Flag of Hawaii	Seal of Hawaii

Hawaii became the 50th state of the United States on August 21, 1959. It is situated in the North Pacific Ocean, 2,300 miles (3,700 km) from the mainland, at 21°18′41″N, 157°47′47″W. During roughly 1778–1898, Hawaii was also known as the Sandwich Islands.

Hawaii was first inhabited in roughly AD 1000, by Polynesian settlers who came from islands in the South Pacific, most likely the Marquesas. For nearly 800 years, the people of Hawaii lived in a complex caste society governed by various warring chiefdoms and an extensive system of religious and social taboos called the kapu system. British explorer James Cook chanced upon the Hawaiian archipelago in 1778 in what is commonly assumed to be the first European contact with Hawaiians; however, substantial evidence (Stokes 1932 for example) exists of earlier Spaniard visits to Hawaii. With the help of foreign advisors and weapons, a Hawaiian warrior known as Kamehameha began a gradual ascent to power. Before his death in 1819, Kamehameha had succeeded in conquering (through military force, or in the case of Kauai and Niihau, by other political means) all of the major Hawaiian islands, a feat never before accomplished in the history of the islands.

The kingdom established by Kamehameha lasted until 1893, when the last Hawaiian monarch, Liliuokalani, was overthrown in a coup led by supporters of the Reform Party of the Hawaiian Kingdom and replaced by a Provisional Government, and later a Republic. During the kingdom and republic era, Hawaii's economy transitioned from that of an isolated state into that of a state integrated into the world's free market, producing and exporting more than two hundred thousand tons of sugar annually. In 1898, Hawaii was annexed to the United States of America and attained statehood in 1959.

Hawaii is the southernmost state of the United States, and would be the westernmost, if not for Alaska. It is one of the only two states (Alaska being the other) that are outside the contiguous United States, and do not share a border with another U.S. state. Hawaii is the only state that: (1) is without territory on the mainland of any continent; (2) is completely surrounded by water; and (3) continues to grow in area because of active extrusive lava flows, most notably from Kilauea (KÄ«lauea). Except for Easter Island, Hawaii is the furthest from any other body of land in the world. Hawaii's tallest mountain stands over 13,000 feet (4,000 meters).

The Hawaiian Archipelago comprises eighteen islands and atolls extending across a distance of 1,500 miles (2,400 km). Of these, eight high islands are considered the "main islands" and are located at the southeastern end of the archipelago. These islands are, in order from the northwest to southeast, Niihau, Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, Lanai, Kahoolawe, Maui, and Hawaii. The latter is by far the largest, and is very often called the "Big Island" or "Big Isle". The use of that alternative name is often motivated by a desire to avoid ambiguity with "Hawaii" meaning the entire state (all of the islands), as opposed to only that one island.