The Republic of Hawai?i was the formal name of the government that controlled Hawai?i from 1894 to 1898 when it was run as a republic. The republic period occurred between the administration of the Provisional Government of Hawai?i which ended on July 4, 1894 and the adoption of the Newlands Resolution in the United States Congress in which the Republic was annexed to the United States and became the Territory of Hawai?i on July 7, 1898.
The administration of the Republic of Hawai?i was multiracial. It included men of European ancestry, like Sanford B. Dole and Lorrin A. Thurston, who were both native-born subjects of the Hawaiian kingdom and fluent speakers of the Hawaiian language. Dole had previously been an elected member of the Kingdom legislature from Koloa, Kaua?i and a Justice of the Kingdom's Supreme Court. Thurston had served as Minister of Interior under King Kalakaua. The Speaker of the House of the Republic of Hawai?i was native Hawaiian John Kaulukou who had previously been a Royalist opposing annexation.
The first order of business for the Provisional Government after the successful overthrow of Lili?uokalani was to form an interim government while Lorrin A. Thurston was in Washington, DC to negotiate annexation with Congress. One group proposed the assumption of power of Princess Victoria Ka?iulani while a body formed by the Committee of Safety could act as a regency government. With the physical absence of the princess from the islands, the proposal was immediately struck down.
