Anthropologists believe that Polynesians from the Marquesas
and Society Islands first populated the Hawaiian Islands in
approximately 300AD, followed by Tahitian settlers in
approximately 1300AD who conquered and eliminated the original
inhabitants of the islands. These Tahitian conquerors
preserved memories of their migrations orally through
genealogies and folk tales, like the stories of Hawaiiloa and
Paao.
Relations with other Polynesian groups were sporadic
during the early migratory periods, and Hawaii grew from
small settlements to a complex society in near isolation.
Voyaging between Hawaii and the South Pacific apparently
ceased with no explanation several centuries before European
arrival.
Vague reports by various European explorers suggest that
Hawaii was visited by foreigners well before the 1778 arrival
of British explorer Captain James Cook. Historians credited
Cook with the discovery after he was the first to plot and
publish the geographical coordinates of the Hawaiian Islands.
Cook named his discovery the Sandwich Islands in honor of one
of his sponsors, John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich.
After a series of battles that ended in 1795 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. One of the most important events during those
years was the suppression of the Hawaii Catholic Church. That
led to the Edict of Toleration that established religious
freedom in the Hawaiian Islands.
After
statehood, Hawaii quickly became a m. In addition to
possessing the southernmost point in the United States, it
is the only state that lies completely in the tropics. As
one of two states outside the contiguous United States (the
other being Alaska), it is the only state without territory
on the mainland of any continent and it is the only state
that continues to grow due to active lava flows, most
notably from Kīlauea. Ethnically, Hawaii is the only state
that has a majority group that is non-white and has the
largest percentage of Asian Americans. For various reasons,
Hawaii is considered the endangered species capital of the
United States.odern state with a
construction boom and rapidly growing economy.
