Coordinates	51°43′″N36°11′″N
Official name	Hilo, Hawaii
Native name
Settlement type	CDP
Motto
Image seal
Map caption	Location in Hawaii County and the state of Hawaii
Map caption1
Pushpin map
Pushpin label position
Pushpin mapsize
Subdivision type	Country
Subdivision name	United States
Subdivision type1	State
Subdivision name1	Hawaii
Subdivision type2	County
Subdivision name2	Hawaii
Subdivision name4
Established date
Established title2
Established title3
Established date3
Unit pref	Imperial
Area total km2	151.4
Area land km2	140.6
Area water km2	10.7
Area total sq mi	58.4
Area land sq mi	54.3
Area water sq mi	4.1
Area blank1 sq mi
Population as of	2010
Population total	43,263
Population density sq mi
Population density blank1 sq mi
Timezone	Hawaii-Aleutian
Utc offset	-10
Coordinates display	inline,title
Coordinates type	region:US_type:city
Latns	N
Coordinates	19°42′20″N155°5′9″N
Longew	W
Elevation m	18
Elevation ft	59
Postal code type	ZIP codes
Postal code	96720-96721
Area code	808
Blank name	FIPS code
Blank info	15-14650
Blank1 name	GNIS feature ID
Blank1 info	0359187
Footnotes	}}

Hilo () is the second-largest CDP in the State of Hawaii and the largest settlement on the island of Hawaii with a population of 43,263 during the 2010 census.

Hilo is the county seat of Hawaii County, Hawaii, and is situated in the South Hilo District. The town overlooks Hilo Bay, and is near two shield volcanoes, Mauna Loa, considered active, and Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano upon which some of the best ground-based astronomical observatories are placed.

Hilo is home to the University of Hawaii at Hilo, Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawaii, as well as the Merrie Monarch Festival, a week-long celebration of ancient and modern hula, which takes place annually after Easter. It is also home to the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Corporation, one of the world's leading producers of macadamia nuts. It is served by Hilo International Airport, inside the CDP.

History

Although archaeological evidence is scant, oral history has many references to people living in Hilo, along the Wailuku and Wailoa Rivers during the time of ancient Hawaii. It was named for either the night of the new moon, or a Polynesian navigator. Originally, the name Hilo applied to a district encompassing much of the east coast of the Island of Hawaii, now divided into South Hilo District and North Hilo District. When William Ellis visited in 1823, the main settlement in Hilo district was Waiākea on the south shore of Hilo Bay. Missionaries came to the district in the early-to-middle 19th century, founding Haili Church, in the area of modern Hilo.

Hilo expanded as sugar plantations in the surrounding area created new jobs and drew in many workers from Asia, making the city a trading center.

A breakwater across Hilo Bay was begun in the first decade of the 20th century and completed in 1929. On April 1, 1946, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake near the Aleutian Islands created a fourteen-meter high tsunami that hit Hilo 4.9 hours later, killing 160 people. In response an early warning system, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, was established in 1949 to track these killer waves and provide warning. This tsunami also meant the end of the Hawaii Consolidated Railway, and instead the Hawaii Belt Road was built north of Hilo using some of the railbed.

On May 23, 1960, another tsunami, caused by a 9.5 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Chile the previous day, claimed 61 lives allegedly due to people's failure to heed warning sirens. Low-lying bayfront areas of the city on Waiākea peninsula and along Hilo Bay, previously populated, were rededicated as parks and memorials.

Hilo expanded inland beginning in the 1960s. The downtown found a new role in the 1980s as the city's cultural center with several galleries and museums being opened; the Palace Theatre was reopened in 1998 as an arthouse cinema.

Closure of the sugar plantations (including those in Hāmākua) during the 1990s led to a downturn in the local economy, coinciding with a general statewide slump. Hilo in recent years has seen commercial and population growth as the neighboring district of Puna became the fastest-growing region in the state.

Geography and Climate

Hilo is located at (19.705520, -155.085918).

Hilo is classified by the United States Census Bureau as a census-designated place (CDP), and has a total area of , of which is land and of which (7.10%) is water.

Hilo features a tropical rainforest climate (Koppen ''Af''), with substantial rainfall throughout the course of the year. Hilo's location on the eastern side of the island of Hawaii (windward relative to the trade winds) makes it the wettest city in the United States and one of the wettest cities in the world. An average of around of rain fell at Hilo International Airport annually between 1981–2010, with 275 days of the year receiving some rain. At some other weather stations in Hilo the annual rainfall is above .

Monthly mean temperatures range from in January to in August. The highest recorded temperature was on May 20, 1996, and the lowest on February 21, 1962. The wettest year was 1994 with and the driest year was 1983 with . The most rainfall in one month was in December 1954. The most rainfall in 24 hours was on November 2, 2000.

Hilo's location on the shore of the funnel-shaped Hilo Bay also makes it vulnerable to tsunamis.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 40,759 people, 14,577 households, and 10,101 families residing in the census-designated place. The population density was 750.8 people per square mile (289.9/km²). There were 16,026 housing units at an average density of 295.2 per square mile (114.0/km²). The racial makeup of the CDP was 17.12% White, 0.45% African American, 0.34% Native American, 38.30% Asian, 13.12% Pacific Islander, 0.94% from other races, and 29.74% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 8.78% of the population.

There were 14,577 households out of which 30.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.5% were married couples living together, 15.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.7% were non-families. 24.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.70 and the average family size was 3.19. In the CDP the population was spread out with 24.7% under the age of 18, 10.3% from 18 to 24, 24.4% from 25 to 44, 23.9% from 45 to 64, and 16.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females there were 95.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.9 males.

The median income for a household in the CDP was $39,139, and the median income for a family was $48,150. Males had a median income of $36,049 and the median was $27,626 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $18,220. About 11.1% of families and 17.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 23.5% of those under age 18 and 6.7% of those age 65 or over.

Transportation

Air

Hilo is served by the Hilo International Airport, which has Go! Mokulele, Hawaiian Airlines, and Continental Airlines operating there.

Bus

Hilo is served by the Hele-On Bus, which as of July 1st 2011 there is a $1 per ride fee for all residents except students and senior citizens.

Education

Hilo is home to a number of educational institutions, including two post-secondary institutions, the University of Hawaii at Hilo and Hawaii Community College, and the Hilo and Waiakea primary and secondary school districts.

Government and politics

Although sometimes called a "city", Hilo is not an incorporated city, and does not have a municipal government. The entire island, which is slightly smaller than the state of Connecticut but larger than Rhode Island and Delaware, is under the jurisdiction of Hawaii County, of which Hilo is the county seat.

Hilo is home to county, state, and federal offices.

Hilo and its outlying areas are traditionally more Democratic-leaning than West Hawaii, which adds to tension between the two major municipal areas. It has also presented more opposition to development than other large communities elsewhere in the state.

Business

Being the second largest city in the state of Hawaii and the oldest city in the Hawaiian archipelago, Hilo has a significant tourism section. Hilo is home to Hawaii's only tsunami museum, mostly dedicted to the understanding of the 1946 Pacific Tsunami and notable for the banyan trees planted by Babe Ruth and Amelia Earhart. It is also home to Pana'ewa Rainforest Zoo, shopping centers, cafes and other eateries, movie theaters, hotels, restaurants, a developed downtown area and the Hilo Farmers Market. The Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Corporation has its home here as well.

Culture

East Hawaii Cultural Center

Lyman House Memorial Museum

Merrie Monarch Festival

Pacific Tsunami Museum

Notable natives and residents

Rodney Anoa'i

Keiko Bonk

Ed Case

Titus Coan

Wesley Correira

David McHattie Forbes

Harry Kim

High Chiefess Kapiolani Alii Nui Keōua Kuahuula High Chiefess Kinoole o liliha

Robert Kiyosaki

George Lycurgus

Troy Mandaloniz

Gerald Okamura

BJ Penn

Benjamin Pitman

Bob Shane

William Herbert Shipman

Points of interest

Banyan Drive

Coconut Island

East Hawaii Cultural Center

Haili Church

Hilo Tropical Gardens

Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawaii

Kalakaua Park

Liliuokalani Park and Gardens

Lyman Museum

Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Corporation

Mokupāpapa Discovery Center for Northwestern Hawaii's remote coral reefs

Nani Mau Gardens

Naha Stone (associated with Kamehameha I) in front of the Hilo Public Library

Onomea Bay Scenic Drive

Pacific Tsunami Museum

Pana'ewa Rainforest Zoo

Prince Kuhio Plaza

Rainbow Falls (Waianuenue) & Boiling Pots on the Wailuku River

University of Hawaii at Hilo Botanical Gardens

Wailoa River State Recreation Area with King Kamehameha Statue

Media

Hilo is served by the Hawaii Tribune-Herald, member of the Stephens Media Group.

Sister city

La Serena, Chile

Nago, Okinawa, Japan

References

External links

Hilo Downtown Improvement Association

Pacific Tsunami Museum

`Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawai`i

Category:Census-designated places in Hawaii County, Hawaii Category:Micropolitan areas of Hawaii Category:County seats in Hawaii Category:Populated places on Hawaii (island)

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Coordinates	51°43′″N36°11′″N
name	Hawaii
fullname	State of Hawaii''Mokuāina o Hawaii''
othername	Mokuāina o Hawaii
flag	Flag of Hawaii.svg
flaglink	Flag
seal	Hawaiistateseal.png
seallink	Seal
coat of arms	Coat of Arms of the Kingdom of Hawaii.svg
former	Territory of Hawaii
former flag of the state	Flag of Hawaii.svg
map	Map of USA HI full.png
nickname	The Aloha State
motto	Ua Mau ke Ea o ka Āina i ka Pono (“The Life of the Land is Perpetuated in Righteousness”) Anthem: Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī (“Hawaii’s Own True Sons”)
capital	Honolulu
largestcity	capital
officiallang	English, Hawaiian
demonym	Hawaiian (see notes)
governor	Neil Abercrombie
lieutenant governor	Brian Schatz
legislature	State Legislature
upperhouse	Senate
lowerhouse	House of Representatives
senators	Daniel Inouye (D)Daniel Akaka (D)
Representative	1: Colleen Hanabusa (D)2: Mazie Hirono (D)
postalabbreviation	HI
arearank	43rd
totalareaus	10,931
totalarea	28,311
landareaus	6,423
landarea	16,638
waterareaus	4,507
waterarea	11,672
pcwater	41.2
poprank	40th
2000pop (old)	1,211,537
2000pop	1,360,301 (2010 Census) 1,211,537 (2000)
densityrank	13th
2000density	72.83
2000densityus	188.6
medianhouseholdincome	$63,746
incomerank	5th
admittanceorder	50th
admittancedate	August 21, 1959
timezone	Hawaii-Aleutian time zone: UTC-10 (no daylight saving time)
longitude	154° 48′ W to 178° 22′ W
latitude	18° 55′ N to 28° 27′ N
lengthus	1,522
widthus	n/a
width	n/a
length	2,450
highestpoint	Mauna Kea
highestelevus	13,796
highestelev	4,205
meanelevus	3,035
meanelev	925
lowestpoint	Pacific Ocean
lowestelevus	0
lowestelev	0
isocode	US-HI
website	www.hawaii.gov }}

{{infobox u.s. state symbols |boxwidth

25em |Name Hawaii |Bird Hawaiian Goose |Fish Humuhumunukunukuāpuaa |Flower Hawaiian hibiscus |Mammal Humpback whale |Reptile Gold dust day gecko |Tree Kukui nut tree |Food Coconut muffin |Gemstone Black coral |Slogan ''The Islands of Aloha'' |Soil Hilo |Song ''Hawaii Ponoi'' |Sport Surfing, Outrigger canoeing |Tartan Hawaii State Tartan |Route Marker HI-66.svg |Quarter 2008 HI Proof.png |QuarterReleaseDate 2008 }}

Hawaii ( or in English; Hawaiian: Mokuāina o Hawaii) is the newest of the 50 U.S. states (August 21, 1959), and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of Australia. Hawaii’s natural and diverse scenery, warm tropical climate, abundance of public beaches and oceanic surrounding, and active volcanoes make it a popular destination for tourists, surfers, biologists, and volcanologists alike. Due to its mid-Pacific location, Hawaii has many North American and Asian influences along with its own vibrant native culture. Hawaii has over a million permanent residents along with many visitors and U.S. military personnel. Its capital is Honolulu on the island of Oahu.

