Hawaii signed the Reciprocity Treaty with the US in 1875, and its kingdom was overthrown in 1883, and a republic formed under the aegis of the US. It was annexed by the US in 1898 and confirmed as a US territory on 6-14-1900. Became the 50th state in 1959.

It is a series of islands created by a volcanic hotspot.

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A familiar place...

A place where you'll find the safety of the universal language of KFC, Golden Archs, and Wendy's. Maybe it won't taste right, but it's the same chicken on the mainland and it'll do. A lot of western convenience don't work quite the same way--like the super hot bath replaced by a valve spitting crystal cold water on the beach--but they'll do just fine. You probably forgive it all soon enough. Wow, so many things makes up for any shortcoming and more. Like the 5 trillion watts double rainbows following your whistle while you drive through Pali highway.

A small town attitude...

The locals place their hard-working spirit into much more important issues. Such as church activities, cultural issues, volunteering, enjoying school activities like high-school or University sports, and of course fun (there's parties every week if you blend in). And oh yes, the 8am-5pm responsibilities of doing thing that will pay the bill. This is important, as the locals get charged practically the same high prices as tourist even at your local Safeway. People drive for hours to the opposite side of the island to visit and have tea (hot dogs and Plate lunch) with the Ambassador of Consumerism (Costco) once or twice a month with good reason. Bring a big Igloo chest filled with re-chillable ice packs, make it two chests, and that extended cap four doors pickup.

What gravity?...

There's innumerable cool and unique places to get a treat at reasonable (local) prices, where as you probably can count the number of real local food places cooking on a tiny island like Anguilla or Saint Barth with your hands and feet. (Please count for me while you visit the Caribs, I can't count past 20!!) The more you drive the more you wanna stop and try it all. It's so sorry to end up visiting Hawaii for just a week if you love food and drinks.

Well, there, I covered 0.0001% of what local life is like I guess... Am good everything2ian tarzan no?

The CORRECT spelling for Hawai'i. Not that I take offense to the sans-apostrophe version, I don't include it when I write either. I think it does make people pronounce the name of the state by ignoring the short and almost undistinguishable pause between the last two vowels. It's sounded Hawa- *break* -e (all vowels are short, a as in gaurdian, e as in eat) NOT Hawiee. The added pause overlaps the last a, and should not add to the time it takes to say the word. Both spellings should take up the same amount of time to pronounce.

Note. On first writing this in January 2001 I said the official name of the state was still Hawaii, without the 'okina. In December 2005 it is plain from the State of Hawai'i website that they now officially use the 'okina, so these write-ups have been moved here. I have also used macrons instead of my original circumflexes, on the assumption that everyone's browsers can show that much Unicode these days.

Hawaiian place names

The Hawaiian language uses the 'okina, an open single-quote (or less precisely a vertical stroke) to indicate a glottal stop, and the kahakō (macron) over long vowels. Both these are commonly omitted, but strictly should not be. With them, the names of the main islands are: Hawai'i, O'ahu, Maui, Kaua'i, Moloka'i, Lāna'i, and Ni'ihau. Hawaiian was restored as an official language of the state in 1978, and in recent years there has been a greater effort to display the correct diacritics for all place names. (Official usage for the adjective is Hawaiian rather than Hawai'ian.)

Kings and Queens of Hawaii

  1. Kamehameha I 1782-1819
  2. Liholiho Kamehameha II 1819-1824
  3. Kauikeaouli Kamehameha III 1825-1854
  4. Alexander Liholiho Kamehameha IV 1854-1863
  5. Lot Kamehameha V 1863-1872
  6. William Charles Lunalilo 1873-1874
  7. David Kalākaua 1874-1891
  8. Lydia Lili'uokalani 1891-1893
Kamehameha I became a king in the island of Hawai'i in 1782, united all of the island in 1791, and annexed all the other islands except Kaua'i by 1795. (Another formative date given in one source is 1810; perhaps that is when Kaua'i was finally taken.) A constitution was granted in 1840. Independence was guaranteed by Britain and France in 1844.

Regents

  1. Kaahumanu 1825-1832
  2. Kinau 1832-1833
Prime ministers
  1. Kaahumanu 1819-1832
  2. Kinau 1832-1839
  3. Kekaulouhi 1839-1845
  4. John Young 1845-1853
  5. Lot Kamehameha 1853
  6. John Young again 1853-1855
  7. Victoria Kamamalu 1855-1863
  8. Kekuanaoa 1863-1864

Queen Lili'uokalani was deposed (she died on 11 November 1917) in favour of a republic controlled by the increasing number of American and European settlers, in a revolution abetted by the US minister there.

President

  1. Sanford Dole 1894-1900
Sanford Dole became the first governor on its annexation by the United States and remained so till 1903. In that year Hawai'i first requested statehood.

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