The Hawaiian history can be divided into several phases: the early Polynesian settlement, the British discovery, Euro-American & Asian migration, the defeat of the Hawaiian monarchy, a brief period of its republican status, its inclusion into the United States as a territory & finally as a state. On January 18, 1778 Captain James Cook & his crew while attempting to discover the imaginary Northwest Passage between Alaska & America, were astounded to find the Hawaiian Islands out there. He named it the Sandwich Islands.
The first ruler to rule the whole of Hawaii in 1810 was Kamehameha I. In 1816, the monarchy adopted a national flag. In 1819, Kamehameha II abolished the kapu system by sitting down to eat with his stepmother & other women of high rank. Hawaii was transformed into a Christian nation a few years after certain missionaries from a New England Congregationalist missionary group arrived in Hawaii.
