History
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Pre-Contact
Before 1778Pre-Contact
Before 1778Before we recount events, we should first understand how Pre-contact Hawaiians viewed the world around them. In Hawaiian culture, natural and cultural resources are one and the same.
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Post-Contact
From 1778Post-Contact
From 1778Hawaiian lives changed with sudden and lasting impact when in 1778, Captain James Cook and his crew arrived. Contact changed the course of history for Hawai‘i when they made the first western contact with Hawai‘i.
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Kamehameha’s Attempts to Conquer Kaua’i
1782-1795Kamehameha’s Attempts to Conquer Kaua’i
1782-1795During this era of western discovery, King Kamehameha I was attempting to gain control of the Island of Hawaiʻi and eventually unify the Hawaiian Islands under his rule.
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Sandalwood (‘Iliahi)
1809Sandalwood (‘Iliahi)
1809Sandalwood (ʻiliahi) has been highly prized and in great demand through the ages; its use for incense is part of the ritual of Buddhism. Chinese used the fragrant heart wood for incense, medicinal purposes, for architectural details and carved objects.
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Coming of the Missionaries
1809Coming of the Missionaries
1809The history of Christianity in Hawaiʻi begins with Henry Opukahaʻia, a native Hawaiian from the Island of Hawaiʻi who in 1809, at the age of 16, boarded the sailing ship Triumph anchored in Kealakekua Bay and sailed to the continent.
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Whaling
1819Whaling
1819The whaling industry replaced the sandalwood trade. As the sandalwood industry declined, Hawai’i became the base for the north-central Pacific whaling trade. Hawai‘i’s whaling era began in 1819 when two New England ships became the first whaling ships to arrive in the Hawaiian Islands.
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Sugar
Mid-19th Century to 1960sSugar
Mid-19th Century to 1960sSugar gradually replaced sandalwood and whaling in the mid-19th century and became the principal industry in the islands until it was succeeded by the visitor industry in 1960.
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Visitor Industry
From 1900Visitor Industry
From 1900When Hawaiʻi became a U. S. territory (June 14, 1900,) it drew adventuresome cruise ship travelers in a tourism boom. Hotels blossomed, including Waikiki’s oldest surviving hotel, the Moana Hotel, in 1901.
