Hawaii's monarchy was limited by the 1887 Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawaii, which King David Kalakaua (1836–1891) signed under threat of force, and which was therefore often known as the Bayonet Constitution. It established a constitutional monarchy much like Britain's, but also transferred power through a redefinition of the electoral franchise to an elite class of American, European, and native Hawaiian landowners.

When Kalakaua died in 1891, his sister Lili'uokalani (1838–1917) succeeded him on the throne. Soon she made plans to restore the monarchy's veto power and other features of the pre-1887 Constitution. A group of American and European residents, in opposition to the Queen, organized themselves and solicited protection from U.S. Marines and sailors, which U.S. Government Minister John Stevens provided. Queen Lili'uokalani was deposed on January 14, 1893, and a provisional government was formed.

On February 1, Stevens proclaimed Hawaii a protectorate of the United States. On July 4, 1894, the Republic of Hawaii was founded and Sanford Dole became its President. A brief effort at the beginning of 1895 to restore the monarchy and Lili'uokalani to the throne was thwarted. Arrested and convicted for playing a part in the failed effort, Lili'uokalani was confined to house arrest in Iolani Palace, where she spent much of her time writing songs. She abdicated her throne eight months later, in return for the commutation of the sentence of her fellow conspirators. Later, she would write that her signature on the abdication agreement, which she signed "Lili'uokalani Domonis" (she had married Robert Domonis), invalidated it because, as a monarch, she had never acted under that name, but only "Lili'uokalani." Be that as it may, the government pensioned her off and she retired to her palatial home, where she died, at age 79.

Hawaii was a united kingdom under a single monarch only for eighty years, from 1810, when Kamehameha I (1738–1819) brought all the islands under his control, to the time when the monarchy became defunct under Lili'uokalani. During that time, the rules of succession evolved, to include not only the members of the families of Kamehameha and Kalakaua, but also adopted sons and daughters (Lili'uokalani had three) and members of a noble class recognized by Kamehameha as eligible to be rulers. Because the kingdom ended more than a century ago and because all these families have continued to proliferate, there are currently a large number of people who might be considered as heirs or pretenders to the Hawaiian throne, were it ever to be revived.

The causes of the temperance movement in the United States can be understood as emerging from religious, social, and economic circumstances. Distinct from 20th-century prohibitionists who supported total abstinence through public policy, supporters of the 19th-century temperance movement sought disciplined drinking, and found an early advocate in Dr. Benjamin Rush’s 1784 essay The Effects of Spirituous Liquors. In words intended to influence individual behavior, Rush argued that alcohol, when overused, was unhealthy. A few years later, this message was expanded into one of the reasons for the formation of an organization in Andover, MA, which intended to improve society through pledges of abstinence. By 1826, the American Temperance Society, a federation of over 8,000 temperance societies in towns and cities across the United States, claimed a million and a half members.

These enthusiasts were attracted to a message they heard from the pulpit: too much alcohol was a sin against God. The famous Congregational, later Presbyterian pastor Lyman Beecher was one of the most famous evangelical preachers who delivered this message when he urged all ministers to discuss the problem with their congregations, making clear that parents must stop drinking at home and employers must stop offering their employees grog. Imbued with the understanding that all Christians must strive for perfection, church members became willing participants in organized temperance societies. The Second Great Awakening, the crusade that began in the 1790s and continued into the early 19th century, further emphasized the responsibility of every believer for their own soul.

One of the other catalysts for the temperance movement was the increased availability of spirits for a generation of Americans whose water supplies were often contaminated. During the 1820s, the decade when the American Temperance Society was organized, the per capita levels of American drinking were at an all-time high. All forms of liquor, whether whiskey distilled from the surpluses of grain or the ubiquitous and powerful cider fermented from apples, were easily purchased in grocery stores or enjoyed in the all-male taverns that became the clubs of workmen.

For supporters of the temperance movement, public drunkenness became a distressing sign of how far the United States had strayed from its roots among those prudent hardworking founders. As the United States industrialized, employers sought sober disciplined workers who came to work on time. At the same time, women had special reasons to create their own temperance societies. Shunned in male associations, they confronted drunkenness in their homes. The great leader of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, Frances Willard, had an alcoholic brother and she was only one of many women who found salvation in a movement that sought to control a problem with both public and private ramifications.