The state encompasses nearly the entire volcanic Hawaiian Island chain, which comprises hundreds of islands spread over . At the southeastern end of the archipelago, the eight "main islands" are (from the northwest to southeast) Niihau, Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, Lānai, Kahoolawe, Maui, and Hawaii. The last is by far the largest and is often called "The Big Island" to avoid confusion with the state as a whole. The archipelago is physiographically and ethnologically part of the Polynesian subregion of Oceania.

After Alaska, Florida, and California, Hawaii has the fourth-longest coastline in the United States, which is approximately long.

In standard American English, Hawaii is generally pronounced . In the Hawaiian language, it is generally pronounced or .

Hawaii is one of two states that do not observe daylight saving time, the other being Arizona.

Etymology

The Hawaiian language word ''Hawaii'' derives from Proto-Polynesian *''Sawaiki'', with the reconstructed meaning "homeland"; ''Hawaii'' cognates are found in other Polynesian languages, including Māori (''Hawaiki''), Rarotongan (''ʻAvaiki''), and Samoan (''Savaii''). (See also Hawaiki).

According to Pukui and Elbert, "Elsewhere in Polynesia, Hawaii or a cognate is the name of the underworld or of the ancestral home, but in Hawaii, the name has no meaning."

Geography and environment

The main Hawaiian Islands are:

Topography

An archipelago situated some southwest of the North American mainland, Hawaii is the southernmost state of the United States and the second westernmost state after Alaska. Only Hawaii and Alaska do not share a border with another U.S. state.

Hawaii is the only state of the United States that:

is not geographically located in North America

grows coffee

is completely surrounded by water

is entirely an archipelago

has a royal palace

does not have a straight line in its state boundary

Hawaii’s tallest mountain, Mauna Kea, stands at but is taller than Mount Everest if followed to the base of the mountain, which, lying at the floor of the Pacific Ocean, rises about .

The eight main islands, Hawaii, Maui, Oahu, Kahoolawe, Lanai, Molokai, Kauai and Niihau are accompanied by many others. Kaala is a small island near Niihau that is often overlooked. The Northwest Hawaiian Islands are a series of nine small, older masses northwest of Kauai that extend from Nihoa to Kure that are remnants of once much larger volcanic mountains. There are also more than 100 small rocks and islets, such as Molokini, that are either volcanic, marine sedimentary or erosional in origin, totaling 130 or so across the archipelago.

Geology

All the Hawaiian islands were formed from volcanic activity initiated at an undersea magma source called a hotspot. As the tectonic plate beneath much of the Pacific Ocean moves to the northwest, the hot spot remains stationary, slowly creating new volcanoes. Due to the hotspot’s location, the only active volcanoes are located around the southern half of the Big Island. The newest volcano, Lōihi Seamount, is located south of the Big Island’s coast.

The last volcanic eruption outside the Big Island occurred at Haleakalā on Maui before the late 18th century, though it could have been hundreds of years earlier. In 1790, Kīlauea exploded with the deadliest eruption (of the modern era) known to have occurred in what is now the United States. As many as 5,405 warriors and their families marching on Kīlauea were killed by that eruption.

Volcanic activity and subsequent erosion have created impressive geological features. The Big Island has the third highest point among the world’s islands.

Slope instability of the volcanoes has generated damaging earthquakes with related tsunamis, particularly in 1868 and 1975.

Flora and fauna

Because the islands are so far from other land habitats, life before human activity is said to have arrived by the “3 W’s”: wind (carried through the air), waves (brought by ocean currents), and wings (birds, insects, and whatever they brought with them). This isolation, and the wide range of environments (extreme altitude, tropical climate) produced a vast array of endemic flora and fauna (see Endemism in the Hawaiian Islands). Hawaii has more endangered species and has lost a higher percentage of its endemic species than any other U.S. state.

Protected areas

Several areas in Hawaii are under the protection of the National Park Service. Hawaii has two national parks: Haleakala National Park near Kula, on Maui, includes Haleakalā, the dormant volcano that formed east Maui; and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park in the southeast region of the island of Hawaii, which includes the active volcano Kīlauea and its various rift zones.

There are three national historical parks: Kalaupapa National Historical Park in Kalaupapa, Molokai, the site of a former Hansen’s disease colony; Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historical Park in Kailua-Kona on the island of Hawaii; and Puuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park, an ancient place of refuge. Other areas under the control of the National Park Service include Ala Kahakai National Historic Trail on the Big Island and the USS ''Arizona'' Memorial at Pearl Harbor on Oahu.

The Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument was proclaimed by President George W. Bush on June 15, 2006. The monument covers roughly of reefs, atolls and shallow and deep sea out to offshore in the Pacific Ocean, larger than all of America’s National Parks combined.

Climate

Hawaii’s climate is typical for the tropics, although temperatures and humidity tend to be a bit less extreme due to near-constant trade winds from the east. Summer highs are usually in the upper 80s °F, (around 31°C) during the day and mid 70s, (around 24 °C) at night. Winter day temperatures 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, not usually associated with the tropics, falls at on Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa on the Big Island in some winter months. Snow rarely falls on Haleakala. Mount Waialeale, on Kauai, has the second highest average annual rainfall on Earth, about . Most of Hawaii has only two seasons: the dry season from May to October, and the wet season from October to April.

Local climates vary considerably on each island, grossly divisible into windward (''Koolau'') and leeward (''Kona'') areas based upon location relative to the higher mountains. Windward sides face cloud cover, so resorts concentrate on sunny leeward coasts.

{|class="wikitable" style="font-size:90%;line-height:1.2;text-align:right" |+Monthly normal low and high temperatures for various Hawaiian cities |- !scope="col"| City !scope="col"| Jan. !scope="col"| Feb. !scope="col"| Mar. !scope="col"| Apr. !scope="col"| May !scope="col"| Jun. !scope="col"| Jul. !scope="col"| Aug. !scope="col"| Sep. !scope="col"| Oct. !scope="col"| Nov. !scope="col"| Dec. |- !rowspan="2" scope="row"| Hilo | 64°F / 17.8°C | 64°F / 17.8°C | 65°F / 18.3°C | 66°F / 18.9°C | 67°F / 19.4°C | 68°F / 20.0°C | 69°F / 20.6°C | 69°F / 20.6°C | 69°F / 20.6°C | 68°F / 20.0°C | 67°F / 19.4°C | 65°F / 18.3°C |- style="background:#ffc;" | 79°F / 26.1°C | 79°F / 26.1°C | 79°F / 26.1°C | 79°F / 26.1°C | 81°F / 27.2°C | 82°F / 27.8°C | 82°F / 27.8°C | 83°F / 28.3°C | 83°F / 28.3°C | 83°F / 28.3°C | 81°F / 27.2°C | 80°F / 26.7°C |- !rowspan="2" scope="row"| Honolulu | 66°F / 18.9°C | 65°F / 18.3°C | 67°F / 19.4°C | 68°F / 20.0°C | 70°F / 21.1°C | 72°F / 22.2°C | 74°F / 23.3°C | 75°F / 23.9°C | 74°F / 23.3°C | 73°F / 22.8°C | 71°F / 21.7°C | 68°F / 20.0°C |- style="background:#ffc;" | 80°F / 26.7°C | 81°F / 27.2°C | 82°F / 27.8°C | 83°F / 28.3°C | 85°F / 29.4°C | 87°F / 30.6°C | 88°F / 31.1°C | 89°F / 31.7°C | 89°F / 31.7°C | 87°F / 30.6°C | 84°F / 28.9°C | 82°F / 27.8°C |- !rowspan="2" scope="row"| Kahului | 63°F / 17.2°C | 63°F / 17.2°C | 65°F / 18.3°C | 66°F / 18.9°C | 67°F / 19.4°C | 69°F / 20.6°C | 71°F / 21.7°C | 71°F / 21.7°C | 70°F / 21.1°C | 69°F / 20.6°C | 68°F / 20.0°C | 65°F / 18.3°C |- style="background:#ffc;" | 80°F / 26.7°C | 81°F / 27.2°C | 82°F / 27.8°C | 82°F / 27.8°C | 84°F / 28.9°C | 86°F / 30.0°C | 87°F / 30.6°C | 88°F / 31.1°C | 88°F / 31.1°C | 87°F / 30.6°C | 84°F / 28.9°C | 82°F / 27.8°C |- !rowspan="2" scope="row"| Lihue | 65°F / 18.3°C | 66°F / 18.9°C | 67°F / 19.4°C | 69°F / 20.6°C | 70°F / 21.1°C | 73°F / 22.8°C | 74°F / 23.3°C | 74°F / 23.3°C | 74°F / 23.3°C | 73°F / 22.8°C | 71°F / 21.7°C | 68°F / 20.0°C |- style="background:#ffc;" | 78°F / 25.6°C | 78°F / 26.6°C | 78°F / 26.6°C | 79°F / 26.1°C | 81°F / 27.2°C | 83°F / 28.3°C | 84°F / 28.9°C | 85°F / 29.4°C | 85°F / 29.4°C | 84°F / 28.9°C | 81°F / 27.2°C | 79°F / 26.1°C |}

History

Hawaii is one of four states that were independent prior to becoming part of the United States, along with the Vermont Republic (1791), the Republic of Texas (1845), and the California Republic (1846), and one of two, along with Texas, that had formal diplomatic recognition internationally. The Kingdom of Hawaii was sovereign from 1810 until 1893 when the monarchy was overthrown by resident American (and some European) businessmen. It was an independent republic from 1894 until 1898, when it was annexed by the United States as a territory, becoming a state in 1959.

