The History of the Hawaiian Islands

The first known settlers of the Hawaiian Islands were Polynesian voyagers who migrated there sometime in the 8th century. The original native society developed around a caste system and was eventually divided into four distinct chiefdoms, Hawaii, Maui, Oahu and Kauai. In 1810, about a thousand years after the first people's arrival, King Kamehameha I united those chiefdoms into a single royal kingdom. Lured by the promise of fertile volcanic soil and an ideal climate, wealthy American planters bought up large tracts of lands on the islands.