Hawai'i

Hawai'i, the 50th state in the United States, is located in the northeastern part of the Pacific Ocean and comprises eight islands: Hawai'i (Big Island), Maui, Lanai, Molokai, O'ahu, Kaua'i, Ni'ihau, and Kanaloa (Kaho'olawe), in addition to several atolls to the west. Hawai'i is significant because it occupies a strategic position situated between North America and Asia. Hawai'i is where East meets West.

Ancient Polynesians in outriggers embarked across the Pacific Ocean. Each wave of migration brought people to New Zealand, Tahiti, Rapa Nui, Hawai'i, and other islands of Oceania. Travel between the islands continued until it dwindled, and each island developed a separate culture.

The Kumulipo, the indigenous Hawaiian creation chant, tells the story of how each of the islands was created by the mating of Wakea (skygod) and Papa (earth mother). One or two highranking ali‘i (chiefs) ruled each island independently. Ancient Hawaiian society was a complex hierarchical structure bound by a series of kapu (rules) that governed their religion, politics, and social interactions. In 1778, Kamehameha I, a high-ranking ali‘i, finished uniting the islands under his rule, with the exception of Kaua'i, and established the kingdom of Hawai'i. He completed [Page 504]his conquest with cannons and weapons traded from European ships that made Hawai'i their port of call after Captain Cook's landing.

In one generation, the kingdom of Hawai'i underwent a massive societal and cultural shift. Indigenous Hawaiian society went from an agricultural, subsistence lifestyle to a global, capitalist society with Western politics, religion, and laws. The primary basis of this shift was disease. Diseases killed off 90% of the indigenous Hawaiian population while simultaneously lowering the birthrate of indigenous Hawaiian children.

A coalition of American businessmen, several of whom were descendants of the Protestant Congregationalist missionaries who arrived in 1820, supported by John L. Stevens, U.S. Minister to Hawai'i, and the U.S. Marines, overthrew Queen Lili'uokalani in 1893. The Republic of Hawai'i was established, and its government was annexed to the United States. In 1900, the U.S. Congress passed the Hawaiian Organic Act, establishing the Republic of Hawai'i as a territory of the United States. In 1959, Hawai'i became the 50th state.

The multiracial character of the Hawaiian population is a by-product of the need for cheap labor in the sugar plantations. Thus, the plantation owners imported a series of immigrant workers, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Filipino laborers, to work in competition with each other and indigenous Hawaiians. While some of these laborers returned to their country of origin and others immigrated to California, many stayed back in Hawai'i.

Prior to 1819, the traditional kapu restrictions prohibited men and women from eating together and regulated the consumption of certain foods. Queen Ka'ahumanu, Kamehameha I's widow, and his successor, King Liholiho, abolished the kapu system at a symbolic meal in which men and women of the royal court ate together. After this, the ancient indigenous religion ceased to be the primary religion practiced in Hawai'i. Shortly afterward, other missionaries arrived, and Protestant Christianity became the dominant religion of the islands.