Hawaiian History in Brief
The outline every visitor should know before touring a palace, a museum or a place of refuge.
Get Free Hawaii Trip QuotesHawaiian History in Brief
Hawaii’s history is long and, in places, painful. Visitors do not need every date, but a basic outline explains a great deal: why there is a royal palace in Honolulu, why the state flag carries the British Union Jack, why so many families have roots in Asia and Portugal, and why Hawaiian culture today is described as a renaissance. Here is that outline in plain terms.
Voyagers and an island society
The first people to reach Hawaii were Polynesian voyagers who crossed thousands of miles of open ocean in double-hulled canoes, navigating by stars, swells and birds. Over centuries they built a society with chiefs (aliʻi), priests and commoners, a system of sacred laws called kapu, and land divisions called ahupuaʻa that ran from mountain to sea so that each community had uplands, streams and fishing grounds. In 1976 the voyaging canoe Hōkūleʻa sailed from Hawaii to Tahiti without instruments, proving the old navigation methods could do it again.
Contact and a kingdom
British captain James Cook reached Kauaʻi in 1778, and Western ships, traders and diseases followed. Kamehameha I brought the islands under one rule by 1810, founding the Kingdom of Hawaii. After his death the kapu system was abandoned in 1819, and American Protestant missionaries arrived in 1820. The kingdom adopted constitutions, joined the world of treaties and trade, and became highly literate in its own language.
Sugar, Overthrow and Annexation
Through the 1800s sugar plantations grew into the islands’ main business, and planters recruited workers from China, Japan, Portugal, the Philippines, Korea and other places. Their descendants shaped modern local culture, from food to Pidgin. King Kalākaua, the “Merrie Monarch,” revived hula and chant in public life and built ʻIolani Palace in Honolulu.
In January 1893 a group of businessmen, supported by U.S. Marines landed from a warship, overthrew Queen Liliʻuokalani. Hawaii was annexed by the United States in 1898 and became a territory in 1900. The queen’s composition “Aloha ʻOe” remains one of the best-loved Hawaiian songs.
War, Statehood and Renaissance
The attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 brought Hawaii into the Second World War and under martial law. After the war, jet travel and statehood in 1959 turned tourism into the largest industry. Hotels like the colonnaded Moana in Waikīkī, which predates statehood by more than half a century, show how early that story began.
From the 1970s a Hawaiian renaissance revived voyaging, hula, language and land rights. In 1993 Congress passed the Apology Resolution acknowledging the overthrow. Today the history is told at ʻIolani Palace, at the Bishop Museum, at Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park and at Pearl Harbor. Reading this outline before you go will make each of those visits richer. Things to do around Honolulu are covered by Best of Honolulu.
Frequently Asked Questions
When did Hawaii become a state?
Hawaii was admitted as the fiftieth state on August 21, 1959. Statehood Day is marked each year on the third Friday in August.
What was the Apology Resolution?
In 1993, on the hundredth anniversary of the overthrow, the U.S. Congress passed a joint resolution, signed into law, that acknowledged the role of U.S. agents and citizens in the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii and apologized to Native Hawaiians.
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