Hawaiian History

A Brief History
The first inhabitants to set foot here sometime around 500 AD were Polynesians from the Marquesas Islands looking for new land and new beginnings. 500 years later the Tahitians also discovered these beautiful islands, and through the entire 13th century thousands of immigrants from Tahiti made the long, perilous journey across the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii. The Polynesian navigators sailed small, double-hulled canoes built with simple stone, bone and coral tools, seaworthy enough to embark on voyages of over 2,000 miles. Navigating without instruments, these ancient seafarers depended only on their observations of the ocean, the sky and traditional knowledge of natural phenomena to explore, and eventually settle all of the Pacific islands in an ocean area of 10 million square miles.

The British are coming The British are coming

In 1778, the famed British explorer Captain James Cook arrived in this paradise, and he named this yet uncharted archipelago the Sandwich Islands, in honor of the Earl of Sandwich. Captain Cook was first revered as a God (of sorts) by the natives, but later when he returned and overstayed his welcome, was stabbed to death on the Big Island. Shortly thereafter, the reign of 'King Kamehameha the Great' began. He established a monarchy, united the islands into one great kingdom [because he alone had access to British guns] and began trading with western ships. Soon the potential bounty of Hawaii spread far and wide.

Whaling
By the early 1800's whaling ships were anchored in Hawaiian ports as the islands were now ground-zero for the Pacific Ocean whaling industry. Hundreds of ships and thousands of crew brought new money, lax social values and disease. Christian missionaries would later introduce religion and much-stricter social morals in an attempt to curtail the somewhat pagan lifestyle then common throughout the islands - and for the most part - they succeeded.

Hawaii - an independent country
The eight stripes on the Hawaiian flag represent the eight islands that were now under one sovereign. The Union Jack represented the friendly relationship between England and Hawai'i. It was England and France that formally recognized the Hawaiian Kingdom as an Independent State and admitted her into the Family of Nations on November 28, 1843.

The Plantations
In the mid-1800s, Hawaii's sugar industry was established, and because many original natives were now dead, and others refused to work in manual-labor, plantation owners brought in foreign workers from China, Japan, Portugal, and the Philippines. The sugar ships crowded Honolulu harbor in the mid to late 1800's.

The wildly successful plantation owners desired sanctuary from outsiders, so they petitioned the U. S. for protection. After years of negotiation with the United States a treaty was signed, American dollars flooded into the islands and Hawaii found the golden-ring of prosperity. In 1893, foreign commercial interests were the primary catalyst for ending the Hawaiian monarchy. Much to the dismay of Queen Liliuokalani and others, the last Hawaiian queen was deposed by force [American Navy] and one year later the Republic of Hawaii was established. In 1900 Hawaii became a territory of the United States. To protect its commercial interests the U.S. Navy established its Pacific Ocean headquarters at Pearl Harbor. This ingredient of stability helped the islands prosper; the pineapple industry flourished, and cattle ranching and tourism grew into important economic factors.

"A Date that will live in Infamy"

On December 7, 1941, Japan attacks Pearl Harbor bringing the US into WWII. ...yada yada yada ... On August 21, 1959, Hawaii was accepted as the 50th state; statehood brought development and subsequently transformed Hawaii into a major tourist destination and a powerful economic force in the Pacific Ocean.

Sovereignty
The return of Hawaiian sovereignty is once again on the political front-burners of many sons and daughters of native Hawaiians. In short, they want all of their islands back, [ Yea, that'll happen] and some even want the traditional monarchy re-established.

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