From Oʻahu the Hawaiian Kingdom grew. Honolulu, with the only sheltered deep-water harbor for miles, became the capital around 1850 and the hub of the islands' trade — sandalwood, then whaling fleets, then sugar and pineapple — drawing missionaries and merchants and, to the plantations, waves of immigrant labor from Japan, Okinawa, Portugal, China and the Philippines. The monarchy raised ʻIolani Palace there in 1882 — the only royal palace on American soil, lit by electricity before the White House — and ruled from its halls. Around it stood the Kingdom's Honolulu: Kawaiahaʻo Church of 1842, the "Westminster Abbey of Hawaiʻi," and the gilded statue of Kamehameha that still faces the old courthouse. This was the heart of a sovereign Hawaiian nation.
That sovereignty was taken. On January 17, 1893, Queen Liliʻuokalani — the last reigning monarch, and the composer of "Aloha ʻOe" — was deposed in Honolulu by a group backed by American business interests, and the Hawaiian Kingdom came to an end; annexation followed. It is a history Oʻahu carries with care and remembers honestly, named here as fact rather than ornament.
Why People Visit Oʻahu
Oʻahu offers the whole of Hawaiʻi in one place: deep history and living culture, world-famous surf, a great multicultural city, and beaches for every mood. It is where most visitors begin — and, for the million people who live here, simply home, the island where Hawaiʻi gathers.
