I.

Introduction

Hawaii (state), Pacific state of the United States. It consists mainly of the Hawaiian Islands, an archipelago near the geographical centre of the North Pacific Ocean, and other islets unrelated geographically to the archipelago; in all, eight main islands and 124 islets, reefs, and shoals. The major islands, in order of size, are Hawaii, Maui, Oahu, Kauai, Molokai, Lanai, Niihau, and Kahoolawe.

Hawaii entered the Union on August 21, 1959, as the 50th state. The state’s economy was long dominated by plantation agriculture and military spending. As agriculture has declined in importance, the economy has diversified to encompass a large tourist business and a growing manufacturing industry. The name of the state is taken from the island of Hawaii and is a Polynesian word or name of unknown meaning. In the 19th century the name was extended to the entire archipelago. Hawaii is known as the “Aloha State”.

II.

Land and Resources

Hawaii has an area of 16,179 sq km (6,459 sq mi). The islands of the state extend in a 2,600-km (1,600-mi) arc from east to west. Elevations range from sea level to 4,205 m (13,796 ft) at the peak of Mauna Kea, on Hawaii Island. The state’s coastline is about 1,200 km (750 mi) long.

A.

Physical Geography

The eight main Hawaiian islands comprise the tops of one or more shield volcanoes (those that form from quiet lava flows rather than explosions) that rise from the floor of the Pacific Ocean. The largest island, Hawaii, is formed from five volcanoes: Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa, Hualalai, Kohala, and Kilauea. Both Mauna Loa and Kilauea are active. Maui is made up of two shield volcanoes and a central plain, the isthmus. Oahu has two heavily eroded shield volcanoes, which form the Koolau and Wainanae mountain ranges. Honolulu lies on a coral plain at the south-eastern end of the island. Kauai consists of a single eroded volcanic shield. Molokai comprises a plateau in the west and rugged mountains in the east. Lanai is a single shield volcano with a central plateau on which is located the world’s largest pineapple plantation. Niihau consists of a plateau that rises above coastal plains. Privately owned, it has a population that is almost completely ethnic Hawaiian. Smallest of the eight main islands is the barren and unpopulated Kahoolawe. Previously used as a military target range, Kahoolawe was turned over to the state of Hawaii in 1994. The small western islands are either coral atolls or lava formations. In June 2006 an area of around 362,000 sq km (140,000 sq mi) of reefs and atolls in north-western Hawaii was designated a marine national monument by US president George W. Bush, thereby becoming the largest protected marine area in the world. The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands support more than 7,000 species of birds, fish, and mammals, including the only remaining population of the Hawaiian monk seal.

The longest river in the state of Hawaii is Kaukonahua Stream on the island of Oahu, and the largest natural lake in the state is Halulu Lake on Niihau.

B.

Climate

Hawaii has a tropical climate moderated by oceanic influences and prevailing north-easterly trade winds. The average annual temperature of about 23.9° C (75° F) varies little between summer and winter months. The recorded temperature in the state has ranged from -11.1° C (12° F) at Mauna Kea in 1979 to 37.8° C (100° F) at Pahala in 1931.

C.

Plants and Animals

More than 2,500 species of native plants and a large number of introduced plants are found on the islands. The only native mammals are the hoary bat, the monk seal, and the Polynesian rat. The latter was introduced by early Polynesian settlers but has evolved into a distinct subspecies. A variety of native birds are found, but many species, such as the Hawaiian goose (nene), are endangered. Many species of birds and domesticated mammals have been introduced to the islands since the early 19th century.

D.

Resources, Products, and Industries

Stone is Hawaii’s principal mineral resource, although cement, sand, gravel, and pumice are also produced. Farming and fishing are minor industries. Principal manufacturing industries are food processing (especially the production of raw sugar and canned fruits and juices), printing and publishing, and the manufacturing of clothing and textile products.

III.

Population

The population of Hawaii is 1,285,498 (2006 estimate). In 1990 Hawaii had the most racially and ethnically diverse population of any state in the United States. Whites made up 33.4 per cent of the population, the lowest proportion of any state; blacks made up 2.5 per cent of the total. Among the many other population groups were 247,486 people of Japanese descent (22.3 per cent of the total); 168,682 people of Filipino origin (15.2 per cent); 138,742 people of Hawaiian ancestry (12.5 per cent); 68,804 people of Chinese extraction (6.2 per cent); 24,454 people of Korean descent (2.2 per cent); and 15,034 people of Samoan extraction (1.4 per cent). Many people in the state are mixtures of several racial and ethnic backgrounds.

