The Honolulu Rifles were an armed militia who supported a group called the Hawaiian League—white lawyers and businessmen, many of whom had links to the islands’ sugar and pineapple plantations, according to National Geographic.

With the threat of force and intimidation from the Rifles, King David Kalākaua signed the Kingdom of Hawaii Constitution—also called the “Bayonet Constitution—in 1887. That pact lessened Kalākaua’s ruling powers while increasing those of wealthy landowners.

See our related magazine feature story: Native Hawaiians wage an ongoing battle to organize into a sovereign nation