Hawaii, the newest state in the United States, is a group of eight large islands and many small ones in the Central Pacific Ocean, about 2,000 miles west of San Francisco.
Hawaii was probably settled about 750 A.D., by seafarers from the other Pacific islands. The first Europeans or Americans to visit it were the British Captain James Cook and his crew in 1778. James named his discovery the Sandwich Islands after the sponsor of his expedition, the Earl of Sandwich. Twelve years later, the others from Europe and the new United States began to settle in the islands.
These "westerners" brought trouble to the Hawaii. They brought new diseases, which the Hawaiians had no resistance to; they brought alcohol, which many Hawaiians became addicted to; they brought a new religion which uprooted the old values and forced the islanders to abandon their old culture and conform to a new one.
Many Americans settled in Hawaii, and in 1893, they overthrew the queen and made Hawaii a republic. Sandford Dole, a missionary’s son, was made president. In 1898, the United States took over the islands, and it became a territory of the United States in 1900.
On December 7th, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. This attack brought about the entrance of the United States to the Second World War. In 1959, the United States Congress admitted Hawaii to statehood, making it the fiftieth state in the United States. For the first time in about 200 years, Hawaiians were able to participate in the electoral process.
