U.S. President Benjamin Harrison, his state secretary James Blaine, his ambassador to Hawaii John L. Stevens, and his allies Christian missionary-turned-businessmen Sanford Dole and Lorrin Thurston are names Native Hawaiians will remember for all time.
When U.S. Christian missionaries came to the islands of Hawaii for the first time in 1820, the people were peaceful and prosperous under their kingdom (save for some political violence inherent in all central governments). But they were seen as savages by the U.S. Christians who sought to "Christianize" and "westernize" them.
By the 1880s this western Christian movement grew to a point where they became a violent competitor to Native Hawaiians, and the businessmen were allied to the U.S.
Among their goals were to elect members to "reform" the kingdom, make English the official language of Hawaii, make Christianity the predominant religion in Hawaii, control the education of children, adopt the U.S. flag as the official flag, form a private militia run by a nation-building general who forced the monarch to enact a new constitution, and, if all else fails, force the central government on the people at gunpoint under the pretense of spreading democracy.
It should be noted that this Reform Party advocated a system where Americanism and globalism went hand-in-hand - all in the name of big business via big government. Globalism and nationalism are cousins - both oppose individualism.
When the conspirators took control, successfully overthrowing the Hawaiian Kingdom marking the first time the U.S. orchestrated coups outside North America, they issued this statement in 1893:
"First - The Hawaiian monarchial system of government is hereby abrogated. Second - A Provisional Government for the control and management of public affairs and the protection of public peace is hereby established, to exist until terms of union with the United States of America have been negotiated and agreed upon."
All in the name of U.S. business interests. So excuse me when I don't buy into the U.S.-Middle East conflicts owned by Trump, Obama, W. Bush, Clinton, H.W. Bush, Reagan, Carter, Ford, Nixon, Johnson, Kennedy, and Eisenhower.
The only difference between what happened in the 1890s and the last sixty years is that the U.S. could not muster enough support to annex whatever land the U.S. government wanted to steal from the natives there.
Not all is grim, an active Hawaiian sovereignty movement has resulted in a small parcel of nearly-stateless land. Since the 1990s, thanks to a beach stand-off after U.S. President Bill Clinton signed a resolution admitting Hawaii was stolen by force, the village of Pu`uhonua O Waimanalo has much more autonomy - complete with its own crypto-currency, Alohacoin. It's a start. Mahalo.