Between Kalakaua, Gibson, Claus Sprekles and the American haole community, it was Gibson's charm, reckless counsel and antagonism of the business community that set the overthrow in motion.

Kalakaua was thrown into the arms of Gibson and his schemes by growing greed and white supremacist views of haole citizens. If these folks, many of whom had been childhood classmates of Kalakaua, had been loyal to the kingdom, Gibson and his bad advice would have been rejected. 

Many haole were happy to let Gibson drag the kingdom down, and then use the failure to justify seizing power.  This was just like when Mitch Mc Connell admitted the Republicans' top priority was to are Obama fail and be a one term president. They welcomed any problem they could blame on Obama and refused to help.

Regardless of the justification for the overthrow, it is clear that the Republic was a white supremacist oligarchy with fewer rights for ordinary citizens, especialllyAsians. This went on for 60 years.