting people from
all parts of the globe because money, you know, money. Of course, you get it, money. So, instead of constantly being
at war with the outsiders, the king decided to
treat them with respect and let them live on their land. But that's not how the outsiders saw it. They took it to mean that
Hawaiians had given them the land and in doing so, given them control, and things would stay
like this for a while. And over time, the colonizers
positioned themselves to take the land out
from under the Hawaiians. The king had started to notice some of the shady planning these
guests were putting into place. So in 1840, in order to maintain control, the new Hawaiian king decided to changed the way Hawaii was run. Now, he modeled the new system on the United States Congress. So, this king is doing everything he can to preserve peace and make sure
they don't lose their power to outside forces, because people are coming,
trying to snatch shit up, okay. So now, there's this new
congressional system in place that occupiers in Hawaii, see a way to have even
more say in the government. They had already shown their
influence by doing things like, banning hula dancing, in Hawaii, yeah. And not just hula dancing. A lot of traditional Hawaiian
culture was also forbidden, which makes absolutely no sense. Even the Hawaiian language
started getting banned in schools. But the occupiers wanted more
than simply banning things. A lot of these occupiers
were from the United States. So, they started to send letters back to the US government saying stuff like, hey, hi, how's it going? What's up? Not that much here. We should like try and figure
out a way to take this land. There's a ton of resources out here and we can make a lot of money. So, the occupiers asked
for a sit down meeting with the king and they had a proposition. They proposed to the king that Hawaii become part
of the United States. They told the king, if
Hawaii was part of the US, the military would be able to
protect them from occupation. Oh, but wait, wasn't the United States military, currently the ones doing the occupying. Hmm? The king considers this. But because he cared about
preserving the independence of Hawaii and its culture, he says, thanks but we're good. We're doing just fine. Well, this does not go over
so well with the occupiers because they will only
take, yes, for an answer. Because as you've probably gathered from past episodes here on Dark History, when you tell a person, no, especially in the 1800s, shit
does not go over too well. Oh no, it does not. So, these occupiers did
what occupiers do best, when they don't get their way, they kicked, they screamed,
they cried (imitates crying), ain't no, huffing puffing. And then they start
screaming about corruption and told anyone who wouldn't listen, that the government needed to change. So, to take care of this, the occupiers decided to
create a secret society, called the Hawaiian League. The Hawaiian League was focused on completely overthrowing the government and rebuilding it from the ground up. Some may even call this a coup, a.k.a when people take over
the government, thank you. But there was one guy
who really led the charge and became the worst
thing to happen to Hawaii. Enter to the scene, Sanford B. Dole. But first we're gonna
pause for an ad break. I'm gonna get me, what are those Dole Whip
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And we're back. So let's talk about, Sanford Dole. Mr. Dole, sounds familiar, doesn't it? Well, he was born in Hawaii in 1844. Now, you may recognize the name Dole because of the pineapple company. Now, that wasn't Sanford, but the pineapple man was
his cousin, small world, and Sanford did help his cousin a little. Anyway, Sanford's parents
were American missionaries from Maine and he grew up in Hawaii. Now, after attending college
in the United States, Mr. Dole became a lawyer
in Hawaii in 1868, which meant he had to give up
his United States citizenship. Now, this is important to remember because from that point on, Sanford was legally a native Hawaiian. The original definition for Hawaiian, is a nationality, not a race. It is short for Hawaiian subject, like American is short
for American citizen. So, this is how Sanford
is a native Hawaiian. If that's makes any sense, you get it. Which makes what he ends up
doing even more backstabby. So, while Stanford was
studying to become a lawyer. He got introduced to an
entirely different world than the one that he had grown up in. Suddenly, Stanford's meeting
all these wealthy lawyers and plantation owners
and he starts hearing about the movement to have
Hawaii become a US territory. And he's like, oh my
God, I love that for us. And I'm a native Hawaii. This is so up my alley. So, he decides to do whatever
he can to help the movement. In the process, Stanford ends