Hawaii was the target of a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by Imperial Japan on December 7, 1941. The attack on Pearl Harbor and other military and naval installations on Oahu, carried out by aircraft and by midget submarines, brought the United States into World War II.

Pre-European contact—Ancient Hawaii (800–1778)

The earliest habitation supported by archaeological evidence dates to as early as 300 CE, probably by Polynesian settlers from the Marquesas, followed by a second wave of migration from Raiatea and Bora Bora in the 11th century. The first recorded European contact with the islands was in 1778 by British explorer James Cook.

Polynesians from the Marquesas and possibly the Society Islands may have first populated the Hawaiian Islands between 300 and 500 CE. There is a great deal of debate regarding these dates.

Some archaeologists and historians believe that an early settlement from the Marquesas and a later wave of immigrants from Tahiti, c. 1000 introduced a new line of high chiefs, the Kapu system, the practice of human sacrifice and the building of ''heiau''s. This later immigration is detailed in folk tales about Paao. Other authors argue that there is no archaeological or linguistic evidence for a later influx of Tahitian settlers, and that Paao must be regarded as a myth.

Regardless of the question of Paao, historians agree that the history of the islands was marked by a slow but steady growth in population and the size of the chiefdoms, which grew to encompass whole islands. Local chiefs, called alii, ruled their settlements and launched wars to extend their sway and defend their communities from predatory rivals.

James Cook—European arrival and the Kingdom of Hawaii (1778–1893)

The 1778 arrival of British explorer James Cook was Hawaii’s first documented contact with European explorers. Cook named the islands the "Sandwich Islands" in honor of his sponsor John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich. He published the islands' location and reported the native name as ''Owyhee''. This spelling lives on in Owyhee County, Idaho, after three Hawaiian members of a trapping party killed in that area.

Cook visited the islands twice. During his second visit in 1779, he attempted to abduct the King of the Big Island of Hawaii, Kalaniōpuu, and hold him as ransom for the return of a ship's boat that was taken by a minor chief and his men, a tactic that had worked for Cook in Tahiti and other islands. Kalaniōpuu and his supporters fought back and Cook and four Marines were killed as Cook's party retreated to the beach and launched their boats.

After Cook's visit and the publication of several books relating his voyages, the Hawaiian islands received many European visitors: explorers, traders, and eventually whalers who found the islands a convenient harbor and source of supplies. Early British influence can be seen in the design of the flag of Hawaii which has the British Union Flag in the corner.

These visitors introduced diseases to the once-isolated islands and the Hawaiian population plunged precipitously because native Hawaiians had no resistance to influenza, smallpox, and measles, among others. During the 1850s, measles killed a fifth of Hawaii's people.

Historical records indicated that the earliest immigration of the Chinese came from Guangdong province: a few sailors in 1778 with Captain Cook's journey, more in 1788 with Kaina, and some in 1789 with an American trader who settled in Hawaii in the late 18th century.

House of Kamehameha

During the 1780s and 1790s, chiefs were often fighting for power. After a series of battles that ended in 1795 and forced cession of the island of Kauai in 1810, all inhabited islands were subjugated under a single ruler who became known as King Kamehameha the Great. He established the House of Kamehameha, a dynasty that ruled the kingdom until 1872.

After Kamehameha II inherited the throne in 1819, missionaries to Hawaii converted many Hawaiians to Christianity. Their influence ended many ancient practices, and Kamehameha III was the first Christian king. Missionary leaders included Protestant Hiram Bingham I and Joseph F. Smith of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Father Damien, a Roman Catholic priest, was canonized for his work in the isolated leper colony of Kalaupapa on the island of Molokai. Other missionaries and their descendants, such as Henry Perrine Baldwin, became active in commercial and political affairs, leading to future conflicts.

The death of the bachelor King Kamehameha V—who did not name an heir—resulted in the popular election of Lunalilo over Kalākaua. Lunalilo died the next year, also without naming an heir. Perhaps "the People's King" (Lunalilo) wanted the people to choose his successor as they had chosen him. In 1874 the election was contested within the legislature between Kalākaua and Emma. This led to riots and the landing of U.S. and British troops, and governance passed to the House of Kalākaua.

1887 Constitution

In 1887, Kalākaua was forced to sign the 1887 Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawaii, which stripped the king of much of his authority. There was a property qualification for voting, which disenfranchised many poorer Hawaiians and favored the wealthier white community. Resident whites were allowed to vote, but resident Asians were excluded. Because the 1887 Constitution was signed under threat of violence, it is known as the "Bayonet Constitution". King Kalākaua, reduced to a figurehead, reigned until his death in 1891. His sister, Liliuokalani, succeeded him on the throne.

In 1893, Queen Liliuokalani announced plans for a new constitution. On January 14, 1893, a group of mostly Euro-American business leaders and residents formed a Committee of Safety to overthrow the Kingdom and seek annexation by the United States. United States Government Minister John L. Stevens, responding to a request from the Committee of Safety, summoned a company of U.S. Marines. As one historian noted, the presence of these troops effectively made it impossible for the monarchy to protect itself.

Overthrow of 1893—the Republic of Hawaii (1894–1898)

In January 1893, Queen Liliuokalani was overthrown and replaced by a Provisional Government composed of members of the Committee of Safety. Controversy filled the following years as the queen tried to re-establish her throne. The administration of President Grover Cleveland commissioned the Blount Report, which concluded that the removal of Liliuokalani was illegal. The U.S. government first demanded that Queen Liliuokalani be reinstated, but the Provisional Government refused. Congress followed with another investigation, and submitted the Morgan Report 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. The accuracy and impartiality of both the Blount and Morgan reports has been questioned by partisans on both sides of the debate over the events of 1893.

In 1993, a joint Apology Resolution regarding the overthrow was passed by Congress and signed by President Clinton, apologizing for the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. It is the first time in American history that the United States government has apologized for overthrowing the government of a sovereign nation.

The Provisional Government of Hawaii ended on July 4, 1894, replaced by the Republic of Hawaii.

The first Japanese immigrants arrived in Hawaii in 1885 as contract laborers for the sugar cane and pineapple plantations. Puerto Rican immigration to Hawaii began when Puerto Rico's sugar industry was devastated by two hurricanes in 1899. The devastation caused a world wide shortage in sugar and a huge demand for the product from Hawaii. Hawaiian sugar plantation owners began to recruit the jobless, but experienced, laborers in Puerto Rico. Two distinct waves of Korean immigration to Hawaii have occurred in the last century. The first arrived in between 1903 and 1924; the second wave began in 1965.

Annexation—the Territory of Hawaii (1898–1959)

After William McKinley won the presidential election in 1896, Hawaii's annexation to the U.S. was again discussed. The previous president, Grover Cleveland, was a friend of Queen Liliuokalani. McKinley was open to persuasion by U.S. expansionists and by annexationists from Hawaii. He met with three annexationists from Hawaii: Lorrin Thurston, Francis March Hatch and William Ansel Kinney. After negotiations, in June 1897, Secretary of State John Sherman agreed to a treaty of annexation with these representatives of the Republic of Hawaii.

The treaty was never ratified by the U.S. Senate. Instead, the Newlands Resolution by both houses of Congress annexed the Republic to the United States and it became the Territory of Hawaii. Despite some opposition in the islands, the Newlands Resolution was passed by the House June 15, 1898, by a vote of 209 to 91, and by the Senate on July 6, 1898, by a vote of 42 to 21.

In 1900, Hawaii was granted self-governance and retained Iolani Palace as the territorial capitol building. Despite several attempts to become a state, Hawaii remained a territory for sixty years. Plantation owners and key capitalists, who maintained control through financial institutions, or "factors," known as the "Big Five", found territorial status convenient, enabling them to continue importing cheap foreign labor; such immigration was prohibited in various states.

Political Changes of 1954—the State of Hawaii (1959–present)

In the 1950s the power of the plantation owners was finally broken by descendants of immigrant laborers. Because they were born in a U.S. territory, they were legal U.S. citizens. The Hawaii Republican Party, strongly supported by plantation owners, was voted out of office. The Democratic Party of Hawaii dominated politics for 40 years. Expecting to gain full voting rights, Hawaii's residents actively campaigned for statehood.

In March 1959, Congress passed the Hawaii Admission Act and U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed it into law. (The act excluded Palmyra Atoll, part of the Kingdom and Territory of Hawaii, from the new state.) On June 27 of that year, a referendum asked residents of Hawaii to vote on the statehood bill. Hawaii voted 17 to 1 to accept. The choices were to accept the Act or to remain a territory, without the option of independence. The United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization later removed Hawaii from the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories.

After statehood, Hawaii quickly modernized via construction and rapidly growing tourism economy. Later, state programs promoted Hawaiian culture. The Hawaii State Constitutional Convention of 1978 incorporated programs such as the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to promote indigenous language and culture.

Cities and towns

The movement of the Hawaiian royal family from the Big Island to Maui, and subsequently to Oahu, explains why population centers exist where they do today. Kamehameha III chose the largest city, Honolulu, as his capital because of its natural harbor, the present-day Honolulu Harbor.

Now the state capital, Honolulu is located along the southeast coast of Oahu. The previous capital was Lahaina, Maui and before that Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. Some major towns are Hilo, Kāneohe, Kailua, Pearl City, Waipahu, Kahului, Kailua-Kona, Kīhei, and Līhue.

Demographics

Population

As of 2005, Hawaii has an estimated population of 1,275,194, an increase of 13,070, or 1.0%, from the prior year and an increase of 63,657, or 5.3%, since 2000. This includes a natural increase 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 between the two islands of Oahu and Molokai.

Hawaii has a ''de facto'' population of over 1.3 million due to large military and tourist populations. Oahu, nicknamed "The Gathering Place", is the most populous island (and has 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.) Hawaii's 1,275,194 people, spread over (including many unpopulated islands) results in an average population density of 188.6 persons per square mile, which makes Hawaii less densely populated than Ohio and Illinois.

The average projected lifespan of those born in Hawaii in 2000 was 79.8 years (77.1 years if male, 82.5 if female), longer than any other state.

U.S. military personnel make up approximately 1.3% of the population in the islands.

Race and ethnicity

According to the 2010 U.S. Census, Hawaii had a population of 1,360,301. In terms of race and ethnicity, the state was 24.7% White (22.7% Non-Hispanic White Alone), 1.6% Black or African American, 0.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 38.6% Asian, 10.0% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, 1.2% from Some Other race, and 23.6% from Two or More Races. Hispanics and Latinos of any race made up 8.9% of the population.

