Top 10 Events in Hawaiian history

  • 100 BCE

    Hawaiian people's real ancestors

    Hawaiian people's real ancestors
    Native Hawaiian people traces their ancestry back from thousands years BC, their ancestors started to migrate from the island of Taiwan to the today Philippines and Indonesia to other islands throughout the Pacific Ocean and arrived at Hawaii.
  • 500

    The first arrival of Polynesian people

    The first arrival of Polynesian people
    Roughly 1500 years ago, Polynesian people from Marquesas Islands first settled in Hawaii. They also brought pigs, dogs, chicken, coconuts, taros, sweet potatoes, bananas and sugar canes with them.
  • Europeans discovered the islands

    Europeans discovered the islands
    Captain James Cook was the first European who found Hawaiian Islands when he was trying to find trade routes on the Pacific Ocean between Alaska and Asia. After that, white people from Europe and America started to settle in Hawaii.
  • The establishment of Hawaiian Kingdom

    The establishment of Hawaiian Kingdom
    With the help from European modern military technology, King Kamehameha I unified the islands for the first time and established the Hawaiian Kingdom.
  • Migration to Hawaii started

    Migration to Hawaii started
    White American farmers developed sugarcane agriculture. It started to flourish quickly and became the main economic activity which required huge labor. European people, mostly Portuguese and Asian, mostly Japanese and Filipino began to migrate to Hawaii.
  • The corruption of Hawaiian royalty.

    The corruption of Hawaiian royalty.
    The last royal member, Queen Liliuokalani was overthrown by American businessmen with help from the US military. Hawaii became a US territory.
  • Hawaii, an new important American port.

    Because of having perfect location right in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the US started to use Hawaii as an important military port at the end of 19th century. Hawaii was an important American outpost in the Oceania.
  • The decline of Native Hawaiian population

    The number of Native Hawaiian people decreased rapidly from 300.000 in mid-18th century to 24.000 in 1920 because of diseases were brought to by European people.
  • The attack on Pearl Harbor

    The attack on Pearl Harbor
    During the World War 2, the Japanese army attacked Pearl Harbor on the Oahu Island surprisingly. They bombed lots of American battleships there and created a great shock all over the world. This event led US to join the Allies and fought against the Axis.
  • The statehood

    The statehood
    The US Congress officially admitted Hawaii as the 50th state after when President Eisenhower signed the Hawaii Admission Act. All the church bells in the city of Honolulu rang at the same time to celebrate this important statehood.