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A Brief History of the Hawaiian Islands. 1,500 years ago: Polynesians arrive in Hawaiʻi after navigating the ocean using only the stars to guide them. 1778: Captain James Cook lands at Waimea Bay on the island of Kauaʻi, becoming the first European to make contact with the Hawaiian Islands. Cook names the archipelago the “Sandwich Islands ...
The history of Hawaii is the story of human settlements in the Hawaiian Islands . Polynesians arrived sometime between 940 and 1200 AD. [1] [2] Kamehameha I, the ruler of the island of Hawaii, conquered and unified the islands for the first time, establishing the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1795. [3] The kingdom became prosperous and important for its ...
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The following is a brief history of the islands of Hawaii. Specifically this text is pulled directly from our Hawaii - Mile by Mile Guidebook. We hope it helps provide our guests with a better understanding of the islands and the people that live upon them.With the sighting of great white sails on the horizon, the likes of which the Hawaiians had never seen, the islands were forever changed ...
- Overview
- Early history
- The arrival of Europeans
- Establishment of U.S. dominance
The first inhabitants of Hawaii may have reached the islands as early as 300 ce from the Marquesas Islands. Contact with and settlement by Tahitians began in the 9th century ce. Powerful classes of chiefs and priests arrived and established themselves but became embroiled in conflicts that were similar to the feudal struggles in Europe, with compli...
The first inhabitants of Hawaii may have reached the islands as early as 300 ce from the Marquesas Islands. Contact with and settlement by Tahitians began in the 9th century ce. Powerful classes of chiefs and priests arrived and established themselves but became embroiled in conflicts that were similar to the feudal struggles in Europe, with compli...
Capt. James Cook, the British explorer and navigator, is generally credited with having made the first European discovery of Hawaii; he landed at Waimea, Kauai Island, on January 20, 1778. Upon his return the following year, he was killed during an affray with a number of Hawaiians at Kealakekua Bay.
The initial appearance of Cook was followed by a period of intermittent contact with the West. During this period King Kamehameha I used European military technology and weapons to emerge as an outstanding Hawaiian leader, seizing and consolidating control over most of the island group. For 85 years thereafter monarchs ruled over the Hawaiian kingdom. In the early 19th century the American whaling fleet began wintering in Hawaii, and the islands were visited with mounting frequency by explorers, traders, and adventurers. Capt. George Vancouver introduced livestock to the islands in 1792. In 1820 the first of 15 companies of New England missionaries arrived. By the middle of the century there were frame houses, horse-drawn vehicles, schools, churches, taverns, and mercantile establishments. A written language had been introduced, and European and American skills and religious beliefs—Protestant and Roman Catholic—had been imported. Hawaiian culture was irrevocably changed.
After the arrival of missionaries, a small but powerful “white” minority began to exert greater and greater power over the Hawaiian monarchy. This minority urged upon King Kamehameha III a written constitution in 1840 and, more importantly, the Great Mahele, or division of lands, in 1848, which guaranteed private ownership of property. Kamehameha III sustained insults to his sovereignty from both the French and the British. U.S. interests grew paramount, however, in the succeeding years, culminating in the signing of the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875, essentially a free-trade agreement between the United States and Hawaii in which the former guaranteed a duty-free market for Hawaiian sugar and the latter gave the United States special economic privileges that were denied to other countries. (When the treaty was renewed in 1887, the United States received exclusive rights to enter and establish a naval base at Pearl Harbor.)
King Kalakaua, who would be the last king of Hawaii, had lobbied for the Reciprocity Treaty. He lost the support of the planter class because of his attempts to revive Hawaiian culture and because of his profligate spending. In 1887 a company of “white” troops, the Honolulu Rifles, helped force upon him the Bayonet Constitution, which severely limited his powers and which allowed suffrage for the wealthy residents (who were generally American or European). When his successor, Queen Liliuokalani, seemed as if she would abrogate that constitution, the Committee of Safety, a group of American and European businessmen, some of whom were citizens of the kingdom, seized power in 1893, with the help of a company of U.S. Marines from the USS Boston, at anchor in the harbour. The U.S. government, under Pres. Grover Cleveland, refused to annex the territory, however, noting that the overthrow of the monarchy was an “act of war” accomplished against popular will using U.S. armed force. A short-lived republic (an oligarchy of American and European businessmen) ensued, until the administration of Pres. William McKinley annexed the islands as U.S. territory in 1900.
Dec 16, 2009 · Getty Images / Warren Ishii. Hawaii (Hawaiian: Hawai‘i) is a group of volcanic islands in the central Pacific Ocean. The islands lie 2,397 miles from San Francisco, California, to the east and ...
4 days ago · Hawaii, constituent state of the United States of America. Hawaii (Hawaiian: Hawai‘i) became the 50th U.S. state on August 21, 1959. Hawaii is a group of volcanic islands in the central Pacific Ocean. The islands lie 2,397 miles (3,857 km) from San Francisco, California, to the east and 5,293 miles (8,516 km) from Manila, in the Philippines ...
Nov 6, 2007 · Hawaii - History and Heritage. Smithsonian.com November 6, 2007. The Hawaiian Islands were first settled as early as 400 C.E., when Polynesians from the Marquesas Islands, 2000 miles away ...