up running for and winning a spot in the Hawaiian government. So, he is actually working
directly under King Kalakaua. I'm so sorry, but yes. If you remember from earlier, Stanford was the member of the
super suspish secret society, the Hawaiian League. Now again, their main
goal was to force Hawaii, to become part of United States. And the Hawaiian League had
been claiming corruption, the whole time without any
real evidence of corruption. That is, until Stanford used his status as a government official to
give out insider information. One big piece of intel
that Stanford heard about, was how someone tried to bribe the king with over $70,000 in order to
let them sell opium in Hawaii. Fucking party, you know, opium. Fuck yeah, but the opium dealer changed his mind and decided to sell his
drugs in China instead. So, he asked for the king to
give the bribe money back. He's like, gimme my money back, you know. You didn't do anything for me. Now, to the secret Hawaiian society. This was proof of all the corruption within the Hawaiian government. So things start to get
messy for King Kalakaua. Now, he discovered, members of his cabinet were
attending Town Hall Meetings that discussed the King's corruption. So, there's just people
going behind his back, doing him dirty. There's propaganda posters
being put up all over Hawaii, directly tying him to the opium drama and his own people stopped talking to him about official government business. Now, he felt like everywhere he went, he was being watched. And like, people were just
talking behind his back because they were. And it turns out, I mean, he was right to feel paranoid
because one day in June, 1887, Sanford Dole, the Hawaiian League and an armed militia
called The Honolulu Rifles, stormed the King's palace. This was a straight up rebellion now and there wasn't a damn thing, King Kalakaua could do about it. So, the Hawaiian League had spun things to make it seem like they were marching on the palace of a corrupt king for the good of the people. But when you take a closer look at the list of demands they had, you can see their intention
were a little more selfish. For example, the Hawaiian League wanted to get rid of all the king's people and replace them with
an all new cabinet full of their own members. Another demand was to change the law, so, only rich plantation
owners would be allowed to vote because it would help them take control, if they were the only ones
who could vote, great. So, of course the king didn't
wanna agree to any of this. I mean, it was clear to him that this did not benefit
the Hawaiian people at all. But the Hawaiian League forced the king to sign a new Hawaiian
constitution at gunpoint. Yes, drama. This constitution has become known as "The Bayonet Constitution", because they had bayonets pointed at him, when all of them signed it. A Bayonet, if you don't know, it's not a hat, 'cause that's
what I was thinking, it was, that's not a bayonet. It's a long gun with like
a knife on the end of it. Drama, that's a bayonet,
what am I thinking of? Isn't there a hat called a bayonet, a bonnet, sorry. I (laughs), you guys, sometimes my
brain, no worky, okay? So this, the thing is, if you shove a bayonet in anyone's face, they will probably do
whatever it is you want. Turns out, hey, this is actually illegal. And also makes this whole
Bayonet Constitution, not very legit, you could say. But the Hawaiian League didn't care, how legit it looked to anybody. They got the signatures they needed and they immediately used their
exclusive new voting system to elect a bunch of new
government officials, who were more rich, wealthy white men. And suddenly there was lots of support from the new Hawaiian government
to join United States. Now, this "new government",
I'm using quotes here, am I? Yes, I am. Quotes, "government", did
not completely get rid of the king. They just took away all of his power. So, he got to keep the title. Yeah, he's the king, but he's not really like
running the show or anything. And of course the native
Hawaiian population was told, just deal with it. So, let's do a little recap
on what just happened. A play by play. The wealthy plantation
owners approached the king with a deal to make Hawaii
part of the United States. The king said, no, the wealthy white guys, they came up with a plan to
take the king's power by force. Even though, he welcomed
them to the islands. This is more confusing than
the story I just told you. In conclusion, Hawaiians had
everything stolen from them. Point blank period, thank you. Come back around, reverse,
backspace, backspace, backspace, thank you. Enter, Control Alt Delete. Bye. In 1891, King Kalakaua died
and his sister became queen. The Queen's name was Liliuokalani. I tried my best, and she
really was not gonna put up with this shit, okay. The queen was going to stop at nothing to get the Hawaiian