Hawaii is demographically unique because it has the highest percentage of Asian Americans and Multiracial Americans, as well as the lowest percentage of White Americans. Hawaii's Asian population mainly consists of 198,000 (14.6%) Filipino Americans and 185,000 (13.6%) Japanese Americans. In addition, there are roughly 55,000 (4.0%) Chinese Americans and 24,000 (1.8%) Korean Americans. Indigenous Hawaiians number over 80,000, which is 5.9% of the population. Over 120,000 (8.8%) Hispanic and Latino Americans make Hawaii their home. Mexicans number over 35,000 (2.6%); Puerto Ricans exceed 44,000 (3.2%). Multiracial Americans form almost one-quarter of Hawaii's population, exceeding 320,000 people. Eurasian Americans are a prominent mixed-race group; there are roughly 66,000 (4.9%) Eurasian Americans in Hawaii. The Non-Hispanic White population numbers at 310,000 and forms just over one-fifth of the population. The multiracial population outnumbers the non-Hispanic white population by about 10,000 people.

The five largest European ancestries in Hawaii are German (7.4%), Irish (5.2%), English (4.6%), Portuguese (4.3%), and Italian (2.7%).

Approximately 82.2% of Hawaii's residents were born in the United States. Roughly 75.0% of the foreign-born residents hail from Asia.

Hawaii is a majority-minority state. Non-Hispanic whites do not form a majority. Hawaii was the second majority-minority state. Both Hawaii and New Mexico have been majority-minority since the early 20th century.

Ancestry groups

{|class="wikitable sortable" style="float:right; margin:0 0 1em 1em;" |+Population of Hawaii |- style="background:#efefef;" !Ancestry||Percentage||Main article: |- |Filipino !13.6% |''See Filipino American'' |- | Japanese !12.6% |''See Japanese American'' |- |Polynesian !9.0% |''See Native Hawaiians'' |- |German !7.4% |''See German American'' |- |Irish !5.2% |''See Irish American'' |- |English !4.6% |''See English American'' |- |Portuguese !4.3% |''See Portuguese American'' |- |Chinese !4.1% |''See Chinese American'' |- |Korean !3.1% |''See Korean American'' |- |Mexican !2.9% |''See Mexican American'' |- |Puerto Rican !2.8% |''See Puerto Rican'' |- |Italian !2.7% |''See Italian American'' |- |African !2.4% |''See African American'' |- |French !1.7% |''See French American'' |- |Scottish !1.2% |''See Scottish American'' |}

The largest ancestry groups in Hawaii as of 2008 are in the table at right. The third group of foreigners to arrive upon Hawaii's shores, after those from Polynesia and Europe, was from Han China. Chinese workers on Western trading ships settled in Hawaii starting in 1789. In 1820 the first American missionaries came to preach Christianity and teach the Hawaiians Western ways. They were instrumental in convincing the Hawaiian Chiefs to end human sacrifice.

A large proportion of Hawaii's population is now of Asian ancestry (especially Chinese, Japanese and Filipino.) Many are descendants of those immigrants brought to work on the sugar plantations in the 1850s and after. The first 153 Japanese immigrants arrived in Hawaii on June 19, 1868. They were not "legally" approved by the Japanese government because the contract was between a broker and the Tokugawa shogunate, by then replaced by the Meiji Restoration. The first Japanese government-approved immigrants arrived on February 9, 1885 after Kalākaua's petition to Emperor Meiji when Kalākaua visited Japan in 1881.

Almost 13,000 Portuguese had come by 1899. They too worked on the sugar plantations. By October 17, 1901, 5,000 Puerto Ricans had made new homes on the four islands.

Languages

The State of Hawaii has two official languages recognized in its 1978 constitution: English and Hawaiian. Article XV, Section 4, specifies that "Hawaiian shall be required for public acts and transactions ''only as provided by law''" [italic added]. Hawaii Creole English (locally referred to as 'Pidgin') is the native language of many born-and-raised residents and is a second language for many other residents.

English

As of the 2000 Census, 73.44% of Hawaii residents age 5 and older speak only English at home.

According to the 2008 American Community Survey, 74.6% of Hawaii's residents over the age of five speak only English at home.

Minority languages

In addition, 2.6% of the state's residents speak Spanish; 1.6% speak other Indo-European languages; 21.0% speak an Asian language; and 0.2% speak a different language at home.

After English, other popular languages are Tagalog (most are bilingual in Filipino), Japanese, and Ilokano. Significant European immigrants and descendants also speak their native languages; the most numerous are Spanish, German, Portuguese and French.

Tagalog speakers make up 5.37% (which includes non-native speakers of Filipino language, the national co-official Tagalog-based language), followed by Japanese at 4.96%, Ilokano at 4.05%, Chinese at 1.92%, Hawaiian at 1.68%, Spanish at 1.66%, Korean at 1.61%, and Samoan at 1.01%.

Hawaiian

The Hawaiian language has about 2000 native speakers, less than 0.1% of the total population. According to the United States Census, there were 27,160 total speakers of the language in Hawaii in 2005.

Hawaiian is a Polynesian member of the Austronesian language family. It is closely related to other Polynesian languages, such as Marquesan, Tahitian, Māori, Rapa Nui (the language of Easter Island), and less closely to Samoan, and Tongan.

According to Schütz (1994), the Marquesans colonized the archipelago in roughly 300 AD followed by later waves of immigration from the Society Islands and Samoa-Tonga. Those Polynesians remained in the islands, thereby becoming the Hawaiian people. Their languages, over time, became the Hawaiian language. Kimura and Wilson (1983) also state, "Linguists agree that Hawaiian is closely related to Eastern Polynesian, with a particularly strong link in the Southern Marquesas, and a secondary link in Tahiti, which may be explained by voyaging between the Hawaiian and Society Islands." Before the arrival of Captain James Cook, the Hawaiian language had no written form. That form was developed mainly by American Protestant missionaries during 1820–1826. They assigned letters from the Latin alphabet that corresponded to the Hawaiian sounds.

Interest in Hawaiian increased significantly in the late 20th century. With the help of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, specially designated immersion schools were established where all subjects would be taught in Hawaiian. Also, the University of Hawaii developed a Hawaiian language graduate studies program. Municipal codes were altered to favor Hawaiian place and street names for new civic developments.

Hawaiian distinguishes between long and short vowels. In modern practice, vowel length is indicated with a macron (''kahakō''). Also, Hawaiian uses the glottal stop as a consonant (''okina''). It is written as a symbol similar to the apostrophe or opening single quote.

Hawaiian-language newspapers published from 1834–1948 and traditional native speakers of Hawaiian generally omit the marks in their own writing. The okina and kahakō are intended to help non-native speakers.

Hawaiian Pidgin

Some locals speak Hawaii Creole English (HCE), often called "pidgin". The lexicon of HCE derives mainly from English but also has words from Hawaiian, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Ilocano and Tagalog. During the 19th century, the increase in immigration (mainly from China, Japan, Portugal—and especially from the Azores archipelago—and Spain), caused a variant of English to develop. By the early 20th century pidgin speakers had children who acquired the pidgin as their first language. HCE speakers use some Hawaiian words without those words being considered archaic. Most place names are retained from Hawaiian, as are some names for plants or animals. For example, tuna fish are often called ''ahi''.

HCE speakers have modified the meanings of certain English words. For example, "aunty" and "uncle" refer to any adult who is a friend, or to show respect for an elder. Simplified grammar is used. For example, instead of "It is hot today, isn't it?", an HCE speaker would say simply "stay hot, eh?" When a word does not come to mind quickly, the term "da kine" refers to any word you cannot think of. Through 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.

Spelling of state name

A somewhat divisive political issue arose when the constitution of the State of Hawaii added Hawaiian as a second official state language: the exact spelling of the state's name, which in the islands' language is ''Hawai'i'' (the apostrophe marking a Hawaiian consonant, a cut-off of breath before the final i). In the Hawaii Admission Act that granted Hawaiian statehood, the federal government recognized ''Hawaii'' to be the official state name. Official government publications, as well as department and office titles, use the traditional Hawaiian spelling, with no symbols for glottal stops or vowel length. In contrast, some private entities, including a local newspaper, do use such symbols.

The title of the state constitution is "The Constitution of the State of Hawaii". In Article XV, 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 kahakō in Hawaiian orthography, the diacritics were not used.

The nuances in the Hawaiian language debate are often not obvious or appreciated among English speakers outside Hawaii.

Religion

The largest denominations by number of adherents were the Catholic Church with 240,813 in 2000 and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with 68,128 in 2009.

According to data provided by religious establishments, religion in Hawaii in 2000 was distributed as follows:

Christianity: 351,000 (28.9%)

Buddhism: 110,000 (9%)

Judaism: 10,000 (0.8%)

Other: 100,000 (10%)*

Unaffiliated: 650,000 (51.1%)**

"Other" are religions other than Christianity, Buddhism, or Judaism; this group includes Bahá'í Faith, Confucianism, Daoism, the Hawaiian religion, Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Shintoism, Zoroastrianism, and other religions.

"Unaffiliated" refers to people who do not belong to a congregation; this group includes agnostics, atheists, humanists, and the irreligious.

A 2009 Gallup poll found religion was distributed as follows, excluding those of other non-Judeo-Christian religions and those who had "no opinion":

Protestant/Other Christian: 37.8%

Roman Catholic: 22.8%

Mormonism: 3.3%

Judaism: 0.7%

Irreligious, Agnostic, Atheist: 21.0%

A special case is Hooponopono, an ancient Hawaiian practice of reconciliation and forgiveness, combined with prayer. It is both philosophy and way of life. Traditionally hooponopono is practiced by healing priests or ''kahuna lapaau'' among family members of a person who is physically ill.

Economy

The history of Hawaii can be traced through a succession of dominant industries: sandalwood, whaling, sugarcane (see Sugar plantations in Hawaii), pineapple, military, tourism, and education. Since statehood in 1959, tourism has been the largest industry, contributing 24.3% of the Gross State Product (GSP) in 1997, despite efforts to diversify. The gross output for the state in 2003 was US$47 billion; per capita income for Hawaii residents was US$30,441.

Hawaiian exports include food and apparel. These industries play a small role in the Hawaiian economy, however, due to the considerable shipping distance to viable markets, such as the West Coast of the United States. Food exports include coffee (see coffee production in Hawaii), macadamia nuts, pineapple, livestock, and sugarcane. Agricultural sales for 2002, according to the Hawaii Agricultural Statistics Service, were US$370.9 million from diversified agriculture, US$100.6 million from pineapple, and US$64.3 million from sugarcane.

Hawaii has a relatively high state tax burden. In 2003, Hawaii residents had the highest state tax per capita at US$2,838. This is partly because education, health care and social services are all provided directly by the state, as opposed to local government in all other states.

Millions of tourists contribute to the tax take by paying the general excise tax and hotel room tax; thus not all taxes come directly from residents. Business leaders, however, consider the state's tax burden too high, contributing to both higher prices and the perception of an unfriendly business climate. See the list of businesses in Hawaii for more on commerce.

Hawaii was one of the few states to control gasoline prices through a Gas Cap Law. Since oil company profits in Hawaii compared to the mainland U.S. were under scrutiny, the law tied local gasoline prices to those of the mainland. It took effect in September 2005 amid price fluctuations caused by Hurricane Katrina, but was suspended in April 2006.

