How did a group of american business leaders, planters, and traders known as the hawaiian league go outside the law to gain control over hawaii? assassinated king kalakaua forced king kalakaua to sign a new constitution at gunpoint kidnapped king kalakaua’s wife and children and later released his family when the king agreed to step down from power plotted a hawaiian military coup against king kalakaua

The Hawaiian League went outside the law to gain control over Hawaii by forcing King Kalakaua to sign a new constitution at gunpoint.

By 1887, the Missionary Party of Hawaii was very frustrated with Kalakaua. They blamed him for the growing debt of the kingdom, accusing him of being wasteful. Some foreigners wanted to force King Kalakaua to abdicate and place his sister, Lili'uokalani on the throne, while others wanted to end the monarchy completely and annex the islands to the United States. Those in favor of annexation formed a group called the Hawaiian League. In 1887, members of the League, armed, met. The king, frightened by this show of force, offered to transfer his powers to foreign ministers representing the United States, the United Kingdom or Portugal. On the contrary, the members of the league asked him to sign a new constitution.

This Constitution, known by the nickname of the Bayonet Constitution of 1887, deprived the king of much of his executive power, depriving most Native Hawaiians of their right to vote. The legislative assembly could now annul the right of veto exercised by the monarch, who could no longer take action without the approval of the council of ministers. It also incorporated a provision that allowed non-Hawaiians to vote.