people, their land back, including, staging over rebellion (claps). You go, girl, you go. Oh, but first we have to pause
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(mystical music) Hi, and we're back. So, now we're going to
talk about a literal queen, who was a super badass. Let me tell you about her, real quick. Liliuokalani, was born
on September 2nd, 1838 and would attend the Royal School for Hawaii's Young Nobility. This is a school where
kings learn how to be kings and queens learn how to be queens. She had a big personality and was really loved by the people, which made her the obvious choice, when it came time for
her to take the throne. Remember earlier, when
I talked about how like, this is kind of like Star Wars, yeah. Well, Liliuokalani was legit,
a real life princess Leia and she was going to
take back her homeland. Her first order of business was to get rid of the bullshit, illegal
Bayonet Constitution. So, Liliuokalani, proposed
a new constitution that would have made several huge changes to the Hawaiian government. The most important change
was restoring the power of final say in government to the queen, including any political appointments. Plus, anybody living in
Hawaii who was born in America or Europe would completely
lose the right to vote. Effectively, giving voting power back to the Hawaiian people. Now, the queen, she would travel on horse back around each island and speak with the native
Hawaiians to gain support. And people loved her and
loved all of her ideas. Almost all of the native
population was eager to enact this new constitution, so they could take back
control of their land. But word of the Queen's intentions start to spread around the islands. And the wealthy plantation
owners are like, oh shit, you know, this
woman means business. So, before the constitution
can get off the ground, they organize a counter
attack against Queen L, in the form of a group called,
The Committee of Safety. On paper, this group was intended to keep the Hawaiian people
safe from outside influence. But in reality, this committee's goal was to topple the monarchy and force Hawaii to become part of the United States. So, the committee very quickly, gets the United States government involved and they started claiming
that the outside influence, they were protecting Hawaii
against was none other than the queen and anybody
who was loyal to her. They even convinced the United States to send armed mercenaries to Hawaii, with orders, to protect
American lives and property. Nothing about protecting
Hawaiian lives and property, just American, even though
it's all the Hawaiian's land. There's like a constant theme throughout our history, is there not? Unfortunately, the
committee's plan worked, and they forced the queen to
give all of her power over to them in 1893. She officially gave a speech
on the steps of her palace, surrendering all of her power to a temporary government made up of her former cabinet members. This temporary government was known as the Republic of Hawaii and they made their leader none other (laughs) than Sanford B. Dole. But here's the thing, Liliuokalani, only gave up her political power. She never gave up her title
as head of the monarchy. And since she didn't give up her title, this meant that technically, legally, Hawaii was still a monarchy
and it is still even today. Now, this is important, much later on. So, pack it up and store it for later. But right now, as far as the Republic
of Hawaii was concerned, they believed the queen
was out of the picture. So, with the queen gone, kinda, there was only one thing left to do, give Hawaii to the United States. But one super big thing to flag here. At this point, there is no
formal, legally binding agreement between the Hawaiians and these occupiers. So again, legally, the land still belonged to Hawaii and the queen. And the queen had inspired
the people so much that for the Hawaiians,
the fight wasn't over. Rumors of rebellions started
to reach Sanford Dole. And over the course of the next year, there were a number of failed attacks, against the Republic of Hawaii. Even though the attacks were thwarted. Isn't that fun? Thwarted. The Republic of Hawaii knew it had to shut the rebellion down. So, they set up armed mercenaries, all over the entire territory of Hawaii. There were literally
soldiers on every corner of every street,
businesses were shut down. I mean, it was just
full blown martial law. Over the course of the next year, things started heating up more and more. The native Hawaiians
wanted their country back. And as a reminder, The
Bayonet Constitution, I mean, the thing they were using to say they owned Hawaii, now, was not legally binding, woo. Plus, the people loved
everything the queen had proposed in her new constitution. Plus, every day, Sanford's
