Hawaii

The earliest settlers were Polynesian voyagers exploring the Pacific in open sailing craft or double hulled canoes.  The Hawaiian Islands were populated around 400 A.D. and existed in isolation until explorer Captain James Cook claimed the Islands for England in 1778.

Hawaii thereafter became a regular stop for trans-Pacific trading voyages.  Captains would resupply vessels, repair equipment and provide crews with the opportunity for rest and recreation.  Hawaiians would trade with the sailors and occasionally welcome them into their families.  During the increasingly frequent visits, technologies were transferred to the Hawaiians in metals, weapons and architecture.  Unfortunately, diseases were also passed which led to the deaths of many Hawaiians because they did not possess the inherent immunities.  Several white settlers later became advisors to the royal families.

Kamehameha the Great was born in the Kohala district on the Island of Hawaii.  He influenced neighbor island chiefs to submit to his uniting leadership as King.  In 1810, Kamehameha rose to power in the same era of western exploration of Hawaii.  A succession of rulers developed monarchies reflecting both Hawaiian and European characteristics.  The Hawaiian flag, Iolani Palace, and royal guard uniforms were representative of western sovereigns.

In 1820, Christian missionaries came to the Islands to evangelize the Hawaiians, altering traditional beliefs and behaviors of the people.  Influential Hawaiian rulers embraced Christianity.  As a result, some traditional native practices were outlawed (kapu) – dance, hula, story-telling and native dress were uniformly prohibited.  Christianity brought good along with detriment to the Hawaiian civilized order.  Some families could not sustain livelihoods as missionaries so they took up more lucrative trades and prospered during the new era of western growth.

The immediate and brutal decline of the Native Hawaiian population was the most obvious result of contact with the West.  Between Cook’s arrival and 1820, disease, famine and war killed more than half of the Native Hawaiian population.  By 1866 only 57,000 Native Hawaiians remained from the basically stable pre-1778 population of 300,000.  The impact was greater than these numbers conveyed; old people were left without the young adults who supported them; children were left without parents or grandparents.  The result was a stressing, even tearing of the Hawaiian social fabric.

France, England, Russian and America all explored and claimed parts of Hawaii.  Each nation established trade agreements and settlements.  Foreign colonialists probed persistently for increased holdings from the Hawaiian kingdom.  American industrialists established themselves with extensive sugar plantations.  Whaling was the principle revenue source between 1855-57 with approximately 400 whaling ships visits annually, but the industry began declining in the 1860’s.  The sugar industry thrived in the new environment.  In 1893, a group of industrialists aided by the United States government seized control of the sovereign Hawaiian kingdom.  Queen Liliuokalani was arrested and deposed.  The “provisional government” promoted annexation of Hawaii which would expand and enrich the sugar industry.  President Grover Cleveland took steps to reinstate the Hawaiian nation, but in the end the United States did nothing to restore the overthrown monarchy.  Sugar cane became an economic boon and the California gold rush provided enormous markets for the crop which grew naturally wild in Hawaii.  The Islands could not provide enough labor for the growing sugar industry.  Foreign labor was imported from China, Japan and the Philippines to support the plantations.  By 1907, the numbers of Japanese laborers grew to 60,000 and by 1920 it comprised 43% of Hawaii’s population.  By 1941 Hawaii had welcomed 100,000 Filipino citizens and other groups to reflect an immigrant population of approximately 400,000.

Continuous replenishment of camp labor created a constant flow of inter-marrying ethnicities that began Hawaii’s demographically diverse population.  Lands were apportioned and exchanged until plantations owned large parcels which caused a shift in the power of the islands.

America entered World War II following the Japanese attack on Hawaii on December 7, 1941.  The islands had become an even larger base for training and staging large Navy and Army combat units.  Hawaii’s strategic Pacific location attracted permanently stationed forces that have remained ever since.  Today, Hawaii continues a tradition of military influence throughout the Pacific, headquartering Pacific Command, Pacific Fleet, Pacific Air Forces, Army Pacific and Marine Forces Pacific.

Hawaii became a territory in 1900 but few could have predicted the events that would shape this distant tropical island paradise into statehood.  Multi-racial workers supported the establishment of the Democratic Party in this developing territory.  The modern labor movement added union power to the Democrats representing people from waterfront, agriculture and manufacturing industries.  Since 1959, Hawaii has thrived as a celebrated tourist paradise and a strategic military center.  Agriculture also has thrived, which has kept our island state green and picturesque.  Our state continues to develop “clean” industries for energy, water and resource conservation.  We support scientific study of space, oceans and volcanoes, as well as ocean navigation and high technology.

Our island home has evolved since the earliest Polynesian explorers found Hawaii to our influential base for strategic military presence, an international gathering place and leisure vacation destination.  A multi-faceted jewel of the Pacific, Hawaii is a living example of progressive arts, science and commerce that flourishes in a multi-ethnic, global community.