Changes

===Discovery by the West===

===Discovery by the West===

European discovery of the Hawaiian Islands was by Captain [[James Cook]] in 1778. As the location of the islands appeared on navigation charts they were visited by ships of various nations, including the British, Americans, French and Russians, since the location was ideal for providing safe anchorage and the replenishment of provisions in the mid-Pacific.  The islands were also strategically located in the migration path of humpback whales, which were among the most sought-after by a thriving whaling industry in the early 1800's.  Unfortunately, contact with westerners brought with it western diseases that decimated the indigenous population, which plummeted from approximately 300,000 in 1778 to 56,900 in 1872.<ref>http://archives.starbulletin.com/1999/06/16/millennium/index.html</ref>

[[James Cook]] discovered the islands during his third voyage to the Pacific in 1778. He named them the Sandwich Islands after the then Lord of the Admiralty, the fourth Earl of Sandwich. He would die there the next year at the hands of the natives. As the location of the islands appeared on navigation charts they were visited by ships of various nations, including the British, Americans, French and Russians, since the location was ideal for providing safe anchorage and the replenishment of provisions in the mid-Pacific.  The islands were also strategically located in the migration path of humpback whales, which were among the most sought-after by a thriving whaling industry in the early 1800's.  Unfortunately, contact with westerners brought with it western diseases that decimated the indigenous population, which plummeted from approximately 300,000 in 1778 to 56,900 in 1872.<ref>http://archives.starbulletin.com/1999/06/16/millennium/index.html</ref>

==The 19th Century==

==The 19th Century==