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Hawaii History Guide & Archaeological Sites
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South Pacific Historical Sites
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Archaeological sites abound around the Hawaii islands, in particular on the Big Island of Hawaii and Kaua'i where ancient temples, petroglyphs and local lore are strong. One of the most impressive ancient sites is the reconstructed temple at Pu'uhonua O Honaunau south of Kona on the west coast of the Big Island.
Hawaii History
Separated from the large continents by 3000km of sea, the first Hawaiians arrived from the Marquesas Islands in the South Pacific around 300 AD and created an insular environment cut off from the rest of the world. A second migration from Tahiti lasted between 1000 and 1300 AD. Not until 1778 were the islands "found" by the outside world, the year when Captain James Cook first crossed the Pacific. He returned with two ships the following year, spent seven weeks charting the islands and being welcomed on the Big Island by the high chief at Hikiau heiau on the west coast. A few weeks later he was killed in a skirmish with the locals, and here he rests with a 27ft white obelisk raised in his honour on a patch of land that was dedicated to Great Britain and remains British today.
The Hawaiians Captain Cook encountered were not united but rather ruled by a number of hereditary chiefs who would wage war on neighbouring islands to strengthen their power. The people were split into common people and alii, or the ruling class and were governed by the temperaments of their gods, as directed by the high priests who communicated with them. Skirmishes between neighbouring chiefs were common although deaths rarely occurred in great numbers. It wasn't until the wars of Kamehameha the Great in the late 1700s when first the Big Island of Hawaii was unified and then the great war party conquered or accepted allegiance from Maui, Oahu and Kauai to unite the people as Hawaiians under one Kingdom with the help of guns traded by the Russian fur traders.
And then the Europeans came in numbers, trading iron, preaching Christianity, bringing leprosy and cholera and reaping the land of its sandalwood and whales.
In 1845, the European presence established itself at Honolulu for its great deep water harbour and here the capital remains. Cattle ranches were established on Maui and the Big Island, Sugar was planted on Kauai and Pineapple farms began on Oahu. Whilst King Kamehameha III retained his kingdom, his advisors in parliament were mostly Europeans seeking to benefit their own fortunes. During the height of these industries, migrants from China, Portugal, Korea, Japan and the Philippines were brought to provide cheap and productive labour for the plantations and today remain an integrated part of Hawaiian society.
By 1872, The Kamehameha dynasty came to an end and within 30 years, the Hawaiian Islands had become annexed to America, although retaining its kingdom status. Plantations thrived through the islands until 1945 when Pearl Harbor was attacked bringing the US into World War. It wasn't until 1959 that Hawaii finally became the 50th State of the US and its inhabitants gained voting and labour rights. Since the 1950s, tourism has gradually replaced the plantations as the main source of income.
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