Hawaii is one of the most urban US states, with nearly 90 per cent of the population living in the capital Honolulu, Hilo, or smaller urban communities. Its major cities are Honolulu (377,379 (2005 estimate)), Hilo (40,759 (2000)), Kailna, Kaneshe, and Waipaku.

A.

Education

In the late 1990s Hawaii spent about US$6,530 annually on each student's education, compared to a national average of about US$6,835. At the start of the 21st century Hawaii had 21 institutions of higher education. Among the most notable were the University of Hawaii (1907), with its main campuses at Honolulu and Hilo; Hawaii Pacific University (1965), in Honolulu; Hawaii Loa College (1963), in Kaneohe; Chaminade University of Honolulu (1955), in Honolulu; and Brigham Young University Hawaii Campus (1955), in Laie on Oahu.

B.

Places of Interest

Popular attractions include the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, on Hawaii, and Haleakala National Park, on Maui. There are many historical sites commemorating Hawaiian monarchs and the islands’ early Polynesian heritage. The Pu’uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park, in Honaunau, was originally a sanctuary built about 1500; ‘Iolani Palace, in Honolulu, built between 1879 and 1882, was the royal residence of the last two rulers of the Hawaiian Kingdom; King Kamehameha’s statue, in Kapaau, was commissioned by the legislature in 1878; and the village of Ulu Mau, in Kaneohe, is a replica of an early Hawaiian village. Also of note is the USS Arizona Memorial, in Honolulu’s Pearl Harbor.

Hawaii’s museums contain some of the finest collections of Polynesian ethnology and natural history in the world. Among the most noteworthy are the following: the Bishop Museum, the oldest museum in Hawaii, which opened in Honolulu in 1889 in honour of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop; Hanalei Museum, in Hanalei, Kauai; and the Kauai Museum, in Lihue.

C.

Government and Politics

Hawaii is governed under a constitution adopted in 1950 and put into effect in 1959.

The chief executive is a governor, who is popularly elected to a four-year term. A governor may serve no more than two consecutive terms. The same stipulations apply to the lieutenant-governor, who succeeds the governor should the latter resign, die, or be removed from office. Other elected administrative officials include a 13-member board of education.

Legislative authority is vested in a bicameral legislature comprising a Senate and a House of Representatives. The 25 members of the Senate are elected to four-year terms; the 51 members of the House are elected to two-year terms.

At a national level, Hawaii elects two senators and two representatives to the US Congress. The state has four electoral votes in presidential elections (see Electoral College). Republican candidates usually dominated elections until the late 1950s. Since then, Hawaii has generally voted Democrat in presidential elections, and Democrats have held most local offices.

In the 2006 elections, two Democrats were returned to represent the state. In the 2006 mid-term elections, incumbent Republican governor Linda Lingle beat Randy Iwase (Democrat). In 2006 the state’s senators were Daniel Akaka and Daniel Inouye (both Democrats).

IV.

History

The Hawaiian people, whose ancestors originally came across the ocean from Polynesia in the 1st millennium ad, developed their own society in isolation, but their cultural ties to Polynesia are obvious.

The Hawaiians worshipped three major gods and a host of minor deities. Their places of worship, called heiaus, were constructed from lava rock. The religious and social structure revolved around the concept of kapu, known elsewhere in Polynesia as taboo, which established prohibitive, or restrictive, rules for the various segments of society and created a caste system. Priests and rulers determined proper behaviour patterns for the people. Hawaii’s tribal society transmitted its legends and traditions through songs, dances, chants, and stories.

A.

Early European Contacts and the Emergence of the Kingdom

The English explorer Captain James Cook landed on Kauai in January 1778. He named his discovery the Sandwich Islands in honour of his patron, John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich. (The name later fell into disuse as English influence gave way to US domination.) After a voyage to the northern Pacific, Cook returned to Hawaii for the winter months, but earlier friendly relations with the Hawaiians had deteriorated, and Cook was killed during a punitive expedition against them in 1779.

By 1790, only a dozen years after Cook’s arrival, Westerners had settled throughout the islands. Under the influence of these newcomers, Hawaiian living and dietary habits changed dramatically in the late 18th century, and at the same time, new contagious diseases and alcoholism decimated the native population.