As of January 2010, the state's unemployment rate was 6.9%.

In 2009, the United States military spent $12.2 billion in Hawaii, accounting for 18% of spending in the state for that year. 75,000 United States Department of Defense personnel reside in Hawaii.

Cost of living

The cost of living in Hawaii, specifically Honolulu, is quite high compared to most major cities in the United States. However, the cost of living in Honolulu is 6.7% lower than in New York, NY and 3.6% lower than in San Francisco, CA. These numbers may not take into account certain costs, such as increased travel costs for longer flights, additional shipping fees, and the loss of promotional participation opportunities for customers "outside the continental United States". While some online stores do offer free shipping on orders to Hawaii, many merchants exclude Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico and certain other US territories.

The median home value in Hawaii in the 2000 US Census was $272,700 while the national median home value was less than half, at $119,600. Hawaii home values were the highest of all states, including California with a median home value of $211,500. More recent research from the National Association of Realtors® places the 2010 median sale price of a single family home in Honolulu, Hawaii at $607,600 and the US median sales price at $173,200. The sale price of single family homes in Hawaii was the highest of any US city in 2010, just above the "Silicon Valley" area of California ($602,000).

Culture

The aboriginal culture of Hawaii is Polynesian. Hawaii represents the northernmost extension of the vast Polynesian triangle of the south and central Pacific Ocean. While traditional Hawaiian culture remains only as vestiges in modern Hawaiian society, there are reenactments of the ceremonies and traditions throughout the islands. Some of these cultural influences are strong enough to affect the United States at large, including the popularity (in greatly modified form) of luaus and hula.

Hawaii is home to numerous cultural events. The annual Merrie Monarch Festival is an international Hula competition. The state is also home to the Hawaii International Film Festival, the premier film festival for pacific rim cinema. Honolulu is also home to the state's long running GLBT film festival, the Rainbow Film Festival.

Health

Hawaii's health care system insures 92% (2009) of residents. Under the state's plan, businesses are required to provide insurance to employees who work more than twenty hours per week. Heavy regulation of insurance companies helps keep the cost to employers down. Due in part to heavy emphasis on preventive care, Hawaiians require hospital treatment less frequently than the rest of the United States, while total health care expenses (measured as a percentage of state GDP) are substantially lower. Given these achievements, proponents of universal health care elsewhere in the U.S. sometimes use Hawaii as a model for proposed federal and state health care plans.

Education

Public schools

Hawaii has the U.S.' only school system that is unified statewide. Policy decisions are made by the fourteen-member state Board of Education. The Board sets policy and hires the superintendent of schools, who oversees the state Department of Education. The Department of Education is divided into seven districts, four on Oahu and one for each of the three other counties.

The main rationale for centralization is to combat inequalities between highly populated Oahu and the more rural Neighbor Islands, and between lower-income and more affluent areas. In most of the United States, schools are funded from local property taxes.

Educators struggle with children of non-native-English-speaking immigrants, whose cultures are different from those of the mainland (where most course materials and testing standards originate).

Public elementary, middle, and high school test scores in Hawaii are below national averages on tests mandated under the No Child Left Behind Act. Some of the gap has been attributed to the Hawaii Board of Education's requirement that all eligible students take these tests and report all student test scores (other states, Texas and Michigan for example, do not). Results reported in August, 2005, indicate that of 282 schools across the state, 185 (2/3) failed to reach federal minimum performance standards in math and reading.

On the other hand, the ACT college placement tests show that in 2005, seniors scored slightly above the national average (21.9 compared with 20.9). In the widely accepted SAT examinations, Hawaii's college-bound seniors tend to score below the national average in all categories except mathematics.

Other schools

Hawaii educates more students in independent institutions of secondary education than any other state in the United States. It has four of the largest independent schools: Iolani School, Kamehameha Schools, Mid-Pacific Institute, and Punahou School. The second Buddhist high school in the United States, and first Buddhist high school in Hawaii, Pacific Buddhist Academy, was founded in 2003. The first native controlled public charter school was the Kanu O Ka Aina New Century Charter School.

Independent and charter schools can select their students, while the regular public schools must take all students in their district. The Kamehameha Schools are the only schools in the United States that openly grant admission to students based on ancestry, and the wealthiest schools in the United States, if not the world, having over nine billion US dollars in estate assets. In 2005, Kamehameha enrolled 5,398 students, 8.4% of the Native Hawaiian children in the state.

Colleges and universities

Graduates of secondary schools in Hawaii often enter directly into the work force. Some attend colleges and universities on the mainland or other countries, and the rest attend an institution of higher learning in Hawaii.

The largest is the University of Hawaii System. It consists of: the research university at Mānoa; two comprehensive campuses Hilo and West Oahu; and seven Community Colleges. Private universities include Brigham Young University–Hawaii, Chaminade University of Honolulu, Hawaii Pacific University, Wayland Baptist University, or University of the Nations. The Saint Stephen Diocesan Center is a seminary of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu.

Law and government

The state government of Hawaii is modeled after the federal government with adaptations originating from the kingdom era of Hawaiian history. As codified in the Constitution of Hawaii, there are three branches of government: executive, legislative and judicial.

The executive branch is led by the Governor of Hawaii assisted by the Lieutenant Governor of Hawaii, both elected on the same ticket. The governor is the only state public official elected statewide; all others are appointed by the governor. The lieutenant governor acts as the Secretary of State. The governor and lieutenant governor oversee twenty agencies and departments from offices in the State Capitol. The official residence of the governor is Washington Place.

The legislative branch consists of the bicameral Hawaii State Legislature, which is composed of the 51-member Hawaii House of Representatives led by the Speaker of the House and the 25-member Hawaii Senate led by the President of the Senate. The Legislature meets at the State Capitol.

The unified judicial branch of Hawaii is the Hawai'i State Judiciary. The state's highest court is the Supreme Court of Hawaii, which uses Aliiōlani Hale as its chambers.

Unique to Hawaii is the lack of municipal governments. All local governments are administered at the county level. The only incorporated area in the state is a consolidated city–county, Honolulu County, which governs the entire island of Oahu. County executives are the referred to as mayors: The mayor of Hawaii County, mayor of Honolulu, mayor of Kauai and mayor of Maui. The mayors are all elected in nonpartisan races.

Federal government

Hawaii is represented in the United States Congress by two Senators and two Representatives. All four are Democrats.

Colleen Hanabusa represents the 1st congressional district in the House, representing southeastern Oahu, including central Honolulu. Mazie Hirono represents the 2nd congressional district, representing the rest of the state, which is mainly rural.

Daniel Inouye is the senior senator, having served since January 3, 1963. In June 2010, Inouye became the longest-serving current Senator; he is the current President pro tempore of the United States Senate, a position traditionally given to the longest-serving Senator of the majority party. Daniel Akaka is the junior Senator, having served since May 16, 1990. Inouye and Akaka were both born in 1924, making them the oldest current Senate duo.

Federal officials in Hawaii are based at the Prince Kūhiō Federal Building near the Aloha Tower and Honolulu Harbor in Honolulu. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service and the Secret Service maintain their offices there, and the building is the also the site of federal District Court for the District of Hawaii and the United States Attorney for the District of Hawaii.

National politics

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Hawaii supported Democrats in 10 of the last 12 presidential elections. The exceptions were 1972 and 1984. In 2004, John Kerry won the state's four electoral votes by a margin of nine percentage points with 54% of the vote. Every county supported the Democratic candidate. In 1964, favorite son candidate Senator Hiram Fong of Hawaii sought the Republican presidential nomination, while Patsy Mink ran in the Oregon primary in 1972.

Honolulu native, the 44th United States President Barack Obama, then serving as United States Senator from Illinois, was elected President of the United States on November 4, 2008. Obama had won the Hawaiian Democratic Caucus on February 19, 2008 with 76% of the vote. He was the third Hawaii-born candidate to seek the nomination of a major party and the first presidential nominee from Hawaii.

Transportation

A system of state highways encircles each main island. Only Oahu has federal highways, and is the only area outside the contiguous 48 states to have signed Interstate highways. Travel can be slow due to narrow winding roads, and congested in cities. Each major island has a public bus system. Commercial airlines provide most mainland and inter-island travel. Hawaiian Airlines, Mokulele Airlines, and go! use jets between the larger airports in Honolulu, Līhue, Kahului, Kona, and Hilo, while Island Air and Pacific Wings serve smaller airports. These airlines also provide air freight service between the islands.

Private steamships and ferries were the sole way of traveling between the islands from the 19th century until the 1950s. Seaflite operated hydrofoils between the major islands in the mid-1970s. The Hawaii Superferry operated between Oahu and Maui between December 2007 and March 2009, with additional routes planned for other islands. Legal issues over environmental impact statements and protests ended the service, though the company operating Superferry has expressed a wish to begin ferry service again at a future date. Currently there is passenger ferry service in Maui County between Moloka'i and Maui, and between Lana'i and Maui, though neither of these takes vehicles. Norwegian Cruise Lines also provides passenger cruise ship service between the islands.

At one time, Hawaii had a network of railroads on each of the larger islands that helped move farm commodities as well as passengers. These railroads were all narrow gauge (3' gauge for the majority although there were some 2' 6" gauge on some of the smaller islands - standard US gauge is 4' 8 1/2"). The largest by far was the Oahu Railway and Land Company (OR&L;) which ran multiple lines from Honolulu across the western and northern part of Oahu. The OR&L; was an important player moving troops and goods during World War II. Traffic on this line was busy enough that there were signals on the lines facilitating movement of trains and wigwag signals at some railroad crossings for the protection of motorists. The mainline was officially abandoned in 1947, although part of it was bought by the US Navy and operated until 1970. Thirteen miles of track remain and preservationists occasionally run trains over a portion of this line.

Sister cities and twin towns

See also

Hawaiian Islands

List of National Register of Historic Places in Hawaii

List of people from Hawaii

List of places in Hawaii

Pacific Ocean

Polynesia

U.S. state

References

Further reading

The Constitution of the State of Hawaii. Article XV.

Bushnell, O. A. 1993. ''The Gifts of Civilization: Germs and Genocide in Hawaii''. ISBN 0824814576. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press

Kinzer, Stephen 2007, ''Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq''. ISBN 0805082409. Times Books

Schamel, Wynell and Charles E. Schamel. "The 1897 Petition Against the Annexation of Hawaii." Social Education 63, 7 (November/December 1999): 402–408.

Stokes, John F.G. 1932. "Spaniard and the Sweet Potato in Hawaii and Hawaiian-American Contacts." American Anthropologist, New Series, v, 34, n, 4, pp. 594–600.

