the americans made hawaii into a republic for a short time. the new leader, sanford dole was called the president of hawaii. in 1898, the united states of america took over the government and made hawaii into a territory. in 1959, hawaii became the fiftieth american state. it other words, it was taken ("annexed") against the wishes of its native people. their queen, lili’uokalani, wrote that “it had not entered into our hearts to believe that these friends and allies from the united states… would ever go so far as to absolutely overthrow our form of government, seize our nation by the throat, and pass it over to an alien power”.