Hawaii was first inhabited in roughly AD 1000, by Polynesian settlers who came
from islands in the South Pacific, most likely the Marquesas. For nearly 800 years, the people of Hawaii lived
in a complex caste society governed by various warring chiefdoms and an extensive system of religious and social
taboos called the kapu system. British explorer James Cook chanced upon the Hawaiian archipelago in 1778 in what
is commonly assumed to be the first European contact with Hawaiians; however, substantial evidence (Stokes 1932
for example) exists of earlier Spanish visits to Hawaii. With the help of foreign advisors and weapons, a Hawaiian
warrior known as Kamehameha began a gradual ascent to power. Before his death in 1819, Kamehameha had succeeded
in conquering (through military force, or in the case of Kaua'i and Ni'ihau, by other political means) all of the
major Hawaiian islands, a feat never before accomplished in the history of the islands.
The kingdom established by King Kamehameha lasted until 1893, when the last Hawaiian monarch, Queen Lili'uokalani,
was overthrown in a coup led by supporters of the Reform Party of the Hawaiian Kingdom and replaced by a Provisional
Government, and later a Republic. During the kingdom and republic era, Hawaii's economy transitione
d from that of an isolated state into that of a state integrated into the world's
free market, producing and exporting more than two hundred thousand tons of sugar annually. In 1898, Hawaii was
annexed to the United States of America and attained statehood August 21, 1959.
Hawaii is the southernmost state of the United States, and would be the westernmost, if not for Alaska. It is one
of the only two states (Alaska being the other) that are outside the contiguous United States, and do not share
a border with another U.S. state. Hawaii is the only state that (1) is without territory on the mainland of any
continent; (2) is completely surrounded by water; and (3) continues to grow in area because of active extrusive
lava flows, most notably from Kilauea (Kilauea).
Except for Easter Island, Hawaii is farther away from land than any other landmass on Earth. Hawaii's tallest mountain,
Mauna Kea stands over 13,000 feet (4,000 meters) and is taller than Mount Everest if followed to its base at the
floor of the Pacific Ocean.
The 1778 arrival of British explorer Captain James Cook is usually taken to be the "discovery" of the
Hawaiian islands by European explorers. Cook plotted and published the geographical coordinates of the Hawaiian
Islands, so that they could be found again. Cook named his discovery the Sandwich Islands in honor of one of his
sponsors, John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, and reported the native name as Owyhee.
Cook visited the Hawaiian islands twice. The second visit ended badly for him, when he was killed on the sands
of Kealakekua Bay in 1779. He had attempted to abduct a Hawaiian chief and hold him as ransom for return of a ship's
boat that was stolen by a different mischievous minor chief; the chief's supporters fought back.
After Cook's visit and the publication of several books relating his voyages, the Hawaiian islands received many
European visitors: explorers, traders, and eventually whalers who found the islands a convenient harbor and source
of fresh food. Visitors introduced disease to the formerly isolated islands and the Hawaiian population plunged
precipitously. American missionaries arrived in 1820 and eventually converted the chiefs and the remaining population
to Protestant Christianity.
After a series of battles that ended in 1795 and peaceful cession of the island of Kauai in 1810, the Hawaiian
Islands were united for the first time under a single ruler who would become known as King Kamehameha the Great.
He established the House of Kamehameha, a dynasty that ruled over the kingdom until 1872.
The death of the bachelor King Kamehameha V who did not name an heir resulted in the popular election of King Lunalilo
over Kalakaua. After Lunalilo's death, in a hotly contested and allegedly fraudulent election by the legislature
in 1874 between Kalakaua and Emma (which led to riots and the landing of U.S. and British troops to keep the peace),
governance was passed on to the House of Kalakaua.
In 1887, citing maladministration under the influence of Walter Murray Gibson, a group of primarily American and
European businessmen, including kingdom subjects and members of the Hawaiian government forced King Kalakaua to
sign the derisively nicknamed "Bayonet Constitution" which stripped the king of administrative authority,
eliminated voting rights for Asians and set minimum income and property requirements for American, European and
native Hawaiian voters, essentially limiting the electorate to wealthy elite Americans, Europeans and native Hawaiians.
King Kalakaua reigned until his death in 1891. His sister, Liliuokalani, succeeded him to the throne and ruled
until her overthrow in 1893.
The monarchy ended in January 1893, and there was much controversy in the following years as the queen tried to
regain her throne. After an unsuccessful attempt at armed rebellion in 1895, a weapons cache was found on the palace
grounds and Queen Lili'uokalani was placed under arrest, tried by a military tribunal of the Republic of Hawai'i,
convicted of misprision of treason and then imprisoned in her own home. The Queen officially abdicated in 1896.
In 1993, a joint Apology Resolution regarding the overthrow was passed by Congress and signed by President Clinton.
The Republic of Hawaii was the formal name of Hawaii from 1894 to 1898 when it was run as a republic. The republic
period occurred between the administration of the Provisional Government of Hawaii which ended on July 4, 1894
and the adoption of the Newlands Resolution in Congress in which the Republic was annexed to the United States
and became the Territory of Hawai'i on July 7, 1898
[Source: Wikipedia.org and "Hawaiian Monarchs and Their Palaces"
by Richard A. Wisniewski]
