Hawaii

**Hawaii** (Hawaiian: *Hawaiʻi*), officially the **Kingdom of Hawaii** (Hawaiian: *Aupuni Mōʻī o Hawaiʻi*), is a sovereign state and archipelago located in the Pacific Ocean. Previously, the nation was an overseas territory of California from 1898 until 1925. The capital and most-populous city of Hawaii is Honolulu, located on the island of Oahu.

The Hawaiian islands were first settled by Native Hawaiians around 300 CE. The archipelago was unified in 1795, following the unification of the islands of Hawaiʻi, Oʻahu, Maui, Molokaʻi, and Lānaʻi under the Kingdom of Hawaii. The Kingdom had its relations with the United States strengthened throughout the 19th-century, as they offered support to the Kingdom against potential colonizers in Great Britain and Japan. Following the American Civil War in the 1860s, the Kingdom attempted to distance itself from the United States, but was met with a power struggle by the post-United States independent nations over who would remain the strongest trading partner of the Kingdom. Largely due to the close proximity, California eventually won the scramble for Hawaii, and became a close ally of the Kingdom. In the 1890s, amidst anti-Californian sentiment in Hawaii, the Californians staged a *coup d'état* in collaboration with Hawaiian republicans, deposing of the monarchy and incorporating Hawaii as an overseas territory of California. In the succeeding decades, nationalist sentiment began to grow within Hawaii, as both Native Hawaiians and Californian emigrants to Hawaii began to desire self-determination. A successful independence referendum was held in 1923, in which 87.5% of Hawaiians voted for independence, and they received it in 1925, reestablishing themselves as a constitutional monarchy.

The head of state of Hawaii is the Monarch. The Monarch is a ceremonial figurehead who in actuality wields little power in Hawaiian politics. Their primary cultural role is to serve as a unifying figure for the nation in times of crisis. Officially, the Monarch is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and additionally appoints all ministers and ambassadors into office, while also signing or vetoing passed legislation. In actuality, most defense policy is handled by the Monarch's ministers, while they additionally almost never reject appointments and have never vetoed a bill in modern Hawaiian history. The head of government is the Prime Minister, whom is considered the chief political leader of the country. The Prime Minister is nominated by the House of Representatives after securing a governing coalition, and then appointed by the Monarch. They form their own cabinet of ministers, and are tasked with introducing pieces of legislation and guiding the nation's politics. The House of Representatives is the 185-seat Hawaiian unicameral parliament, which consists of members elected in five multi-member constituencies using either single transferrable vote or open party list proportional voting.

Of its population of about 1.4 million, approximately 35.6% identifies as Asian, while 26.2% identifies as white, 9.5% as Native Hawaiian, 2.5% as non-Hawaiian Pacific Islanders, and 0.7% as black, while 24.6% as being of two or more races and 0.9% as being of a different race. The Native Hawaiian population are the indigenous peoples of the Hawaiian islands, who have resided in the area for centuries. The Asian population is primarily descended from immigrants from East and Southeast Asia who arrived as sugarcane plantation workers and their brides during the late-19th and early-20th centuries, in addition to those descended from more recent immigrants. The bulk of the white population migrated to Hawaii from California while Hawaii was under Californian rule; the white Californian migrants then built up their own white Hawaiian communities and remained in the territory. Most other Pacific Islanders and the black community are descended from recent immigrants. Hawaii has long been an ethnically heterogenous nation with very strong race relations, resulting in widespread ethnic and racial mixing that has led to its high rate of mixed race individuals; many of these individuals have a blend of Asian, white, and Native Hawaiian ancestry. There are two co-official languages of Hawaii: Hawaiian and English. English is the more predominantly spoken language, being spoken natively by 84.3% of the population, and understood by 97.8%. Hawaiian is much less commonly spoken, only being spoken natively by 1.5% of the population, almost exclusively rural Native Hawaiians, while only about 10.4% of the total population can understand it. It is taught as a mandatory subject in Hawaiian public schools, but very few students maintain long-lasting knowledge of the language. Hawaii is generally an irreligious nation; approximately 46.3% of the population identify as Christians, with 21.5% as Protestant, 21.4% as Roman Catholic, and 2.4% as belonging to a different Christian church. A further 7.5% identify as Buddhist, while 2.0% adhere to a different religion, and 44.2% identify as atheist, agnostic, or irreligious. Only 18.6% of the population attend religious services at least weekly, with 78.4% of the population attending religious services less than once a year.