The Hawaiian islands were discovered by Captain James Cook, an English explore who named his discovery the Sandwich Islands after his patron, the fourth Earl of Sandwich. The islands were visited frequently by traders and whalers to refresh their crews, take on stores and trade in the islands' large export -sandalwood.
When they were discovered, the islands were not a single political unit but were instead ruled by many chiefs. By 1795 Kamehameha the Great unifield the islands, with the exception of Kauai and Niihua, which came under his control later. Kamehameha and his successors were threatened several times with annexation by one European power or another, but the islands remained an independent Kingdom.
In 1793 Captain George Vancouver, another English explorer, presented Kamehameha with a Union Jack, and that flag was occasionally used as a national flag. However in 1816, when the Hawaiian ship Kaahumanu sailed to China, she flew a distinctive Hawaiin flag designed by the King and several assistants. There was no standard pattern and many variants were made, but generally the design consisted of a field of Stripes with the Union Jack as the canton.
In 1845 this design was slightly modified to fix the number of stripes at eight, representing the eight principal islands. This flag is shown on the ingot. It is also shown in the illustration flying over lolani palace, the only royal palace in the United States.Located in Honolulu, it was the home of King Kalahaua and Queen Liliuokalani, the last two Hawaiian monarchs. It remained the seat of subsequent Hawaiian government until 1969.
Hawaiian independence was maintained through most of the nineteenth century, although the French occupied the islands in 1849. In 1851 the Kingdom was briefly an American protectorate, but plans to fly a flag with the Hawaiian design on one side and the United States thirty-one star design on the other were never put into effect.
Incerasingly, the islands' economy was controlled by American settlers. There was strong sentiment in favor of American annexation, In January 1893 the Reform party deposed the reigning queen, Liliuokalani, and appealed to the United States for anexation. While waiting for an answer to their petition, they flew the forty-four star American flag. When the United States refused to take over the islands, the Republic of Hawaii was formed. Inaugutrated in 1894, the Republic remained in existance until American annexation took place on August 12, 1898. The flag of the Hawaiian Kingdom was retained as a territorial flag until, in 1959, it became the state flag of the fiftieth state.