External links

Hawaii State Fact Sheet from the U.S. Department of Agriculture

USGS real-time, geographic, and other scientific resources of Hawaii

Energy Data & Statistics for Hawaii

Satellite image of Hawaiian Islands at NASA's Earth Observatory

Documents relating to Hawaiian Statehood, Dwight D. Eisenhower President Library

Happily a State, Forever an Island by ''The New York Times''

Hawaii Then and Now - slideshow by ''Life magazine''

{{S-ttl| title = List of U.S. states by date of statehood | years = Admitted on August 21, 1959 (50th) }}

Category:States and territories established in 1959 Category:States of the United States

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Coordinates	51°43′″N36°11′″N
name	Charles II
alt	Seated man of thin build with chest-length curly black hair
succession	King of Scotland
reign	30 January 1649 – 3 September 1651
predecessor	Charles I
successor	Military government led by George Monck
coronation	1 January 1651
succession1	King of England, Scotland, and Ireland
moretext1	(more...)
reign1	29 May 1660 – 6 February 1685
predecessor1	Charles I ''(de jure)''Council of State ''(de facto)''
successor1	James VII & II
coronation1	23 April 1661
spouse	Catherine of Braganza
issue	''Illegitimate:''James Scott, 1st Duke of MonmouthCharles FitzCharles, 1st Earl of PlymouthCharles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of ClevelandCharlotte Lee, Countess of LichfieldHenry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of GraftonGeorge FitzRoy, 1st Duke of NorthumberlandCharles Beauclerk, 1st Duke of St AlbansCharles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond
issue-pipe	Among others...
issue-link	#Issue
house	House of Stuart
father	Charles I
mother	Henrietta Maria of France
birth date	May 29, 1630(N.S.: 8 June 1630)
birth place	St. James's Palace, London England
death date	February 06, 1685(N.S.: 16 February 1685)
death place	Whitehall Palace, London
place of burial	Westminster Abbey
signature	CharlesIISig.svg
Religion	Anglican, converted to Roman Catholicism on his deathbed }}

Charles II (29 May 1630 OS – 6 February 1685 OS) was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War. Although the Parliament of Scotland proclaimed Charles II King of Great Britain and Ireland in Edinburgh on 6 February 1649, the English Parliament instead passed a statute that made any such proclamation in England and Ireland unlawful. England entered the period known as the English Interregnum or the English Commonwealth, and the country was a ''de facto'' republic, led by Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell defeated Charles at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651, and Charles fled to mainland Europe. Cromwell became virtual dictator of England, Scotland and Ireland. Charles spent the next nine years in exile in France, the United Provinces and the Spanish Netherlands.

A political crisis that followed the death of Cromwell in 1658 resulted in the restoration of the monarchy, and Charles was invited to return to Britain. On 29 May 1660, his 30th birthday, he was received in London to public acclaim. After 1660, all legal documents were dated as if Charles had succeeded his father as king in 1649.

Charles's English parliament enacted laws known as the Clarendon Code, designed to shore up the position of the re-established Church of England. Charles acquiesced to the Clarendon Code even though he himself favoured a policy of religious tolerance. The major foreign policy issue of Charles's early reign was the Second Anglo-Dutch War. In 1670, Charles entered into the secret treaty of Dover, an alliance with his first cousin King Louis XIV of France. Louis agreed to aid Charles in the Third Anglo-Dutch War and pay Charles a pension, and Charles secretly promised to convert to Roman Catholicism at an unspecified future date. Charles attempted to introduce religious freedom for Catholics and Protestant dissenters with his 1672 Royal Declaration of Indulgence, but the English Parliament forced him to withdraw it. In 1679, Titus Oates's revelations of a supposed "Popish Plot" sparked the Exclusion Crisis when it was revealed that Charles's brother and heir (James, Duke of York) was a Roman Catholic. The crisis saw the birth of the pro-exclusion Whig and anti-exclusion Tory parties. Charles sided with the Tories, and, following the discovery of the Rye House Plot to murder Charles and James in 1683, some Whig leaders were killed or forced into exile. Charles dissolved the English Parliament in 1681, and ruled alone until his death on 6 February 1685. He was received into the Roman Catholic Church on his deathbed.

Charles was popularly known as the ''Merrie Monarch'', in reference to both the liveliness and hedonism of his court and the general relief at the return to normality after over a decade of rule by Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans. Charles's wife, Catherine of Braganza, bore no children, but Charles acknowledged at least 12 illegitimate children by various mistresses. As illegitimate children were excluded from the succession, he was succeeded by his brother James.

Early life

Charles was born in St. James's Palace on 29 May 1630 (8 June 1630 NS). His parents were King Charles I, who ruled the three kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland, and Queen Henrietta Maria, the sister of King Louis XIII of France. Charles was their second son and child. Their first son, who was born about a year before Charles, had died aged less than a day. England, Scotland and Ireland were Christian countries, but worship was divided between different denominations such as Catholicism, Anglicanism, Presbyterianism, and Puritanism. Charles was baptised in the Chapel Royal on 27 June by the Anglican Bishop of London William Laud and brought up in the care of the Protestant Countess of Dorset, though his godparents included his mother's Catholic relations, Louis XIII and Marie de' Medici. At birth, Charles automatically became Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay, along with several other associated titles. At or around his eighth birthday, he was designated Prince of Wales, though he was never formally invested with the Honours of the Principality of Wales.

During the 1640s, when Charles was still young, his father fought Parliamentary and Puritan forces in the English Civil War. Charles accompanied his father during the Battle of Edgehill and, at the age of fourteen, participated in the campaigns of 1645, when he was made titular commander of the English forces in the West Country. By Spring 1646, his father was losing the war, and Charles left England due to fears for his safety, going first to the Isles of Scilly, then to Jersey, and finally to France, where his mother was already living in exile and his first cousin, eight-year-old Louis XIV, was king.

In 1648, during the Second English Civil War, Charles moved to The Hague, where his sister Mary and his brother-in-law William II, Prince of Orange, seemed more likely to provide substantial aid to the royalist cause than the Queen's French relations. However, the royalist fleet that came under Charles's control was not used to any advantage, and did not reach Scotland in time to join up with the royalist Engagers army of the Duke of Hamilton, before it was defeated at the Battle of Preston by the Parliamentarians.

At The Hague, Charles had a brief affair with Lucy Walter, who later falsely claimed that they had secretly married. Her son, James Crofts (afterwards Duke of Monmouth and Duke of Buccleuch), was one of Charles's many acknowledged illegitimate children who became prominent in British political life and society.

Charles I was captured in 1647. He escaped and was recaptured in 1648. Despite his son's diplomatic efforts to save him, Charles I was beheaded in 1649, and England became a republic. On 6 February, the Covenanter Parliament of Scotland proclaimed Charles II as King of Great Britain in succession to his father, but refused to allow him to enter Scotland unless he accepted Presbyterianism throughout the British Isles. When negotiations stalled, Charles authorised General Montrose to land in the Orkney Islands with a small army to threaten the Scots with invasion, in the hope of forcing an agreement more to his liking. Montrose feared that Charles would accept a compromise, and so chose to invade mainland Scotland anyway. He was captured and executed. Charles reluctantly promised that he would abide by the terms of a treaty agreed between him and the Scots Parliament at Breda, and support the Solemn League and Covenant, which authorised Presbyterian church governance across Britain. Upon his arrival in Scotland on 23 June 1650, Charles formally agreed to the Covenant; his abandonment of Episcopal church governance, although winning him support in Scotland, left him unpopular in England. Charles himself soon came to despise the "villainy" and "hypocrisy" of the Covenanters.

On 3 September 1650, the Covenanters were defeated at the Battle of Dunbar by a much smaller force led by Oliver Cromwell. The Scots forces were divided into royalist Engagers and Presbyterian Covenanters, who even fought each other. Disillusioned by the Covenanters, in October Charles attempted to escape from them and rode north to join with an Engager force, an event which became known as "the Start", but within two days the Presbyterians had caught up with and recovered him. Nevertheless, the Scots remained Charles's best hope of restoration, and he was crowned King of Scotland at Scone on 1 January 1651. With Cromwell's forces threatening Charles's position in Scotland, it was decided to mount an attack on England. With many of the Scots (including Lord Argyll and other leading Covenanters) refusing to participate, and with few English royalists joining the force as it moved south into England, the invasion ended in defeat at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651, after which Charles eluded capture by hiding in the Royal Oak at Boscobel House. Through six weeks of narrow escapes Charles managed to flee England in disguise, landing in Normandy on 16 October, despite a reward of £1,000 on his head, risk of death for anyone caught helping him and the difficulty in disguising Charles, who was unusually tall at over 6 feet (185 cm) high.

Cromwell was appointed Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland, effectively placing the British Isles under military rule. Impoverished, Charles could not obtain sufficient support to mount a serious challenge to Cromwell's government. Despite the Stuart family connections through Henrietta Maria and the Princess of Orange, France and the Dutch Republic allied themselves with Cromwell's government from 1654, forcing Charles to turn for aid to Spain, which at that time ruled the Southern Netherlands. With Spanish money Charles raised a small army from his exiled subjects; it consisted of five infantry regiments plus a few troops of cavalry. This force formed the nucleus of the post-Restoration British Army.

Restoration

After the death of Cromwell in 1658, Charles's chances of regaining the Crown at first seemed slim as Cromwell was succeeded as Lord Protector by his son, Richard. However, the new Lord Protector, with no power base in either Parliament or the New Model Army, was forced to abdicate in 1659 and the Protectorate was abolished. During the civil and military unrest which followed, George Monck, the Governor of Scotland, was concerned that the nation would descend into anarchy. Monck and his army marched into the City of London and forced the Rump Parliament to re-admit members of the Long Parliament excluded in December 1648 during Pride's Purge. The Long Parliament dissolved itself and for the first time in almost 20 years, there was a general election. The outgoing Parliament designed the electoral qualifications so as to ensure, as they thought, the return of a Presbyterian majority.

The restrictions against royalist candidates and voters were widely ignored, and the elections resulted in a House of Commons which was fairly evenly divided on political grounds between Royalists and Parliamentarians and on religious grounds between Anglicans and Presbyterians. The new so-called Convention Parliament assembled on 25 April 1660, and soon afterwards received news of the Declaration of Breda, in which Charles agreed, amongst other things, to pardon many of his father's enemies. The English Parliament resolved to proclaim Charles king and invite him to return, a message that reached Charles at Breda on 8 May 1660. In Ireland, a convention had been called earlier in the year, and on 14 May it declared for Charles as King. Charles set out for England, arrived in Dover on 25 May 1660 and reached London on 29 May, his 30th birthday. Although Charles and Parliament granted amnesty to Cromwell's supporters in the Act of Indemnity and Oblivion, 50 people were specifically excluded. In the end nine of the regicides were executed: they were hanged, drawn and quartered; others were given life imprisonment or simply excluded from office for life. The bodies of Oliver Cromwell, Henry Ireton and John Bradshaw were subjected to the indignity of posthumous decapitations.

Charles agreed to give up feudal dues that had been revived by his father; in return, the English Parliament granted him an annual income to run the government of £1.2 million, generated largely from customs and excise duties. The grant, however, proved to be insufficient for most of Charles's reign. The sum was only an indication of the maximum the King was allowed to withdraw from the Treasury each year; for the most part, the actual revenue was much lower, which led to mounting debts, and further attempts to raise money through poll taxes, land taxes and hearth taxes.

