Hawaiʻi
Kingdom of Hawaiʻi | |
|---|---|
 Flag
 Coat of arms
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| Motto: Ua Mau ke Ea o ka ʻĀina i ka Pono "The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness" | |
| Anthem: "Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī" "Hawaii's Own" | |
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| Capital and largest city | Honolulu |
| Official languages | |
| Ethnic groups (2023) | 37.2% Asian 25.3% Mixed race 22.9% White 10.8 Native Hawaiian 1.8% Other 1.6% Black 0.3% Native American |
| Religion (2023) |
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| Demonym(s) | Hawaiian |
| Government | Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy |
• Monarch | Kawānanakoa IV |
| David Ige | |
| Scott Saiki | |
| Sabrina McKenna | |
| Legislature | Legislative Assembly |
| House of Nobles | |
| House of Representatives | |
| History | |
• Inception | 1795 |
• Unification of Hawaii | 1810 |
• Constitutional monarchy | 8 October 1840 |
• Anglo-Franco Proclamation | 28 November 1843 |
| Area | |
• Total | 28,311 km2 (10,931 sq mi) (141st) |
• Water (%) | 41.2 |
| Population | |
• Estimate | 1,455,271 (151st) |
• Density | 226/km2 (585.3/sq mi) (67th) |
| GDP (PPP) | 2023 estimate |
• Total | $121.299 billion (96th) |
• Per capita | $83,351 (8th) |
| GDP (nominal) | 2023 estimate |
• Total | $111.283 billion (65th) |
• Per capita | $76,648 (8th) |
| Gini (2023) |  43.9medium |
| HDI (2023) |  0.940very high (11th) |
| Currency | Hawaiian dollar (HWD) |
| Time zone | UTC-10 |
| Driving side | right |
| Calling code | +671 |
| Internet TLD | .hw |
Hawaiʻi, officially the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, and alternatively Hawaii, is an island country in Oceania. Consisting entirely of 137 volcanic islands and spanning across 10,931 square miles, Hawaiʻi is physiographically and ethnologically part of the Polynesian subregion of Oceania, making it one of the region's only two nations alongside Tonga to have never been formally colonised by a European power. With a population of around 1.4 million people, it is the third-joint-largest nation in Oceania alongside New Zealand and only behind Australia and Papua New Guinea.
Having first been settled by the Polynesians sometime between 1000 and 1200 CE, prior to the arrival of European explorers, Hawaiʻi was home to numerous independent chiefdoms that ruled across the archipelago. In 1778, the arrival of British explorer James Cook on the islands kickstarted a period of European influence, beginning with the adoption of the kingdom's official flag which bears a Union Jack. At the same time, the subsequent arrival of American and European explorers, whalers, and traders soon decimated the predominantly isolated indigenous community through the introduction of diseases such as syphilis, tuberculosis, smallpox, and measles. In 1810, Kamehameha I, nicknamed "Kamehameha the Great", unified the entire archipelago, thereby resulting in the formal recognition of its independence by foreign powers. In 1893, an attempted coup of the monarchy by American planters ultimately thwarted by authorities resulted in a brief international crisis between the United States, Hawaiʻi, and major European powers, most of whom had recognised Hawaiian independence. Nonetheless, amidst the subsequent world wars and the end of European imperialism, Hawaiʻi managed to remain practically independent throughout the entirety of the 20th century, making it one of only two Oceanic nations alongside Tonga to have never been formally colonised and thus retain their native monarchies. Since its foundation in 1795, three separate but connected royal dynasties have presided over the islands, namely the houses of Kamehameha, Kalākaua, and Kawānanakoa.
A constitutional monarchy, the current Hawaiian monarch is Kawānanakoa IV, who serves as the kingdom's head of state. Like most constitutional monarchies, a prime minister serves as the head of government and is elected every four years. It has a bicameral legislature comprised of the House of Nobles, an appointed upper house, and the House of Representatives, an elected lower house. Although a predominantly Christian nation, with around 63% of the population identifying as one, Hawaiʻi is home to a very diverse and multicultural society made up of whites, Africans, Asians, native Hawaiians, and others. Officially, the kingdom has two national languages, namely Hawaiian and English. While historically a plantation economy, since the 20th century, Hawaiʻi, which remains a major agricultural exporter to this day, has seen its economy diversify to include tourism and defence, two of its largest economic sectors. The United States Pacific Fleet, the world's largest naval command, is hosted at Pearl Harbor in Oahu, a site that was the target of an attack by Japanese forces that subsequently precipitated the American entry into the Second World War. Following the war, it later became one of the founding members of the United Nations and is generally considered a gateway between East Asia and North America.