government gave them a new reason to get angrier and angrier. So, the people of Hawaii, gave Sanford Dole's government
a taste of their own medicine and started planning
the biggest rebellion, against the Republic of Hawaii, yet. (whispers) Thwarted. The queen knew preparations
were being made to overthrow the Republic, but she refused to give up any information about the growing rebellion, whenever any government
official asked her. Many historians think the
rebellion was being planned at the Queen's new house, which is kind of just a testament
of like how cool she was. If you wanna see for yourself
how awesome this woman was, the Queen's Diary is available
to read for free online. And there's this whole cool
bit, where she theorizes, what those meetings looked like. I know, It's very cool, highly
recommend you check it out. Please do. Okay, so back to the story. So, it's now, January 6, 1895, the Hawaiians were ready. It was time for the Republic
to get the F out of there. So, two groups began setting
up at the edge of town, preparing for battle by unloading guns from unmarked crates. A third group was set to lead 100 men to the palace to overthrow the government, just waiting for the signal to go. Now, this was the moment
everybody had been waiting for, but there was just one problem. There were (whispers) spies in the group. (whispers) Spies, I'm whispering
'cause they're listening. It's turns out a few of the people helping plan the rebellion, were working for the Republic of Hawaii. Boo. So, when the third groups
started marching to the palace, there were already Republic soldiers and mercenaries waiting in the streets. And as soon as they saw each other, a huge gun fight broke out. So, we don't exactly know who fired first, (gunshots)
but once the groups waiting, all over the city of Honolulu, heard gunfire, all hell broke loose. There was the main fight
going down at the palace. And then there was like, numerous
other little fights going on throughout the island. Some of the fights that
broke out lasted for days. At first, the rebellion actually managed to make the soldiers retreat, but then the Republic of Hawaii
declared Martial law, again, and pulled out the big guns. Suddenly the streets were swarming with over a thousand soldiers
from the Republic of Hawaii. I mean, it didn't matter
how many people believed in the queen and her cause, the rebels quickly became outnumbered. This fight lasted just under two weeks. And in the end, the Republic
defeated the rebels, boo. It didn't take long for
the Republic of Hawaii to realize the queen had been
involved with the rebellion. They arrested her and over
350 other native Hawaiians, charging them with treason. What makes us interesting
is that it was characterized as a rebellion against a rebellion. It's kind of like a
double negative, right? This basically means
that they're standing up against people who stole shit from them. A group of natives fighting
to save their own land, charged with treason against
an illegal government, they never wanted. Think about that, they weren't rebels. They were loyal Hawaiian nationals trying to stop occupiers and invaders. Hello, great. So, the queen was sentenced
to five years of hard labor, but a few of the people involved
were given death sentences. Now, the queen was given a choice, the Republic told Liliuokalani, she could save their lives. If she just announced
to the people of Hawaii, that she was 100%, no longer there queen. That is so fucked up. I mean, she had to pretty
much say she's not in power. She doesn't have a title, nothing. And by doing this, she would completely abolish the monarchy. Liliuokalani said, she would rather die than tell her people
she wasn't their queen. And fortunately, it didn't get that far because orders came
from the United States, telling the Republic to back down. So, they changed the sentencing
and luckily nobody died. But the queen was still out of power. And now the Republic of Hawaii could focus on making Hawaii officially
part of United States. I've talked about this
numerous times before, but the late 1800s were all
about expanding and taking. United States government
was eager to gain more land and it meant taking everything, like parts of Mexico,
parts of Canada, Cuba and of course Hawaii. And at first, many Americans were on board with adding Hawaii to the United States. But the United States
president at the time, Grover Cleveland, wasn't convinced Hawaii
should join the United States. You see, back when Sanford was
pushing to get Hawaii added, as, you know, United States territory, the president had created
a special committee to try to figure out if the overthrow of the queen was even
legal in the first place. And this committee wrote a
report which sparked a whole lot of drama in Washington, D.C. Oh, but first I have to
pause for an ad break. I'm sorry, BRB.
