Learning Why America Businessmen Suck
When we had returned to the room the night before, we looked over the guidebook to determine what we may want to do. I mentioned the Palace and it super interested my husband. At least it gave us a plan for the next day! The palace didn’t open until a bit later than our normal wake up times so when we woke up, my husband went for a run and I was super lazy. I was totally abusing this ‘vacation’ excuse.
He returned and got cleaned up. We headed towards the capital district of downtown Honolulu as the Ionani Palace to buy our tour tickets and visit the statue and for my husband to well, catch some Pokemon. Yes, my husband is 32 years old and I was planning on arriving early so he could catch Pokemon as apparently Honolulu was full of Pokestops for him to collect things like eggs, candy, poke-balls, etc...he was going to use this to his full advantage!
I’m pretty sure I ended up parking somewhere I shouldn’t have and was pretty much super nervous our entire visit to this area that our car was going to end up towed. My husband told me to not worry about it.
Palace Sign
Outside Palace
We headed over to the Hale Koa to purchase tickets for the tour. The earliest tour time was already filled so we had to wait until 10:30AM. We filled this time by going to watch the video about the history of the Kingdom of Hawaii and its integration with the United States.
The ‘Iolani Palace was the royal residence for the Kingdom of Hawaii beginning with Kamehameha III in 1845 and ending with Queen Liliuokalani in 1893. This building was actually built in 1879 with all the latest amenities like indoor plumbing, telephone, etc. and the original palace was dismantled. After the monarchy was overthrown in 1893, the building was used as a capital building for the provisional government and various stages of statehood until 1969 when it moved to another Capital Building nearby. It opened to the public as a museum of 1978. It is also the only royal palace located on US soil!
This video was super interesting to me as well, you learned what happened to the Kingdom of Hawaii and how it ended up under the control of the United States.
Because of economic interests in Hawaii with Sugar, Fruits, etc - the Kingdom of Hawaii ended up becoming a protectorate of the United States to which the pressure was put on the Kings at the time to have exclusive trade agreements with the US. The Kings (Kamehameha IV & V) did try to get really strong alliances with other large powers like England.
Since the first of the elected monarch died before naming an heir, there ended up becoming a conflict where England and US helped with military intervention and in turn American businessmen with major interests in Hawaii. As King Kalakaua had them make a Treaty that allowed the US use Fort Island for their Military operations, there were a lot of background American business interested and helped influence a new constitution in 1887 which people much took away a ton of power of the king to force Kalakaua’s cooperation along with messing with the voting rights so that pretty much only really wealthy native Hawaiians, Europeans and Americans people had a voting monopoly to protect their interests.
With all these changes, there was an attempt to overthrow the monarchy in 1888 that failed. When Kalakaua died in 1891, his sister Liliuokalani (who was apart of the overthrow attempt in 1888) was named the new monarch. There was an economic crisis going on because the US was pretty much trying to prove a point to the Hawaii people and Liliuokalani wanted nothing more than to restore the power of the Kingdom of Hawaii since so much had been lost over the past 40 years. So in 1893, there was a coup d’etat led by American Business Interests that overthrew the Queen that was supported by the US Military although it was totally condemned by President Cleveland. The former Queen was imprisoned in her former home as well.
So there is your history lesson before pretty photos.
As we still had time before our self guided audio tour of the palace would begin, we walked around the grounds some (since my husband had pokemon to catch and goodies to grab - I actually had to pull him aside and tell him to be aware of where he was walking as there were a fair amount of homeless just laying around the lawns of the palace)
King Kamehameha Statue
Burial Mound On Grounds
Hala Koa
At 10:30AM, we were given our audio guides from the employees and were given these awesome booties for our feet!
Super Sexy!
We were given the run down about the rules such as don’t touch, be respectful, etc. All those things you are usually told when you visit historic places.
Foyer
Woodwork
Staircase
Glasswork
Parlor
Dining Room
Toilet
Upper Foyer
Bedroom
Quilt/Queen Imprisonment Room
Throne Room
Throne Room
We really enjoyed this audio tour as it provided more info on some of the history I already wrote in my essay above. Before leaving, we stopped by the Queen’s statue. It was amazing to see how there were a lot of gifts left by people still unhappy with the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii.
Queen Lili Statue
I admit I was nervous as we walked back to the car but luckily, it wasn’t towed away! We decided it was time for lunch and decided to look around to see what was nearby.