Challenge: Republic of Hawaii

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to have a state known as the Republic of Hawaii exist no later than 1850 with a POD no earlier than 1700. Can you do it?
 
Liberal revolutionaries fleeing oppressive European governments, in a fit of idealism, decide to bring democracy to the tropical paradise of Hawaii.

This isn't actually very difficult; the Hawaiian native population was exceedingly literate (something like ~75%, IIRC) in the 1800s thanks to extensive missionary work and such. Making such people turn Republican isn't out of the realm of possibility.
 
King of Hawaii dies without an heir (or with a young heir), after appointing many liberal Europeans/people of European descent (not sure how many of these there were in 1850) to his Regency council. Rather than going to all the trouble of finding a new king, they just switch their name from Regency Council to Parliament and start setting up elections.

Not sure how popular that would be with the people -- maybe you need an especially bad king, who leads to a civil war.
 

ninebucks

Banned
Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to have a state known as the Republic of Hawaii exist no later than 1850 with a POD no earlier than 1700. Can you do it?

Do you want the state to survive? Because having Hawai'i republicanise just before its annexed by the USA is easy enough, but having it republicanise while remaining a sovereign state isn't so easy...
 
Do you want the state to survive? Because having Hawai'i republicanise just before its annexed by the USA is easy enough, but having it republicanise while remaining a sovereign state isn't so easy...

Yes, I'd like it so survive. I know it wouldn't be easy, hence the word Challenge in the title.
 
but having it republicanise while remaining a sovereign state isn't so easy...

There are a lot of republican sovereign states in the world. There were thirteen republican sovereign states that united to form the United States.

I think it would be important to look at an earlier discovery of the Hawaiian Islands first so the POD after 1700 would most likely involve the Spanish. The islands lay very close to the trans-Pacific route of the Manila Treasure galleon routes. The Spanish come across the islands and it become a welcomed rest spot for the galleons. Later George Anson lead a small British force into the Pacific and seizes the islands for Britain. This would be about 1747/50 I think and it would gain us a few more years tinker with Hawaiian government.
 
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Yet no nation in the New World republicanised by Americans managed to remain sovereign (IIRC).

One might make the case for Cuba, even if it did later fall into revolution.

The Philippines, while not in the New World was republicanized by Americans and remains sovereign today.
 

ninebucks

Banned
One might make the case for Cuba, even if it did later fall into revolution.

The Philippines, while not in the New World was republicanized by Americans and remains sovereign today.

The Philippines are sovereign today, but they didn't remain sovereign (through their history).
 
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