Contact to Mahele
When Captain James Cook arrived in the Islands in 1778, he and his crew were the first Westerners to observe the rich Polynesian culture that had evolved over the course of centuries.
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Short stories from this period »

The Mahele to the Overthrow
Kamehameha's sons and grandsons continued to rule his unified kingdom in the decades following his death. Kamehameha III did much to codify Hawaii's traditions and laws along a Western model. The act called the Mahele allowed private ownership of land for the first time.
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Annexation to World War II
Annexation secured the sugar industry's U.S. mainland markets and plantations continued to boom. Sugar continued to drive the economy for most of the 20th century, until tourism grew to replace it.
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Short stories from this period »

World War II to Statehood
World War II was a faraway affair until the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941. After that, Hawai`i became central to the United States’ war effort in the Pacific.
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Statehood to Today
The early 1960s brought the advent of jet travel and an astronomic leap in island tourism. Hundreds of weekly visitor arrivals jumped to thousands and Waikiki became a high-rise village to accommodate the numbers.
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Short stories from this period »