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.
People have gathered here for more than a thousand years. Polynesian voyagers settled Oʻahu from the south, raising taro in its valleys, walling fishponds along its reefs, and building heiau across the island — among them Puʻu o Mahuka above the North Shore, the largest temple site on Oʻahu. The island's defining moment came in 1795, when King Kamehameha I landed his war canoes on the south shore and met the forces of Kalanikūpule in the steep Nuʻuanu Valley. The fighting climbed the ridge to the cliffs of the Nuʻuanu Pali, where hundreds of defenders were driven over the precipice. With that victory Kamehameha took Oʻahu and all but completed the unification of the Hawaiian Islands — Kauaʻi would join by negotiation in 1810 — and the island stood at the center of the new kingdom.
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.