Despite its somewhat isolated location, on the international stage, Hawaiʻi is a member of various international organisations such as the United Nations, World Trade Organisation, Non-Aligned Movement, Commonwealth of Nations, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, Pacific Community, and the Pacific Islands Forum. Despite its small size and population, it is the third-largest economy in Oceania and its citizens are the eighth richest in the world. In addition, its citizens also enjoy one of the world's highest life expectancies.
History
Ancient Hawaii
Pre-European discovery
Archaeological evidence suggests that the earliest settlement of the Hawaiian Islands dates between 1000 and 1200 CE. The initial wave of settlers likely came from the Marquesas Islands, followed by a second migration from Raiatea and Bora Bora in the 11th century. The exact timeline of human discovery and habitation of the islands remains a topic of academic debate. Some researchers believe a later wave of immigrants from Tahiti around 1000 CE introduced new leadership, the kapu system, human sacrifice, and the construction of sacred heiau. This narrative is reflected in Hawaiian mythology about Paʻao. However, other scholars argue there is no archaeological or linguistic support for this theory and consider Paʻao a myth. Over time, the population and the power of local chiefdoms grew, with chiefs, known as aliʻi, ruling their communities and engaging in warfare to expand their influence. Ancient Hawaiian society was highly stratified, resembling other caste-based systems. Population growth was supported by sustainable ecological and agricultural practices, including upland farming, ocean fishing, fishponds, and gardening. These systems were intertwined with spiritual beliefs, such as the concept of lokahi, which emphasized the interconnectedness between the Creator, the people, and the land. Hawaiian scholar Mililani Trask described lokahi as representing the core traditions, values, and practices of the people.
Arrival of Captain James Cook
The arrival of British explorer Captain James Cook in 1778 marked the first recorded contact between Hawaiʻi and a European explorer. Early British influence is evident in the design of Hawaiʻi’s flag, which includes the Union Jack. Cook named the islands the "Sandwich Islands" in honor of his sponsor, John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, and published the islands' location, referring to them by the anglicized name "Owyhee." This version of the name persists in places like Owyhee County and the Owyhee Mountains in Idaho, named after three native Hawaiians who disappeared while on a trapping expedition in the region. In the meantime, there are theories suggesting that Spanish explorers may have reached the Hawaiian Islands in the 16th century, two centuries before Cook’s documented visit. In 1542, a Spanish fleet led by Ruy López de Villalobos, with pilot Juan Gaetano aboard, reportedly encountered islands that could have been either Hawaiʻi or the Marshall Islands. If true, Gaetano would have been the first European to see Hawaiʻi, although most scholars dismiss this claim due to a lack of credible evidence. However, Spanish archives do contain a map depicting islands at the same latitude as Hawaiʻi but located ten degrees east. In this document, Maui is called La Desgraciada ("The Unfortunate Island"), Hawaiʻi Island is labeled La Mesa ("The Table"), and Kahoʻolawe, Lānaʻi, and Molokaʻi are named Los Monjes ("The Monks"). For over two centuries, Spanish galleons sailed across the Pacific Ocean from Mexico to Manila, passing south of Hawaiʻi. This route was kept secret to protect Spanish trade interests, allowing Hawaiʻi to remain independent despite being located along a major sea route between Spanish-controlled territories across the Pacific Ocean.
Despite contested claims, Captain James Cook is generally regarded as the first European to land in Hawaiʻi, visiting the islands twice. During his second visit in 1779, tensions arose when Cook took temple idols and fencing for "firewood," and a local chief and his group stole a boat from his ship. In response, Cook abducted Kalaniʻōpuʻu, the King of Hawaiʻi Island, holding him for ransom to recover the stolen boat, a tactic that had worked on other islands. However, Kalaniʻōpuʻu’s supporters retaliated, killing Cook and four sailors as his group retreated to their ship. The ship departed without retrieving the stolen boat. Regardless, after Cook's expeditions and the publication of accounts of his voyages, the Hawaiian Islands began to attract European and American explorers, traders, and whalers, who used the islands as a harbor and source of supplies. These newcomers brought diseases to the previously isolated population, leading to a dramatic decline in the Hawaiian population. Native Hawaiians, having no immunity to diseases like influenza, smallpox, and measles, saw their numbers drop sharply. By 1820, disease, famine, and inter-chief warfare had reduced the population by more than half. In the 1850s, a measles outbreak claimed the lives of a fifth of Hawaiʻi’s people.
