Although the United States occupied Hawai’i and overthrew its constitutional monarchy as a prelude to the invasion and occupation of the Philippines, Guam, and other Pacific islands in the late nineteenth century, the US Congress long considered Hawai’i to be unqualified for statehood, because it was “Asiatic,” which was the reason that none of the Pacific territories the US held were considered for statehood. But the resident US citizen settlers in Hawai’i, who had been uninvited businessmen and missionaries even before the US occupation, desired statehood and lobbied hard for it.
