Hawaii, Hawaii

At the southeastern end of the archipelago, the eight "main islands" are (from the northwest to southeast) Niihau, Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, Lnai, Kahoolawe, Maui, and Hawaii. The last is by far the largest, and is often called the "Big Island" or "Big Isle" to avoid confusion with the state as a whole. This archipelago is physiographically and ethnologically part of the Polynesian subregion of Oceania.

Only Hawaii and Alaska are outside the contiguous United States and do not share a border with any other U.S. state.

The isolation of the Hawaiian Islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and the wide range of environments to be found on high islands located in and near the tropic, has resulted in a vast array of endemic flora and fauna. Hawaii has more endangered species per square mile and has lost a higher percentage of its endemic species than anywhere else on Earth.

Summer highs are usually in the upper 80sF, (around 31C) during the day and mid 70s, (around 24 C) at night. Winter temperatures during the day are usually in the low to mid 80s, (around 28 C) and (at low elevation) seldom dipping below the mid 60s (18 C) at night. Snow, although not usually associated with tropics, falls at the higher elevations of Mauna Kea (13,796 feet/ 4,205 meters) and Mauna Loa on the Big Island in some winter months. Snow only rarely falls on Maui's Haleakala. Mount Waialeale ( Waialeale ), on the island of Kauai, is notable for rainfall, as it has the second highest average annual rainfall on Earth, about 460 inches (38 ft. 4 in., or 11.7 m). Most of Hawaii has only two seasons: Summer from May to October, and Winter from October to April.

The worst hurricane to hit Hawaii was Hurricane Iniki ( Iniki ) in 1992, which showed that Hawaii was indeed vulnerable to a direct hit.

The movement of the Hawaiian royal family from the island of Hawaii to Maui, and subsequently to Oahu, explains why certain population centers exist where they do today. The largest city, Honolulu, was the one chosen by Kamehameha III as the capital of his kingdom because of the natural harbor there, the present-day Honolulu Harbor.

Hawaii is one of four U.S. States that were independent prior to becoming part of the U.S.: the Vermont Republic, 1791; the Republic of Texas, 1845; the California Republic, 1846; and Hawai`i. Of these, Hawai`i and Texas were the only ones with formal international diplomatic recognition.

It was replaced by a Provisional Government composed of members of the Committee of Safety. There was much controversy in the following years as the queen tried to regain her throne. The administration of President Grover Cleveland commissioned the Blount Report, which concluded that the overthrow of Liliuokalani was illegal. The U.S. Government first demanded that Queen Liliuokalani be reinstated, but the Provisional Government refused. Congress responded to Cleveland's referral with another investigation, and submitted the Morgan Report by the U.S. Senate on February 26, 1894, which found all parties (including Minister Stevens) with the exception of the queen "not guilty" from any responsibility for the overthrow. Kuykendall, R.S. (1967) The Hawaiian Kingdom, 1874-1893. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. p. 648.

The Republic of Hawaii was the formal name of Hawaii from 1894 to 1898 when it was run as a republic. The republic period occurred between the administration of the Provisional Government of Hawaii which ended on July 4, 1894 and the adoption of the Newlands Resolution in Congress in which the Republic was annexed to the United States and became the Territory of Hawaii on July 7, 1898.

The previous president, Grover Cleveland, was a friend of Queen Liliuokalani. He had remained opposed to annexation until the end of his term, but McKinley was open to persuasion by U.S. expansionists and by annexationists from Hawaii. He agreed to meet with a committee of annexationists from Hawaii, Lorrin Thurston, Francis Hatch and William Kinney. After negotiations, in June 1897, McKinley agreed to a treaty of annexation with these representatives of the Republic of Hawaii.

Though several attempts were made to achieve statehood, Hawaii remained a territory for sixty years. Plantation owners, such as the Big Five, found territorial status convenient, enabling them to continue importing cheap foreign labor; such immigration was prohibited in various states of the U.S.

Because they were born in a U.S. territory, they were legal U.S. citizens. Expecting to gain full voting rights, they actively campaigned for statehood for the Hawaiian Islands.

Hawaii voted at a ratio of 17 to 1 to accept. There has been criticism, however, of the Statehood plebiscite, because the only choices were to accept the Act or to remain a territory, without addressing the issues of legality surrounding the overthrow.

In its place, the Democratic Party of Hawaii dominated state politics for forty years.

This includes a natural increase since the last census of 48,111 people (that is 96,028 births minus 47,917 deaths) and an increase due to net migration of 16,956 people into the state. Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 30,068 people, and migration within the country produced a net loss of 13,112 people. The center of population of Hawaii is located directly between the two islands of Oahu and Molokai. http://www.census.gov/geo/www/cenpop/statecenters.txt Hawaii has a de facto population of over 1.3 million due to military presence and tourists. Oahu, which is nicknamed "The Gathering Place", is the most populous island (and the one with the highest population density), with a resident population of just under one million in , about 1,650 people per square mile (for comparison, New Jersey, which has 8,717,925 people in is the most-densely populated state with 1,134 people per square mile.) New Jersey Quickfacts Hawaii's 1,275,194 people, spread over 6,423 square miles (including many unpopulated islands) results in an average population density of 188.6 persons per square mile, Hawaii Quickfacts which makes Hawaii less densely populated than states like Ohio and Illinois.

Hawaii was the second majority-minority state in the United States. Both Hawaii and New Mexico have been majority-minority regions since the early 20th century, but New Mexico became a state before Hawaii. Hawaii also has the largest percentage of persons of mixed race, who constitute some 20% of the total population.