Early reign

In the later half of 1660, Charles's joy at the Restoration was tempered by the deaths of his youngest brother, Henry, and sister, Mary, of smallpox. At around the same time, Anne Hyde, the daughter of the Lord Chancellor Edward Hyde, revealed that she was pregnant by Charles's brother, James, whom she had secretly married. Edward Hyde, who had not known of either the marriage or the pregnancy, was created Earl of Clarendon and his position as Charles's favourite minister was strengthened. The Convention Parliament was dissolved in December 1660, and Charles's coronation took place at Westminster Abbey on 23 April 1661. Charles was the last sovereign to make the traditional procession from the Tower of London to Westminster Abbey the day before the coronation. Shortly after the coronation, the second English Parliament of the reign assembled. Dubbed the Cavalier Parliament, it was overwhelmingly Royalist and Anglican. It sought to discourage non-conformity to the Church of England, and passed several acts to secure Anglican dominance. The Corporation Act 1661 required municipal officeholders to swear allegiance; the Act of Uniformity 1662 made the use of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer compulsory; the Conventicle Act 1664 prohibited religious assemblies of more than five people, except under the auspices of the Church of England; and the Five Mile Act 1665 prohibited clergymen from coming within five miles (8 km) of a parish from which they had been banished. The Conventicle and Five Mile Acts remained in effect for the remainder of Charles's reign. The Acts became known as the "Clarendon Code", after Lord Clarendon, even though he was not directly responsible for them and even spoke against the Five Mile Act.

The Restoration was accompanied by social change. Puritanism lost its momentum. Theatres reopened after having been closed during the protectorship of Oliver Cromwell, and bawdy "Restoration comedy" became a recognisable genre. Theatre licenses granted by Charles were the first in England to permit women to play female roles on stage (they were previously played by boys), and Restoration literature celebrated or reacted to the restored court, which included libertines like John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester. Of Charles II, Wilmot supposedly said: :We have a pretty witty king, :And whose word no man relies on, :He never said a foolish thing, :And never did a wise one" to which Charles supposedly said "that's true, for my words are my own, but my actions are those of my ministers".

Great Plague and Fire

In 1665, Charles was faced with a great health crisis: the Great Plague of London. The death toll at one point reached a peak of 7,000 in the week of 17 September. Charles, along with his family and court, fled London in July to Salisbury; Parliament met in Oxford. Various attempts at containing the disease by London public health officials all fell in vain and the disease continued to spread rapidly.

Adding to London's woes, but marking the end of the plague, was what later became known as the Great Fire of London, which started on 2 September 1666. The fire consumed about 13,200 houses and 87 churches, including St. Paul's Cathedral. Charles, and his brother James, joined and directed the fire-fighting effort. The public blamed Roman Catholic conspirators for the fire, although it had actually started in a bakehouse in Pudding Lane.

Foreign and colonial policy

Since 1640, Portugal had been fighting a war against Spain to restore its independence after a dynastic union of 60 years between the crowns of Spain and Portugal. Portugal had been helped by France, but in the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659 Portugal was abandoned by its French ally. Upon Charles's restoration, Queen Luísa of Portugal, acting as regent, opened negotiations with England that resulted in an alliance. On 23 June 1661, a marriage treaty was signed, and in May 1662, Charles married Catherine of Braganza in the parish of St Thomas à Becket, Portsmouth. Catherine's dowry brought the territories of Tangier and Bombay to British control. The latter had a major influence on the development of the British Empire in India. In an unpopular move the same year, Charles sold Dunkirk to his first cousin King Louis XIV of France for about £375,000. The channel port, although a valuable strategic outpost, was a drain on Charles's limited finances.

Before Charles's restoration, the Navigation Acts of 1650 had hurt Dutch trade by giving English vessels a monopoly, and had started the First Dutch War (1652–1654). To lay foundations for a new beginning, envoys of the States-General appeared in November 1660 with the Dutch Gift. The Second Dutch War (1665–1667) was started by English attempts to muscle in on Dutch possessions in Africa and North America. The conflict began well for the English, with the capture of New Amsterdam (renamed New York in honour of Charles's brother James, Duke of York) and a victory at the Battle of Lowestoft, but in 1667 the Dutch launched a surprise attack on the English (the Raid on the Medway) when they sailed up the River Thames to where a major part of the English fleet was docked. Almost all of the ships were sunk except for the flagship, the ''Royal Charles'', which was taken back to the Netherlands as a trophy. The Second Dutch War ended with the signing of the Treaty of Breda (1667).

As a result of the Second Dutch War, Charles dismissed Lord Clarendon, whom he used as a scapegoat for the war. Clarendon fled to France when impeached for high treason (which carried the penalty of death). Power passed to five politicians known collectively by a whimsical acronym as the Cabal—Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley (afterwards Earl of Shaftesbury) and Lauderdale. In fact, the Cabal rarely acted in concert, and the court was often divided between two factions led by Arlington and Buckingham, with Arlington the more successful.

In 1668, England allied itself with Sweden, and with its former enemy the Netherlands, in order to oppose Louis XIV in the War of Devolution. Louis made peace with the Triple Alliance, but he continued to maintain his aggressive intentions towards the Netherlands. In 1670, Charles, seeking to solve his financial troubles, agreed to the Treaty of Dover, under which Louis XIV would pay him £160,000 each year. In exchange, Charles agreed to supply Louis with troops and to announce his conversion to Roman Catholicism "as soon as the welfare of his kingdom will permit". Louis was to provide him with 6,000 troops to suppress those who opposed the conversion. Charles endeavoured to ensure that the Treaty—especially the conversion clause—remained secret. It remains unclear if Charles ever seriously intended to convert.

Meanwhile, by a series of five charters, Charles granted the British East India Company the rights to autonomous territorial acquisitions, to mint money, to command fortresses and troops, to form alliances, to make war and peace, and to exercise both civil and criminal jurisdiction over the acquired areas in India. Earlier in 1668 he leased the islands of Bombay for a nominal sum of £10 paid in gold. The Portuguese territories that Catherine brought with her as dowry had proved too expensive to maintain; Tangier was abandoned.

In 1670, Charles granted control of the entire Hudson Bay drainage basin to the Hudson's Bay Company by royal charter, and named the territory Rupert's Land, after his cousin Prince Rupert of the Rhine, the company's first Governor.

Conflict with Parliament

Although previously favourable to the Crown, the Cavalier Parliament was alienated by the king's wars and religious policies during the 1670s. In 1672, Charles issued the Royal Declaration of Indulgence, in which he purported to suspend all penal laws against Roman Catholics and other religious dissenters. In the same year, he openly supported Catholic France and started the Third Anglo-Dutch War.

The Cavalier Parliament opposed the Declaration of Indulgence on constitutional grounds by claiming that the King had no right to arbitrarily suspend laws passed by Parliament. Charles withdrew the Declaration, and also agreed to the Test Act, which not only required public officials to receive the sacrament under the forms prescribed by the Church of England, but also later forced them to denounce certain teachings of the Roman Catholic Church as "superstitious and idolatrous". Clifford, who had converted to Catholicism, resigned rather than take the oath, and died shortly after. By 1674 England had gained nothing from the Anglo-Dutch War, and the Cavalier Parliament refused to provide further funds, forcing Charles to make peace. The power of the Cabal waned and that of Clifford's replacement, Lord Danby, grew.

Charles's wife Queen Catherine was unable to produce an heir; her four pregnancies had ended in miscarriages and stillbirths in 1662, February 1666, May 1668 and June 1669. Charles's heir presumptive was therefore his unpopular Roman Catholic brother, James, Duke of York. Partly in order to assuage public fears that the royal family was too Catholic, Charles agreed that James's daughter, Mary, should marry the Protestant William of Orange. In 1678, Titus Oates, who had been alternately an Anglican and Jesuit priest, falsely warned of a "Popish Plot" to assassinate the King, even accusing the Queen of complicity. Charles did not believe the allegations, but ordered his chief minister Lord Danby to investigate. While Lord Danby seems to have been rightly sceptical about Oates's claims, the Cavalier Parliament took them seriously. The people were seized with an anti-Catholic hysteria; judges and juries across the land condemned the supposed conspirators; numerous innocent individuals were executed.

Later in 1678, Lord Danby was impeached by the House of Commons on the charge of high treason. Although much of the nation had sought war with Catholic France, Charles had secretly negotiated with Louis XIV, trying to reach an agreement under which England would remain neutral in return for money. Lord Danby had publicly professed that he was hostile to France, but had reservedly agreed to abide by Charles's wishes. Unfortunately for him, the House of Commons failed to view him as a reluctant participant in the scandal, instead believing that he was the author of the policy. To save Lord Danby from the impeachment trial, Charles dissolved the Cavalier Parliament in January 1679.

The new English Parliament, which met in March of the same year, was quite hostile to Charles. Having lost the support of Parliament, Lord Danby resigned his post of Lord High Treasurer, but received a pardon from the King. In defiance of the royal will, the House of Commons declared that the dissolution of Parliament did not interrupt impeachment proceedings, and that the pardon was therefore invalid. When the House of Lords attempted to impose the punishment of exile—which the Commons thought too mild—the impeachment became stalled between the two Houses. As he had been required to do so many times during his reign, Charles bowed to the wishes of his opponents, committing Lord Danby to the Tower of London. Lord Danby would be held there for another five years.

Later years

Charles faced a political storm over the succession to the Throne. The prospect of a Catholic monarch was vehemently opposed by Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury (previously Baron Ashley and a member of the Cabal, which had fallen apart in 1673). Shaftesbury's power base was strengthened when the House of Commons of 1679 introduced the Exclusion Bill, which sought to exclude the Duke of York from the line of succession. Some even sought to confer the Crown to the Protestant Duke of Monmouth, the eldest of Charles's illegitimate children. The ''Abhorrers''—those who thought the Exclusion Bill was abhorrent—were named Tories (after a term for dispossessed Irish Catholic bandits), while the ''Petitioners''—those who supported a petitioning campaign in favour of the Exclusion Bill—became called Whigs (after a term for rebellious Scottish Presbyterians).

Fearing that the Exclusion Bill would be passed, and bolstered by some acquittals in the continuing Plot trials, which seemed to him to indicate a more favourable public mood towards Catholicism, Charles dissolved the English Parliament, for a second time that year, in the summer of 1679. Charles's hopes for a more moderate Parliament were not fulfilled, within a few months he had dissolved Parliament yet again, after it sought to pass the Exclusion Bill. When a new Parliament assembled at Oxford in March 1681, Charles dissolved it for a fourth time after just a few days. During the 1680s, however, popular support for the Exclusion Bill ebbed, and Charles experienced a nationwide surge of loyalty, for many of his subjects felt that Parliament had been too assertive. Lord Shaftesbury was charged with treason and fled to Holland, where he died. For the remainder of his reign, Charles ruled without Parliament.