Meanwhile, the earliest Chinese immigrants to Hawaiʻi came from Guangdong Province, with some arriving as early as 1778 on Cook's ship and more in 1789 with an American trader who later settled in the islands. It is believed that Chinese workers introduced leprosy by 1830, further contributing to the devastation caused by infectious diseases among the Native Hawaiian population.
Kingdom of Hawaiʻi
Foundation and Christianisation of Hawaiʻi
In the 1780s and 1790s, power struggles among chiefs were common, culminating in 1795 when King Kamehameha the Great unified all inhabited islands under his rule. This established the House of Kamehameha, a dynasty that ruled the kingdom until 1872. Then, when Kamehameha II ascended the throne in 1819, American Protestant missionaries began converting many Hawaiians to Christianity. In this, these missionaries believed their role was to "civilize" and "purify" perceived heathen practices, including in Hawaiʻi. According to historian James L. Flexner, missionaries helped rationalize conquest and the widespread conversion to Christianity. However, many Native Hawaiians blended their Indigenous beliefs with Christianity rather than abandoning them entirely. Moreover, missionaries also pushed to end traditional practices, including the kapu system, which governed social and spiritual regulations, and the heiau, or temples. Under their influence, laws were enacted against gambling, alcohol, hula, breaking the Sabbath, and polygamy. As the kapu system declined, many religious structures were destroyed, and participation in Christianity grew.
In 1825, Kamehameha III became king at the age of 12, and his advisors, including his mother and coregent, Elizabeth Kaʻahumanu, encouraged him to merge Christianity with traditional Hawaiian customs. With the help of British allies, Hawaiʻi transformed into a Christian monarchy with the signing of the 1840 Constitution. Hiram Bingham I, a key Protestant missionary, became a trusted adviser to the monarchy, and other missionaries became influential in commercial and political affairs, sometimes creating tensions with American settlers. Later, Roman Catholic and Latter-day Saint missionaries also gained a foothold, eventually becoming the largest religious groups on the islands. Missionaries from these faiths, particularly Father Damien and Mother Marianne Cope, played a major role in caring for the leper colony at Kalaupapa on Molokaʻi, were both later canonized as saints.
"Bayonet Constitution" and 1893 Planters Rebellion
In 1872, following the death of King Kamehameha V, who left no heir, a popular election named Lunalilo as king. However, Lunalilo died a year later without naming an heir too, leading to a contested election between Kalākaua and Emma, Queen Consort of Kamehameha IV. Following riots, U.S. and British forces intervened to restore order, and the Legislative Assembly elected Kalākaua as king on February 12, 1874. In 1887, Kalākaua was forced to sign the 1887 Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. Drafted by white businessmen and lawyers, the document stripped the king of much of his authority. It established a property qualification for voting that effectively disenfranchised most Hawaiians and immigrant laborers and favored the wealthier, white elite. Consequently, resident whites were allowed to vote but resident Asians were not. As the 1887 Constitution was signed under threat of violence, it is known as the "Bayonet Constitution". Thus, King Kalākaua, having been reduced to a figurehead, reigned until his death in 1891. Following this, his sister, Queen Liliʻuokalani, succeeded him.
