Hawaii

About Hawaii

History of Hawaii

Hawaiian antiquity

Anthropologists believe that Polynesians from the Marquesas and Society Islands first populated the Hawaiian Islands in approximately 300AD, followed by Tahitian settlers in approximately 1300AD who conquered and eliminated the original inhabitants of the islands. These Tahitian conquerors preserved memories of their migrations orally through genealogies and folk tales, like the stories of Hawaiʻiloa and Paʻao. Relations with other Polynesian groups were sporadic during the early migratory periods, and Hawaiʻi grew from small settlements to a complex society in near isolation.

Voyaging between Hawai’i and the South Pacific apparently ceased with no explanation several centuries before European arrival. Local chiefs called aliʻi ruled their settlements and fought to extend their sway and defend their communities from predatory rivals. Warfare was endemic. The general trend was towards chiefdoms of increasing size, even encompassing whole islands.

Vague reports by various European explorers suggest that Hawaii was visited by foreigners well before the 1778 arrival of British explorer Captain James Cook. Historians credited Cook with the discovery after he was the first to plot and publish the geographical coordinates of the Hawaiian Islands. Cook named his discovery the Sandwich Islands in honor of one of his sponsors, John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich.
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