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Signing of the Bayonet Constitution
- When
- 1887
- Where
- Hawaiian Kingdom
King Kalākaua was forced by an armed militia to sign the 1887 Constitution or be deposed, stripping the monarchy of authority.
The document became known as the Bayonet Constitution due to the rising by the armed militia which forced King Kalākaua to sign it or be deposed. This event initiated a transfer of power to a coalition of American, European, and native Hawaiian people, marking the first great implement in the decline of the monarchy.
Sources
- 1887 Constitution of the Hawaiian Kingdom Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-25
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.