A real, internationally recognized sovereign kingdom — unified by conquest in 1795, formally recognized by the great powers of the day, and overthrown in 1893 by a small group of American and European business interests backed by landed US Marines. What followed was a five-year fiction of a "republic" built to engineer annexation, then six decades as a US territory, and finally the 50th state in 1959. Hawaii's own flag never really changed across any of it — only who was allowed to fly it, and why.
The flag itself is the odd artifact at the center of the story: eight horizontal stripes for the eight main islands, with the Union Jack in the canton, a compromise design credited to the era of Kamehameha I balancing British and American influence in the islands. It has flown, unaltered in design, over a sovereign kingdom, a coup government, a nominal republic, a US territory, and now the only US state whose flag carries another nation's own national emblem in the corner.
Scope of this page: the Hawaiian Islands, c. pre-1795–present, six political entities. Kamehameha I's conquest is the entity's founding act, not a colonial import — the Kingdom of Hawaii was recognized as sovereign by the United States, United Kingdom, France, and other powers well before 1893, and exchanged ambassadors with them. Part of the atlas's Vanished States hub, alongside four other real sovereign states with no surviving successor — see the linked pages at the bottom.
One island chain, six flags
Hawaii's own real coastline, traced whole — the one page in this atlas without an internal split to show. Press play, or drag the slider, to watch who held all of it, era to era.
This is the one entity in the atlas that doesn't split internally. There is no genuine documented partition of Hawaii's own territory across its historical eras — the kingdom, the coup government, the nominal republic, the US territory, and the state all governed the same eight main islands as one whole. What changes here is only who ruled all of it at once, and under what name.
Before 1795
Independent island chiefdoms (mo'i)
Real coastline, traced from a U.S. states boundary dataset (the five main-island clusters are separate closed subpaths, as they are on the actual map) — no internal partition. See the rule box above for why.
eight stripes for eight islands, Union Jack canton — unaltered since the kingdom era
1959 – present
State of Hawaii, United States
US stateWilliam F. QuinnSecular (no state religion)
Migration & conquest:Emigration: Native Hawaiians to the US mainland
Who & why: Hawaii becomes the 50th US state on 21 August 1959, following a March 1959 admission vote in which local residents overwhelmingly approved statehood. The former kingdom's flag is retained as the official state flag without alteration — Hawaii remains the only US state to carry a foreign nation's own flag (the Union Jack) as part of its own.
What it represents: the same eight-stripe, Union-Jack-canton design flown since the kingdom, formally codified in state law after 1959.
Paint guide
Proportions2:1, eight equal horizontal stripes (white, red, blue, white, red, blue, white, red, top to bottom).
LayoutUnion Jack canton occupying the upper-left quarter, over the top four stripes.
White#F4EFE1
Red#CC142B
Blue#00247D
the kingdom's flag, continued as the flag of an unincorporated US territory
1898 – 1959
Territory of Hawaii, United States
Annexed territorySanford B. DoleSecular (no state religion)
Who & why: the US Congress passes the Newlands Resolution annexing Hawaii in July 1898, formalized on 12 August 1898, largely to secure a Pacific coaling station during the Spanish-American War. The Organic Act of 1900 formally organizes the islands as an incorporated US territory with a territorial legislature and a governor appointed from Washington — a status that lasts nearly six decades, including the 7 December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor and wartime martial law.
What it represents: the former kingdom's own flag continues unaltered as the territorial flag — the US never designed a distinct Hawaiian territorial banner, simply inheriting the existing one.
Paint guide
Proportions2:1, as above — unchanged from the kingdom and republic eras.
White#F4EFE1
Red#CC142B
Blue#00247D
flown over a government built to engineer annexation
1894 – 1898
Republic of Hawaii
Unrecognized republicSanford B. DoleNo official state religion
Who & why: the same annexationist businessmen who led the 1893 coup declare a formal "Republic of Hawaii" on 4 July 1894, with Sanford B. Dole (of the pineapple family) as president. It is a republic in name only — native Hawaiians are largely excluded from the franchise by property and literacy requirements, and the government exists chiefly to hold the islands until the US Congress could be persuaded to annex them, which it does in 1898.
What it represents: the republic retains the kingdom's own flag rather than adopting a new one, a continuity choice that also served to normalize the coup government's legitimacy in the eyes of foreign observers.
Paint guide
Proportions2:1, as above — unchanged from the kingdom era.
White#F4EFE1
Red#CC142B
Blue#00247D
flown over a government installed at gunpoint, days after the coup
1893 – 1894
Provisional Government of Hawaii
Unrecognized republicSanford B. DoleNo official state religion
Who & why: on 17 January 1893, a "Committee of Safety" of American and European sugar planters and businessmen, with the landed support of US Marines from the USS Boston, overthrows Queen Lili'uokalani and declares a Provisional Government. The queen yields her authority under protest, explicitly to the superior force of the United States, hoping for restoration through diplomacy — a restoration an 1893 US investigation (the Blount Report) recommended, but Congress never acted on.
What it represents: the coup government keeps the kingdom's own flag flying, a striking choice that underscores how thin its claim to represent a genuinely new nation was.
Paint guide
Proportions2:1, as above — unchanged from the kingdom era.
White#F4EFE1
Red#CC142B
Blue#00247D
the kingdom's flag, adopted under Kamehameha I
1795 – 1893
Kingdom of Hawaii
Kingdom, independentKamehameha IHawaiian religion, then Christianity
Migration & conquest:Immigration: Chinese, Japanese & Portuguese contract laborers
Ruling house:Kamehameha DynastyKalākaua Dynasty
Who & why: Kamehameha I completes the conquest and unification of most of the Hawaiian archipelago by 1795 (Kaua'i joins peacefully by 1810), founding a single Hawaiian kingdom recognized as sovereign by the United States, United Kingdom, France, and other powers, with its own treaties, embassies, and currency. The kingdom endures through five reigning families across nearly a century, industrializes around the sugar trade, and is finally overthrown on 17 January 1893.
What it represents: eight stripes for the kingdom's eight main islands, and a Union Jack canton reflecting close early ties with Britain — a genuinely unusual design credited to the reign of Kamehameha I, balancing British and American interests in the islands rather than favoring either.
LayoutUnion Jack canton, upper-left quarter, over the top four stripes.
White#F4EFE1
Red#CC142B
Blue#00247D
placeholder maroon field — pre-unification era, no single banner survives
Before 1795
Independent island chiefdoms (mo'i)
Fragmented chiefdomsNo single ruler documentedHawaiian traditional religion (kapu)
Who & why: before Kamehameha I's conquests, the Hawaiian Islands are divided among competing ali'i (chiefly) lines, each ruling one or several islands under its own mo'i (paramount chief), with recurring warfare between them. Kamehameha begins his campaign of unification on the Big Island in the 1780s, using cannon and muskets acquired from European traders, and completes control of the main archipelago by 1795.
What it represents: no single flag or banner unified pre-conquest Hawaii; individual chiefs used feather standards (kahili) and other regalia as marks of rank rather than territorial flags in the European sense. Shown here honestly blank rather than invented.
Paint guide
ProportionsN/A — no attested flag.
Reading the tags
Fragmented chiefdoms — no single crown yet
Kingdom, independent — sovereign under its own crown
Unrecognized republic — installed by a coup, built to engineer annexation
Annexed territory — absorbed into a larger power, self-government withheld or limited
US state — full member of the United States
Leader — the named ruler most associated with the era's start
State religion — the official/established faith, not the population's
More of the atlas
This page is one of five in the Vanished States hub — real sovereign states, completely absorbed, with no surviving successor today. See the others here: