information:extraction
Settled by Polynesians sometime between 1000 and 1200 CE, Hawaii was home to numerous independent chiefdoms. In 1778, British explorer James Cook was the first known non-Polynesian to arrive at the archipelago. The Kingdom of Hawaii was established in 1795 when Kamehameha I, then Aliʻi nui of Hawaii, conquered the islands of Oʻahu, Maui, Molokaʻi, and Lānaʻi, and forcefully unified them under one government. In 1810, the Hawaiian Islands were fully unified when Kauaʻi and Niʻihau joined. An influx of European and American explorers, traders, and whalers arrived in the following decades, leading to substantial population declines among the once-immunologically isolated indigenous community through repeated virgin soil epidemics. American and European businessmen overthrew the monarchy in 1893 and established a short-lived transitional republic; this led to annexation by the United States (U.S.) in 1898. As a strategically valuable U.S territory, Hawaii was attacked by Japan on December 7, 1941, which brought it global and historical significance, and contributed to America's entry into World War II. Hawaii is the most recent state to join the union, on August 21, 1959.