The Paulet affair also known as British Hawaii was the unofficial five-month occupation of the Hawaiian Islands in 1843 by British naval officer Captain Lord George Paulet, of HMS Carysfort. It was ended by the arrival of American warships sent to defend Hawaii's independence. The British government in London had not authorized the move and it had no official status.

Admiral Lord George Paulet CB (12 August 1803 – 22 November 1879) was an officer of the Royal Navy.

He entered the navy shortly after the end of the Napoleonic Wars and after some years obtained his own command. He served off the Iberian Peninsula during the Portuguese Liberal Wars and the Spanish First Carlist War, protecting British interests and property. While serving on the Pacific Station he obtained a brief measure of infamy when he occupied the Hawaiian Islands for five months in 1843, in an incident known as the Paulet affair. The occupation was later reversed by his commanding officer. Paulet went on to serve during the Crimean War, commanding a ship during the heavy fighting around the siege of Sevastopol in 1854. He received a number of awards after the war, and was promoted through the ranks, until his death in 1879 at the rank of full admiral.