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Okay, and we're back. So, this report was known
as The Blount Report, found that the overthrow of the monarchy in Hawaii was totally illegal and it was an act of war by an American without the approval of Congress. So, at first it looked like
things were gonna work out for the people of Hawaii. And the president immediately
ordered Stanford Dole to dissolve his fake government and reinstate the Queen's monarchy. Hurray. But there was one condition. The queen was not allowed
to punish Stanford and the occupiers for
their crazy-ass takeover. And as you can imagine, the
queen did not agree to this. And Stanford refused to
give up power, of course. So now, the United States Senate launched its own invest investigation. This is exhausting. This is where shit starts to get weird. You see, the Senate investigation, known as the Morgan Report, concluded the opposite
of the committee's report and decided that Sanford's
actions were totally legal. And this led to a gridlock
in the government. And nobody really did anything
with Hawaii for a few years, until new president came into
town, William McKinley, yeah. This guy, this new president I should say, was very eager to expand
the United States. So, he went in super hard and was like, we need to get Hawaii, asap. And Sanford was super excited because this new president
was going to support, what Sanford went and
did in the first place. Getting Hawaii part of the United States, Stanford traveled all the
way to Washington, D.C\ to seal Hawaii's fate. And it worked because in 1898, Congress approved the process that led to Hawaii officially
becoming a US territory. Bonus, Stanford got to be governor of it. Jesus Christ. In the end, the United States got Hawaii. Now that the United States had
successfully stolen the land. Business exploded in Hawaii. This is where Stanford's
cousin, James Dole, the pineapple guy, comes into the picture. Even though pineapples
aren't even native to Hawaii. James figured out
pineapples grew very easily in the tropical environment and he thought pineapple plantations, would make him a lot of, money. And boy, was he right? He made a ton of cash off
of his pineapple business. And at one point took over
the entire island of O'ahu, just for pineapples. When people associate
pineapples with Hawaii, James Dole is the reason why. So for a while, the entire state of
Hawaii was just pineapple, coffee, sugar plantations. And the owners of these plantations, were completely running the place. Native Hawaiians couldn't
live off of the land anymore because the land was totally
exploited by these businesses. And all other local industries
were put out of business too. So, native Hawaiians
were forced to get jobs on these plantations in order to survive. In addition to its super fertile land, Hawaii also had a really
strategic military placement. So, this was just another reason that the United States
really pushed to take Hawaii and they made it official in 1908. The United States
established a Naval station on the island of O'ahu. It became known as Pearl Harbor. This base became super important to the United States military presence, in the Pacific ocean. And it made it easier for battleships and war planes to reach Asia. I bring this up because I've talked about the Pearl Harbor attacks
in 1941, on this show before. But something I haven't talked about, is how Hawaii was not even
a state when that happened. Yeah, Hawaii became a state in 1959. And that wasn't even that long
ago, it seems like, right? It's almost 18 years after
the attack on Pearl Harbor, some confusing shit, you
know what I'm saying? So, clearly the history of Hawaii and how the United States took
it, is a very complicated, shady, pretty frustrating. The United States stole the land since they never actually
agreed to give it up. And the biggest thing
to remember here is that in order for an occupier
to legally obtain new land, both parties, new to sign a treaty, recognizing that the land
is being handed over. Well, there's no formal treaty
between the United States and the Kingdom of
Hawaii, it doesn't exist. The Kingdom of Hawaii
never gave their nation to the occupiers, but the
United States didn't care. They took it how they wanted to. So, obviously native Hawaiians have been protesting Hawaii's title
of statehood ever since, because technically, if we
look at international laws, occupation of land without
a legally binding treaty, is considered a war
crime, point blank period. Backspace, Control Alt Delete, goodbye. Oh, but first we have to
pause for an ad break. I'm sorry.
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Hi, and we're back. The United States government
finally acknowledged, the hostile takeover of
Hawaii with The Blount Report, as well as the apology solution of 1993, President Bill Clinton finally apologized on behalf of the United States, but like, what does that do? I don't know. But since Hawaii's occupation
by the United States began, over 100 years ago. There has been an active effort in Hawaii to restore the government
of Hawaiian Kingdom, through something called a Regency. A Regency is what you've
get when the king or queen of a monarchy is unable to rule because they're dead or sick. And right now, Hawaii
doesn't have a monarch. So, they have a regent. So, you're probably thinking, why don't they just bring
Queen L's descendants to the throne. Well, you see, the queen
had three children, but they were all adopted. And for any of them to take the throne, the queen would have had to
directly name one of them as a successor in her will, under the conditions of the