Charles's opposition to the Exclusion Bill angered some Protestants. Protestant conspirators formulated the Rye House Plot, a plan to murder the King and the Duke of York as they returned to London after horse races in Newmarket. A great fire, however, destroyed Charles's lodgings at Newmarket, which forced him to leave the races early thus, inadvertently, avoiding the planned attack. News of the failed plot was leaked. Protestant politicians such as Arthur Capell, 1st Earl of Essex, Algernon Sydney, Lord William Russell and the Duke of Monmouth were implicated in the plot. Lord Essex slit his own throat while imprisoned in the Tower of London; Sydney and Russell were executed for high treason on very flimsy evidence; and the Duke of Monmouth went into exile at the court of William of Orange. Lord Danby and the surviving Catholic lords held in the Tower were released and the King's Catholic brother, James, acquired greater influence at court. Titus Oates was convicted and imprisoned for defamation.

Charles suffered a sudden apoplectic fit on the morning of 2 February 1685, and died aged 54 at 11:45 am four days later at Whitehall Palace. The symptoms of his final illness are similar to those of uraemia (a clinical syndrome due to kidney dysfunction). On his deathbed Charles asked his brother, James, to look after his mistresses: "be well to Portsmouth, and let not poor Nelly starve", and told his courtiers: "I am sorry, gentlemen, for being such a time a-dying." On the last evening of his life he was received into the Roman Catholic Church, though the extent to which he was fully conscious or committed, and with whom the idea originated, is unclear. He was buried in Westminster Abbey "without any manner of pomp" on 14 February and was succeeded by his brother who became James II of England and Ireland and James VII of Scotland.

Posterity and legacy

Charles had no legitimate children, but acknowledged a dozen by seven mistresses, including five by the notorious Barbara Villiers, Lady Castlemaine, for whom the Dukedom of Cleveland was created. His other mistresses included Moll Davis, Nell Gwyn, Elizabeth Killigrew, Catherine Pegge, Lucy Walter, and Louise de Kérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth. The public resented paying taxes that were spent on them and their children, many of whom received dukedoms or earldoms. The present Dukes of Buccleuch, Richmond, Grafton and St Albans descend from Charles in direct male line. Diana, Princess of Wales, was descended from two of Charles's illegitimate sons: the Dukes of Grafton and Richmond. Diana's son, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, second in line to the British Throne, is likely to be the first monarch descended from Charles II.

Charles's eldest son, the Duke of Monmouth, led a rebellion against James II, but was defeated at the Battle of Sedgemoor on 6 July 1685, captured and executed. James was eventually dethroned in 1688, in the course of the Glorious Revolution. He was the last Catholic monarch to rule Britain.

Looking back on Charles's reign, Tories tended to view it as a time of benevolent monarchy whereas Whigs perceived it as a terrible despotism. Today it is possible to assess Charles without the taint of partisanship, and he is seen as more of a lovable rogue—in the words of his contemporary John Evelyn: "a prince of many virtues and many great imperfections, debonair, easy of access, not bloody or cruel". John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, wrote more lewdly of Charles:

Charles, a patron of the arts and sciences, founded the Royal Observatory and supported the Royal Society, a scientific group whose early members included Robert Hooke, Robert Boyle and Sir Isaac Newton. Charles was the personal patron of Sir Christopher Wren, the architect who helped rebuild London after the Great Fire and who constructed the Royal Hospital Chelsea, which Charles founded as a home for retired soldiers in 1682.

The anniversary of the Restoration (which was also Charles's birthday)—29 May—was recognised in England until the mid-nineteenth century as Oak Apple Day, after the Royal Oak in which Charles hid during his escape from the forces of Oliver Cromwell. Traditional celebrations involved the wearing of oak leaves but these have now died out. Charles II is commemorated by statues in London's Soho Square, in Edinburgh and near the south portal of Lichfield Cathedral, and is depicted extensively in literature and other media.

Titles, styles, honours and arms

name	Charles II of England
dipstyle	His Majesty
offstyle	Your Majesty
altstyle	Sire }}

name	Charles II of Scotland
dipstyle	His Grace
offstyle	Your Grace
altstyle	Sire }}

Titles and styles

29 May 1630 – May 1638: The Duke of Cornwall

May 1638 – 30 January 1649: The Prince of Wales

30 January 1649 – 6 February 1685: ''His Majesty'' The King

* ''in Scotland:'' ''His Grace'' The King

Charles's full titles as Prince of Wales were Prince Charles, Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester, Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, Prince and Great Steward of Scotland, Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter

The official style of Charles II was ''Charles the Second, by the Grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc.'' (The claim to France was only nominal, and had been asserted by every English King since Edward III, regardless of the amount of French territory actually controlled.)

Honours

KG: Knight of the Garter, ''21 May 1638''

Arms

As Prince of Wales, Charles's arms were those of the kingdom (which he later inherited), differenced by a ''label argent of three points''. His arms as monarch were: ''Quarterly, I and IV Grandquarterly, Azure three fleurs-de-lis Or (for France) and Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or (for England); II Or a lion rampant within a tressure flory-counter-flory Gules (for Scotland); III Azure a harp Or stringed Argent (for Ireland)''.

{{Image gallery|width=200|height=200 |Coat of Arms of the Stuart Princes of Wales (1610-1688).svg|See adjacent text|Coat of arms as Prince of Wales |Coat of Arms of England (1660-1689).svg|See adjacent text|Coat of arms of Charles II |Coat of Arms of Scotland (1660-1689).svg|See adjacent text|Coat of arms of Charles II in Scotland }}

Ancestry

{{ahnentafel-compact5 |style=font-size: 90%; line-height: 110%; |border=1 |boxstyle=padding-top: 0; padding-bottom: 0; |boxstyle_1=background-color: #fcc; |boxstyle_2=background-color: #fb9; |boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc; |boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc; |boxstyle_5=background-color: #9fe; |1= 1. Charles II of England |2= 2. Charles I of England |3= 3. Henrietta Maria of France |4= 4. James I of England |5= 5. Anne of Denmark |6= 6. Henry IV of France |7= 7. Marie de' Medici |8= 8. Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley |9= 9. Mary, Queen of Scots |10= 10. Frederick II of Denmark |11= 11. Sofie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin |12= 12. Antoine of Navarre |13= 13. Jeanne III of Navarre |14= 14. Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany |15= 15. Johanna of Austria |16= 16. Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox |17= 17. Margaret Douglas |18= 18. James V of Scotland |19= 19. Mary of Guise |20= 20. Christian III of Denmark |21= 21. Dorothea of Saxe-Lauenburg |22= 22. Ulrich III of Mecklenburg-Schwerin |23= 23. Elizabeth of Denmark |24= 24. Charles de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme |25= 25. Francoise d'Alencon |26= 26. Henry II of Navarre |27= 27. Marguerite de Navarre |28= 28. Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany |29= 29. Eleonora di Toledo |30= 30. Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor |31= 31. Anna of Bohemia and Hungary }}

Issue

By Marguerite or Margaret de Carteret # Letters claiming that she bore Charles a son named James de la Cloche in 1646 are dismissed by historians as forgeries. By Lucy Walter (c.1630–1658) # James Crofts, later Scott (1649–1685), created Duke of Monmouth (1663) in England and Duke of Buccleuch (1663) in Scotland. Ancestor of Sarah, Duchess of York. Monmouth was born nine months after Walter and Charles II first met, and was acknowledged as his son by Charles II, but James II suggested that he was the son of another of her lovers, Colonel Robert Sidney, rather than Charles. Lucy Walter had a daughter, Mary Crofts, born after James in 1651, but Charles II was not the father, since he and Walter parted in September 1649. By Elizabeth Killigrew (1622–1680), daughter of Sir Robert Killigrew, married Francis Boyle, 1st Viscount Shannon in 1660 # Charlotte Jemima Henrietta Maria FitzRoy (1650–1684), married firstly James Howard and secondly William Paston, 2nd Earl of Yarmouth By Catherine Pegge # Charles FitzCharles (1657–1680), known as "Don Carlo", created Earl of Plymouth (1675) # Catherine FitzCharles (born 1658; she either died young or became a nun at Dunkirk) By Barbara née Villiers (1641–1709), wife of Roger Palmer, 1st Earl of Castlemaine; created Duchess of Cleveland in her own right # Anne Palmer (Fitzroy) (1661–1722), married Thomas Lennard, 1st Earl of Sussex. She may have been the daughter of Roger Palmer, but Charles accepted her. # Charles Fitzroy (1662–1730), created Duke of Southampton (1675), became 2nd Duke of Cleveland (1709) # Henry Fitzroy (1663–1690), created Earl of Euston (1672), Duke of Grafton (1675), also 7-greats-grandfather of Diana, Princess of Wales # Charlotte Fitzroy (1664–1717), married Edward Lee, 1st Earl of Lichfield # George Fitzroy (1665–1716), created Earl of Northumberland (1674), Duke of Northumberland (1678) # Barbara (Benedicta) Fitzroy (1672–1737) – She was probably the child of John Churchill, later Duke of Marlborough, who was another of Cleveland's many lovers, and was never acknowledged by Charles as his own daughter. By Nell Gwyn (1650–1687) # Charles Beauclerk (1670–1726), created Duke of St Albans (1684) # James, Lord Beauclerk (1671–1680) By Louise Renée de Penancoet de Kérouaille (1649–1734), created Duchess of Portsmouth in her own right (1673) # Charles Lennox (1672–1723), created Duke of Richmond (1675) in England and Duke of Lennox (1675) in Scotland. Ancestor of Diana, Princess of Wales; Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall; and Sarah, Duchess of York. By Mary 'Moll' Davis, courtesan and actress of repute # Lady Mary Tudor (1673–1726), married Edward Radclyffe, 2nd Earl of Derwentwater; after Edward's death, she married Henry Graham, and upon his death she married James Rooke. Other probable mistresses: # Christabella Wyndham # Hortense Mancini, Duchess of Mazarin # Winifred Wells – one of the Queen's Maids of Honour # Jane Roberts – the daughter of a clergyman # Elizabeth Berkeley, née Bagot, Dowager Countess of Falmouth – the widow of Charles Berkeley, 1st Earl of Falmouth # Elizabeth Fitzgerald, Countess of Kildare

See also

Petition Crown

Footnotes

References

Seaward, Paul (September 2004; online edn, January 2008) "Charles II (1630–1685)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/5144, retrieved 19 April 2010 (Subscription required)

Further reading

External links

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Category:1630 births Category:1685 deaths Category:Burials at Westminster Abbey Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism from Anglicanism 015 015 Category:English monarchs Category:English people of French descent Category:English people of Scottish descent Category:English Roman Catholics Category:Fellows of the Royal Society Category:House of Stuart Category:Knights of the Garter Category:Lord High Admirals Category:Princes of Wales Category:People of the English Civil War Category:People from Westminster Category:Pretenders to the throne of the kingdom of France (Plantagenet) Category:Princes of England Category:Princes of Scotland

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