Some US business leaders wanted Hawaii to be annexed to the United States because it would improve trade with pacific rim countries. Hawaii became a state on August 21, 1959.
Sanford Dole was an <em>avid opponent</em> of the methods of King Kalakaua. Being a lawyer in Hawaii, he was the leader of the reform movement that wanted to overthrow the current head of state. Even though <em>his purpose was to free the people</em> from the treatment of King Kalakaua and his successor Queen Liliuokalani, his intention was based on the fact that we owned big plantations of sugar and becoming part of the United States would mean the exemption from import taxes for the sugar they sent to the U.S. It was president McKinley the one who finally instructed the Congress to create the territory of Hawaii and Dole was appointed governor.