Chinese employees serving on Western trading ships disembarked and settled starting in 1789. In 1820 the first American missionaries arrived in Hawaii to preach Christianity and teach the Hawaiians what the missionaries considered "civilized" ways. A large proportion of Hawaiis population has become a people of Asian ancestry (especially Chinese, Japanese and Filipino) many of whom are descendants from those waves of early foreign immigrants brought to the islands in the nineteenth century, beginning in the 1850s, to work on the sugar plantations. The first 153 Japanese immigrants arrived in Hawaii on June 19, 1868. They were not "legally" approved by the Japanese government established after the Meiji Restoration because the contract was between a broker and the Tokugawa shogunate, by then terminated. The first Japanese government-approved immigrants arrived in Hawaii on February 9, 1885 after Kalakaua's petition to Emperor Meiji when Kalakaua visited Japan in 1881.

It began to develop around 1000 A.D., when Marquesans or Tahitians of that era colonized Hawaii. Those Polynesians remained in the islands, thereby becoming the Hawaiian people. Consequently, their language developed into the Hawaiian language.

The written form of Hawaiian was developed mainly by American Protestant missionaries during 1820–1826. They assigned letters from the Latin alphabet that corresponded to the Hawaiian sounds.

Also, the University of Hawaii System developed a Hawaiian language graduate studies program. Municipal codes were altered in favor of Hawaiian place and street names for new civic developments.

However, in texts written mainly for Hawaiian-language pedagogy, especially since 1950, the modern Hawaiian-language spelling used is Hawaii , with an okina written between the final two vowels. The modern spelling is pushed mainly by teachers of Hawaiian language at the University of Hawaii. However, traditional native speakers of Hawaiian generally never use okinas nor kahakos in their own writing. For this reason, some teachers of Hawaiian language, such as NeSmith, are advocating greater appreciation for the traditional native spellings with no okinas nor kahakos.

For example, tuna fish are often called "ahi". HCE speakers have modified the meanings of certain English words. For example, the terms "auntie" and "uncle" can be used to refer to any adult who is a friend, or a friend to the family. It is also used as a sign of respect for elders. Throughout the surfing boom in Hawaii, HCE has influenced surfer slang. Some HCE expressions, such as brah and da kine , have found their way to other places.

As prescribed in the Hawaii Admission Act that granted Hawaiian statehood, the federal government recognizes Hawaii to be the official state name.

In Article XV therein, Section 1 uses "The State of Hawaii", Section 2 "the island of Oahu", Section 3 "The Hawaiian flag", and Section 5 specifies the state motto as "Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono". Since these documents predate the modern use of the okina and the kahak in Hawaiian orthography, the disputed spelling conventions were not used in these cases.

It consists of: (1) the flagship research university at Manoa ( Mnoa ); (2) two comprehensive campuses Hilo and West Oahu; and (7) seven Community Colleges. Students choosing private education attend Brigham Young University Hawaii, Chaminade University of Honolulu, Hawaii Pacific University, or University of the Nations.

For a comprehensive list of colleges and universities, see the list of colleges and universities in Hawaii.

New efforts are underway to diversify the economy. The total gross output for the state in 2003 was US$47 billion; per capita income for Hawaii residents was US$30,441.

In the years 2002 and 2003, Hawaii residents had the highest state tax per capita at US$2,757 and US$2,838, respectively. This rate can be explained partly by the fact that services such as education, health care and social services are all rendered at the state level, as opposed to the municipal level in all other states.

As codified in the Constitution of Hawaii, there are three branches of government: executive, legislative and judicial.

The governor, in residence at the grounds of Washington Place, is the only public official elected for the state government in a statewide race; all other administrators and judges are appointed by the governor. The lieutenant governor is concurrently the Secretary of State of Hawaii. Both the governor and lieutenant governor administer their duties from the Hawaii State Capitol. The governor and lieutenant governor oversee the major agencies and departments of the executive of which there are twenty.

They are the senior and junior United States Senators, the representative of Hawaii's 1st congressional district and the representative of Hawaii's 2nd congressional district. Many Hawaii residents have been appointed to administer other agencies and departments of the federal government by the President of the United States. All federal officers of Hawaii administer their duties locally from the Prince Kuhio Federal Building ( Khi ) near the Aloha Tower and Honolulu Harbor.

There are no incorporated cities in Hawaii except Honolulu County. All other municipal governments are administered at the county level. The county executives are the Mayor of Hawaii, Mayor of Honolulu, Mayor of Kauai and Mayor of Maui. All mayors in the state are elected in nonpartisan races.

Hawaiian Airlines, and go! use jets to travel between the larger commercial airports in Honolulu, Lihue, Kahului, Kona, and Hilo, while Island Air and Pacific Wings serve smaller airports. These airlines also provide air freight service between the islands.

The largest religious community in Hawaii is served by the Hawaii Catholic Herald.

KWHE, KAAH, and KALO also have satellite stations accross the state (except Kauai), with KWHE being the only outlet in Hawaii to air secular general-interest shows and sports programs outside its non-secular hours. KUPU offers programming from the Pacific Islands alongside their religious fare.

A comprehensive list of such projects can be seen at the list of Hawaii television series.

Notable films produced in Hawaii or inspired by Hawaii include Hawaii , Blue Hawaii , Donovan's Reef , From Here to Eternity , In Harm's Way , South Pacific , Raiders of the Lost Ark , Jurassic Park , Picture Bride , Lani Loa , Outbreak , Waterworld , Six Days Seven Nights , George of the Jungle , 50 First Dates , Pearl Harbor , Godzilla , Blue Crush , The Even Stevens Movie , Race the Sun and Lilo and Stitch . The film Snakes on a Plane takes place on a flight departing Hawaii for the U.S. mainland. Hawaii is home to a prominent film festival known as the Hawaii International Film Festival.

Separate registers of members of the Hawaiian royal family and Hawaii politicians are also available.

Source: Wikipedia > Hawaii