Hawaii was technically illegally annexed, so I wouldn't actually be that surprised. It was a sovereign country which had electricity and plumbing before even the US whitehouse. It was self sufficient and had a stable government and the indigenous people, the rightful people of that land, controlled it.

Then White plantation owners staged a coup, ousted the queen, and petitioned the US government, through a group of sympathetic senators, to annex Hawaii. It was illegal to do so, however, as a sovereign state, which the US recognized. The federal government refused to bring Hawaii in as a state, as it was not only super unethical, but they were getting a huge deal out of it. The Queen was allowing the US navy to station there, and the US didn't have to pay much of the upkeep for it.

In response, the gov ordered the plantation owners to fuck off, and the Queen was going to return to power. Then the Spanish American war kicked off. The Philippines were still Spanish controlled back then and the West Coast was quite vulnerable if the Spanish decided to attack. So, the US government decided to say "fuck it" and annexed Hawaii as a territory so that the Queen couldn't reconsider the role of Americans in her country given what they had done.

Nowadays, the Islands would starve in a few weeks because the US butchered the land, destroyed their self sufficiency, and shut out most of the indigenous populations from government and representation for decades. Lots of awful shit has been done to the locals, from nearly exterminating their culture, and co-opting what was left, to destroying or building on sacred sites. There's videos of people pissing on their hallowed ground.

So, don't color me surprised to learn any of that was true at some point, or even still true.