system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How did Hawaii come to be part of the USA? Why did this happen in the first place?

I went on a holiday to Hawaii when I was young (about 10?) and it seemed like essentially it's own nation, with it's own distinct native culture and people which have been around for thousands of years.

I had never questioned it, even when I was there, but today I realised I had no idea why Hawaii is a US state in the first place. How did it become one? What were the motivations of the USA in merging it with their nation (I'm guessing it's a strategically advantageous position for trade and military, i.e. Pearl Harbour)? How did Hawaiians feel about becoming a state?

Australian here, by the way.
gpt
Hawaii was independent and had a native monarchy.  In the latter part of the 1800s American business interests, especially sugar plantations became increasingly powerful in Hawaii, eventually becoming the dominant power.  In 1887 these interests overthrew the Hawaii monarchy in order to attempt to gain annexation to the U.S.  This worked and Hawaii became a U.S. territory.  In became a state in 1959.

Basically the same story as Anglo-American colonization elsewhere.  We came in and took the land from the natives and set up shop.