Alaska and Hawaii became the 49th and 50th states of the USA only after world war two. What was their sovereign status before that? | Notes and Queries (2024)

Alaska and Hawaii became the 49th and 50th states of the USA only after world war two. What was their sovereign status before that?

• ALASKA was a Russian colony from 1744 until the USA bought it in 1867 for $7,200,000. It was made a state in 1959. Hawaii was a kingdom until 1893 and became a republic in 1894. It then ceded itself to the USA in 1898 and became a state in 1959.

  Kyra Ings, Devizes, Wiltshire (dmi@praxis.co.uk)

  See Also

  Can You Drive To Alaska From The US - Everything You Must Know

• IMMEDIATELY before Hawaii achieved statehood in 1959, it was a Territory of the US. However, it had been a sovereign constitutional monarchy until 1893, when the last Queen, Lili'uokalani, was deposed by a group of American sugar planters and missionaries, with the support of the US marines. A few years after her overthrow, the islands were annexed to the US.

  Alex Fenton, Honolulu, Hawaii.

• ALASKA was also a "territory" until May 1959. Statehood requires a minimum population. We moved to Alaska from California in 1954. I recall eating breakfast, listening to the radio, and hearing the Governor announce: "We are now a state". We kept eating breakfast - there were no street parties as for the Queen's Silver Jubilee in Britain in 1977. My parents still reside in Alaska and are respected old timers or "sourdoughs".

  Terry Lambert, Milnthorpe, Cumbria.