Information

Early history

Polynesians first set foot on the Hawaiian island around 1,000 A.D. They traveled by double-hulled canoes. They brought with them pigs, dogs, chickens, sweet potatoes, coconut, banana, and sugarcane. In addition to food and animals for the journey, they brought at least a half dozen plant species to cultivate, like bananas, taro, and breadfruit. To survive while they waited for their first plantings to grow and mature, they hunted birds, fished, and gathered native foods. On January 18, 1778 Captain James Cook and his crew where attempting to discover the passage between Alaska and Asia,were surprised to find the Hawaiian islands so far north in the Pacific. He named them the Sandwich Islands. After the discovery by James Cook other Europeans came to the Hawaiian Islands. As many as 300,00 Hawaiians may have lived on the islands when the first Europeans arrived in the 18th century.

Statehood

In 1937 statehood was proposed for Hawaii by the governor, but the U.S. Congress refused. They refused because of the territory’s mixed population and distance from the U.S mainland. World War II started and the Japanese wanted the United States to enter the war. On December 7, 1941 at about 7:55 a.m., 183 Japanese warplanes ruined a perfectly fine Sunday morning on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. The first attack wave had reached the U.S. Pacific Fleet stationed at Oahu’s Pearl Harbor and killed many. World War II had begun for the United States. Hawaii was finally admitted to statehood on August 21, 1959.

Political & demographic features

year   population
2010                     1,360,301
2000                     1,211,537
1990                     1,108,229
1980                     964,691
1970                     769,913
1960                     632,772
1950                     499,794
1940                   422,770
1930                   368,300
1920                   255,881
1910                     191,874
1900                     154,001
The population is 1,360,301 and growing  :D

Counties

Hawaiian County
City and County of Honolulu
Kalawao County
Kauai County
Maui County

Major Cities in Hawaii

Honolulu
Hilo
Kailua
Kaneohe
Waipahu
Pearl City
Waimalu
Mililani
Kahului
Kihei

Physical features

   Hawaii is the only state that is not part of the North American

continent. Hawaii is actually a chain of 132 islands. Each is the top of a

submerged volcanic mountain, that can be divided into three land groups.

The first group has eight main islands. All of the main islands except

Kahoolawe, are inhabited. The other 124 islands ,in the second and third group, are only about three square

miles in total land area and are not fit really a good place for people to live.

   Some of the coastline is made of tall cliffs rising straight up from the shore. In some places large rocks

of lava sick out from the water along the shore. Most of the beaches on the islands have beautiful white

sand. Some beaches are covered with black sand, formed when molten lava met the ocean.

Arches 3
Areas 151
Bars 49
Basins 10
Bays 376
Beaches 319
Benches 3
Capes 800
Cliffs 74
Craters 85
Falls 99
Flats 16
Forests 63
Islands 147
Lakes 71
Lava 99
Pillars 12
Plains 1
Ranges 9
Ridges 118
Slopes 7
Springs 62
Streams 561
Summits 1,112
Swamps 14
Valleys 718
Woods 3

Resourses

Hawaii's major natural resources include pineapple, papaya, sugarcane,

coffee beans, coconuts and macadamia nuts. According to Hawaii's

Department of Agriculture the state also has its own supply of eggs, milk,

onions, potatoes and various juices that come from the fruit grown on the

island. There are also plants on the island that produce allspice, banana

passion fruit and cinnamon. Hawaii considers many of its natural wonders, which attract millions of

visitors a year, to be some of its biggest natural resources because it attracts visitors and makes money. These

natural wonders include beaches, forests, volcanoes, coral reefs, state parks, native plants/flowers and

animals, such as parrots, tropical fish, hibiscus, orchids, birds of paradise and the Hawaiian duck.