The Hawaiian Islands have no truly indigenous people. The first Polynesians arrived from the Marquesas Islands between 500 and 700 AD. Four or five hundred years later they were invaded by Polynesians from Tahiti. The Tahitians introduced the concept of 'kapu' -- a society regulated by taboos. They also introduced the custom of human sacrifice to appease the Gods. Today, the remains of these stone temples called 'heiau' can still be visited.
Life on the islands remained the same until Englishman Captain James Cook arrived in 1778. His discovery made the islands a port of call for Europeans engaging in the lucrative fur trade between what is now known as the Pacific Northwest and China. Puritan missionaries arrived and became the dominant and governing culture on the islands.
In the first four decades of the twentieth century, the 'big five' agricultural business conglomerations were run by descendents of these Puritan missionaries, with sugar and pineapples providing huge profits. The tourism market also grew and Hawaii became a favorite port of call for wealthy vacationers. In 1941 the attack on Pearl Harbor and World War II brought massive turmoil, but it also marked the entry of Hawaii into mainstream America. Servicemen, enchanted by the islands, returned after the war to settle there. In 1959, the Hawaiian people voted seventeen to one in favor of becoming the 50th state of the United States. |
History
