Hawaii

Polynesians arrived in the Hawaiian Islands in two waves: the first around 600 AD, then the Long Voyages from Tahiti after 1000. Their first known contact with Europeans came in the late 18th Century with the voyages of James Cook (killed in Hawaii) and George Vancouver. In 1795, with the help of European weapons, the legendary King Kamehameha the Great extended his rule from the southern "Big Island" north to Oahu, where he made his new capital in Honolulu. (The kingdom was completed with the annexation of the northern islands Kaua'i and Ni'ihau in 1810.)

19th-century Hawaii was transformed by the growing foreign presence, first whalers and merchants but then permanent settlers, Asian as well as European. A group of Congregationalist missionary families from New England promoted Christianity. But the foreigners also introduced contagious diseases like smallpox and leprosy--this was the time of Father Damien's mission--and the indigenous population, with little hereditary resistance due to their isolation, was halved.

The missionary families increasingly turned to business, making fortunes from planting sugar. The American government was a growing presence, leasing Pearl Harbor for a naval base. The 1875 Reciprocity Treaty led to a boom in sugar production, but the 1890 McKinley Act removed all foreign sugar tariffs, removing Hawaii's advantage and causing an economic and constitutional crisis. In 1893 a group of Westerners overthrew Lili'uokalani the songwriter queen, with the help of American military force.

Hawaii was annexed by the USA in 1898. In the 20th century pineapples and tourism became major elements in the Hawaiian economy. The military presence also grew after the 1941 Pearl Harbor raid brought America into World War II. In 1959 the territory achieved statehood. The indigenous population, which bottomed out around 1900, has since rebounded somewhat, and interest in indigenous music and culture has grown. Today Hawaii has a unique multiracial society that seems to anticipate mainland America's future.

For background reading, you can try Susanna Moore's Paradise of the Pacific: Approaching Hawaii.

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