old 1864 Hawaiian Constitution. If the king or a queen dies and does not leave a
final will and testament, the head of the government
shall remain vacant. And since the queen never
technically left her throne, this means the monarchy
exists without a queen. Therefore, Hawaii is still a monarchy and has been since 1893, plot twist. But don't take it from me. Let me tell you a story about a Hawaiian citizen
named Lance Larson. In 1999, Lance was arrested for driving without license plates, which is illegal under United States law. After he was arrested, Lance claimed that jurisdiction over him, was only held by the Hawaiian Kingdom. You see, he made the claim that the United States had
illegally occupied Hawaii. Therefore, he should only
be tried under the laws of the kingdom not the United States. Now, this created a very
complicated situation. The international community
actually stopped for a second and said, hey, wait a minute. Is Hawaii occupied, illegally? And nobody could really agree. This case ended up being so controversial that it went all the way to The Hague. Now, the Hague, oh my God, wait, I've been there. The Hague is located in the Netherlands and it's where international
legal cases are tried in a court of law. Basically, if an entire
country is committing a crime, this is where you go, you go there. So, why am I telling you about The Hague? Well, Mr. Larson's issue was
no longer about license plates. It was about the very nature of Hawaii's existence as a state. Is Hawaii part of the United States and their government
or an independent state with their own monarchy? In order for The Hague to rule on whether the United States
illegally obtained Hawaii, the United States had to be part of the original case, but guess what? The United States refused
to participate (laughs). In fact, there isn't even any evidence that they protested when
The Hague declared Hawaii, an independent state. The Hague cited with Lance. The Hague stated that Hawaii is and always has been illegally occupied. Since there is no treaty, the
occupation and any transfer of power as a result is illegal. Hawaii, should be its
own independent state with its own government
and its own set of laws. But since the United States
refused to acknowledge The Hague or the Larson case, nothing's changed. So, even though the international
community has acknowledged that Hawaii is its own nation-state, the United States government
is straight up ignoring that. And since the USA is a massive superpower, there really is no one like, who can enforce international
rulings against them. Now you may be wondering, well, why is no one talking about this? Well, they are, the Hawaiian
sovereignty movement, is a grassroots organization, campaigning for return
to Hawaiian independence. And from what we've learned today, they have an interesting case. They have a fair case. They have a pretty solid case. In conclusion, America has always wanted to take over the world at any cost. Ah, I wouldn't say they
wanna take over the world. They just wanna take over America. America wants to take over America. Oh, fuck is going on. Now, I don't know about you guys, but okay, look, I didn't know
a damn thing about Hawaii. I didn't know a damn thing about Hawaii. I thought Hawaii was part
of the United States. And when I was learning about this, I was like, holy (imitates explosion), my brain exploded because, what? You know, like, Hawaii shouldn't be a part of the United States. Why are we still, why is this still a thing? Let me know down below. Overall, I did learn that
the queen is a badass. This shit's fucked up, per usual, in these Dark History episodes (laughs). And if there's one thing
we've learned is that, the United States is a little shady, not a little, very shady. And I don't think it's wrong
to acknowledge that and say, hey, United States, you fucked up. Make it right, hmm. (mumbles) But I guess I live in my own little fairy tale world, don't to I? Anyways, okay. Well, everyone, thank you so much for hanging out with me today. I hope you learned a little
something about Hawaii. I know it was a lot of information, but if there's anything
you should learn from this, it's that Hawaii is not
part of the United States and never should have been. I mean, legally it's
not, point blank period. Control ALT Delete. Hello, backspace (laughs). That's my new thing, I just,
you know, let me roll with it. Thanks for hanging out
with me today (laughs). I hate trying to end these, they're really difficult end sometimes. 'Cause I don't really know what to say. But thank you for hanging
out with me today. I would love to hear your
guys' reactions to this story. So, make sure to use
the hashtag DarkHistory, over on social media
so I can follow along. Also, you can join me over on my YouTube, where you can watch these
episodes on Thursday, after the podcast airs. And also you can catch my
Murder Mystery and Makeup, which drops on Mondays. I hope you have a
wonderful rest of your day. You make good choices. Pineapple does not come from Hawaii and I'll be talking to you next week. Goodbye. Dark history is an Audioboom original. This podcast is executive produced by Bailey Sarian, Kim Jacobs,
Dunia McNeily from Three Arts, Justin Comins and Claire
Turner from Wheelhouse DNA. Produced by Lexxi Kiven. Research provided by Thomas Messersmith. Writers, Jed Bookout, Michael Oberst, Joey Scavuzzo, Kim Yaged
and me, Bailey Sarian. And a big, special thank you
to our historical consultant, Dr. David Keanu Sai. And I'm your host, Bailey Sarian. These people had to come in with their damn bonnets,
shooting everybody. Oh God (laughs), I'm just kidding. We should have put a
bonnet on (laughs) my.