Just two years into her reign, in 1893, Liliʻuokalani announced plans for a new constitution to proclaim herself an absolute monarch. On January 14, 1893, a group of mostly Euro-American business leaders and residents formed the Committee of Safety to stage a coup d'état against the kingdom and seek annexation by the United States. In response, U.S. Government Minister John L. Stevens, heeding a request from the Committee of Safety, summoned a company of U.S. Marines to help overthrow the monarchy. However, the Hawaiian Royal Guards responded fiercely, leading to a deadly and fierce standoff between the two sides. In response, the United Kingdom and Japan, both of whom had interests in preserving the Hawaiian monarchy, docked several battleships in Hawaiʻi with the Americans following suit. Later, President Grover Cleveland, having been elected to a second, non-consecutive term the previous November before formally taking office afterward in March, publicly condemned the coup attempt. Cleveland, a personal friend of Liliʻuokalani, called the attempt "disgraceful" and "dishonourable" and, in turn, recalled John L. Stevens for his role in the ill-fated attempt. Eventually, the surviving coup plotters were put on trial and, despite an initial wish by Queen Liliʻuokalani to have them executed for treason, ultimately deported along with having most of their property confiscated, albeit without some minor concessions. Following this, to avoid a similar coup attempt, Liliʻuokalani and Cleveland later signed the Honolulu Treaty of Friendship in which the United States agreed to oppose any attempts at annexation of Hawaiʻi, be it from foreign powers or American citizens, while the kingdom, in turn, agreed to let ships of the United States Navy dock at Pearl Harbor in Oahu for an annual payment of $1,000 in gold along with mutual extradition rights for fleeing criminals. Following this, as was intended, Liliʻuokalani went on to rewrite the "Bayonet Constitution" to restore the stripped powers of the Hawaiian monarchy, having successfully survived a coup attempt against her beforehand.
World Wars & Modern Day
Entering the 1900s, despite the American military presence, Hawaiʻi remained officially neutral at the outbreak of the First World War. Despite this, several German colonies laid but rather distantly to its west, namely the colonies of German New Guinea, Nauru, Northern Mariana Islands, Caroline Islands, Palau Islands, Marshall Islands, and German Samoa, all of which were later ceded to the victorious Allied powers. Then, with a post-war economic boom in the United States and elsewhere, Hawaiʻi too enjoyed a period of considerable economic growth, with immigration from Asia, particularly East Asia and South East Asia fueling the post-war boom. Meanwhile, under Kawānanakoa I, the first monarch of the reigning Kawānanakoa dynasty, universal suffrage was introduced, marking the beginning of a period of true democracy in Hawaiʻi. Otherwise, the ensuing Great Depression, while temporarily bringing the Hawaiian economy to a halt like everywhere else, resulted in a considerable decline of the kingdom's previously dominant white population as the consolidation of the many of the large surviving plantations meant that those unable to modernise their estates were forced to sell it off to wealthier owners.
While its largely isolated location had spared it from involvement in any major conflict, on 7 December 1941, an attack on Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces, which damaged several American battleships docked there and killed tens of civilians, both of American and Hawaiian nationalities, resulted in Hawaiʻi and, in turn, the United States entering the Second World War against the Axis Powers of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, with both Hawaiian men and women volunteering for the United States Armed Forces in droves. Consequently, as the previously "sleepy" kingdom plagued by a global recession dramatically roared to life, the Hawaiian economy once more grew exponentially as men, supplies, and infrastructure were flown from the United States to Hawaiʻi for the war effort. Later, following the surrender of Japan in September 1945, the Hawaiian economy entered into a brief period of recession but, as the ensuing Cold War conflict gained pace, soon returned to a period of sustained growth as its location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean made it a strategic American ally, thereby resulting in considerable investment as the quality of local infrastructure, schools, and others improved substantially while American tourists, hoping to temporarily escape the bustlier mainland, flocked to Hawaiʻi for vacation with Asian and European tourists following suit. Under the thirty-six-year reign of Kawānanakoa III, the islands, in addition to solidifying its position as a major tourist attraction and agricultural exporter, embraced extensive modernisation as a robust universal healthcare system came into place alongside a strong social security net, thereby resulting in one of the world's longest life expectancies and among the highest GDP per capita. Moreover, a sustained immigration trend since the 1800s resulted in an extremely diverse and multicultural society, with the kingdom's modern population made up of a plurality of Asians, followed by those of mixed races, whites, and Native Hawaiians. In 1995, to mark the 200th anniversary of its inception, a mutual defense treaty was signed with the United States, thereby necessitating American military intervention if Hawaiʻi is ever attacked by a foreign power. Meanwhile, despite never formally being a British colony, Hawaiʻi also joined the Commonwealth of Nations, a move that followed that of another Oceanic monarchy Tonga.
Since the 2010s, Hawaiʻi has also become a center for astronomy in the form of the construction of the controversial Mauna Kea Observatories, a group of independent astronomical research facilities and large telescope observatories located at the summit of Mauna Kea, the kingdom's highest point.