a resolution to extend an invitation to the government of Hawaii to participate in the conference. By this act the islands were recognized as a part of the American body of states, and the Monroe doctrine was applied to their political status.[1] This step, however, did not alter the intimate relation which they held to the Orient. From their earliest contact with the United States these islands had been a base of operations for the trade of China, and the growing power of Japan had given to them added importance in the Pacific.
Kalakaua died in 1891 while visiting California for his health, and was succeeded by Princess Liliuokalani, who had previously been proclaimed heir to the throne. Although the petty kingdom was the merest mimicry of a monarchy, the substantial residents were disposed to tolerate the king in his whims and extravagancies of life and policy because of his kindly disposition and of his good intentions for his country. But his death precipitated the end of the monarchy, which events had already indicated as inevitable. The new ruler from the beginning manifested a headstrong disposition, an intention to control the government by her own will, and to surround herself with a body of advisers and intimates of bad character and of ill omen for the country. Her accession to power was followed by much dissatisfaction, and revolutionary schemes began to take shape. The bribery and corruption which prevailed and the orgies which defiled the palace during the
- ↑ Allen's Report, 23–26; Alexander's Hist. Hawaii, 304; A Foot-Note to History (Samoa), by Robert Louis Stevenson, New York, 1892, p. 56; U. S. For. Rel. 1894, Appendix ii. p. 645.
