The Hawaiian Kingdom, or Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, was an independent state on the Hawaii Islands. The country originated in 1795, when the warrior chief Kamehameha the Great, of the independent island of Hawaiʻi, conquered the independent islands of Oʻahu, Maui, Molokaʻi, and Lānaʻi and unified them under one government. In 1810, the whole Hawaiian archipelago became unified when Kauaʻi and Niʻihau joined the Hawaiian Kingdom voluntarily. Two major dynastic families ruled the kingdom: the House of Kamehameha and the House of Kalākaua.
The kingdom won recognition from major European powers. The United States became its chief trading partner and watched over it to prevent some other power from threatening to seize control. Hawaiʻi was forced to adopt a new constitution in 1887 when King Kalākaua was threatened with violence by the Honolulu Rifles, an anti-monarchist militia, to sign it.