Divided into several kingdoms when Cook arrived, between 1790 and 1810, however, the islands were united politically under the leadership of a native king, Kamehameha I, whose five successors—all bearing the name Kamehameha—ruled the kingdom from his death in 1819 until the end of the dynasty in 1872.

B.

Growth of US Domination

Beginning in 1819, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, founded by New England Congregationalists, sent 11 groups of missionaries to Hawaii. The Americans imposed their lifestyle, morality, and religion throughout the islands, teaching the Hawaiians that their traditional way of life was sinful. During the first half of the 19th century, foreign whaling ships wintered at Honolulu and Lahaina, bringing additional influences that threatened the indigenous culture.

Although the Kamehameha dynasty had generally been friendly to settlers from the United States, King Kalakaua and Queen Liliuokalani strove to reverse American influence in the government and economy, hoping to return Hawaii to the Hawaiians. The peaceful coexistence between corporate interests from abroad and the Kamehameha dynasty began to disintegrate in the late 19th century. With increasing US economic involvement, the first sugar plantation in the islands opened in 1835 on Kauai, and pineapple plantations followed later in the century. An influx of Europeans and US citizens, who purchased much of the land, owned the companies farming it and imported Chinese and Japanese labour into the plantation system, further disrupting the traditional economy. At the same time, the islands experienced economic hardship when the 1890 McKinley Tariff levied a duty on sugar.

In a coup fronted by US businessmen, a Committee on Safety, supported by US Consul John L. Stevens, seized control of the kingdom on January 17, 1893, and established a provisional government, headed by Sanford B. Dole, the son of an American missionary. Dole pressed for US annexation of the islands, but the administration of President Grover Cleveland rejected the proposal. The provisional government then created the Republic of Hawaii on July 4, 1894, with Dole as president. The US military soon established positions on Hawaii, such as Pearl Harbor on Oahu.

C.

Hawaii as a US Territory

In 1898, when Cleveland’s successor, William McKinley, called for annexation, Congress agreed, and Hawaii was annexed by the United States on August 12, 1898. The territorial government was organized in 1900, and Dole was the first governor. The territory was allowed one delegate who could speak, but not vote, in the US House of Representatives.

Pearl Harbor, the keystone to America’s Pacific defence after World War I, was attacked on December 7, 1941, by the Japanese, bringing the United States into World War II. The next day Hawaii was placed under martial law, and the army governed the territory until October 1944.

D.

Statehood

Before and after World War II, Hawaii’s residents called for statehood. Congressional hearings were dominated by the issue of the Japanese population. Prejudice against the Japanese and concern about Communist influence in Hawaiian labour unions slowed the statehood campaign, but Congress finally passed legislation making Hawaii the 50th state in 1959.

The last territorial governor, William F. Quinn, defeated the territorial delegate John A. Burns to become the first state governor. In 1962 Burns was elected to the first of three terms. In 1974 George Ariyoshi became the first American of Japanese descent to win election as governor of a state; he was re-elected in 1978 and 1982. His successor, John D. Waihee III, was elected in 1986 and re-elected in 1990. Since the 1960s, plantation agriculture has declined in importance, and tourism has become Hawaii’s major industry; how to accommodate the tourist boom while preserving the islands’ natural beauty was one of Hawaii’s greatest challenges as the 1990s began. Another challenge was posed by Hurricane Iniki, which devastated Kauai in September 1992.

In May 1995 the Hawaii legislature committed US$600 million to compensate for misuse or wrongful sale of about 16,000 hectares (39,000 acres) of trust lands set aside for native Hawaiians under the Hawaiian Rehabilitation Act of 1920. Some native Hawaiians have also called for reparations to be made for the overthrow of the monarchy; some have asked for a return to the Hawaiian Kingdom on land set aside for Hawaiians. In the summer of 1996 native Hawaiians voted against creating a native Hawaiian government. The vote would have enabled native Hawaiians to hold a constitutional convention. The outcome of the referendum was challenged by some, however, as blank or spoiled votes were counted as “no” votes. Whatever the outcome, native Hawaiians born in the United States are US citizens and remain under US jurisdiction.

The patterns of ethnic relations in Hawaii are complicated, but it is remarkable that so much harmony exists. Rates of intermarriage are high for all groups, and Hawaii is still an example for many places trying to build a multi-ethnic society.