Chapter 9-Factors of Ethnicity Variation

When Europeans first reached the islands of Hawaii in the late 18th century, it is believed that there were already about 300,000 Polynesians established in the area.  However, after European exploitation of the land, the damage on Polynesian population and culture was horrific.  Because Hawaiians were adapting the European culture, political and economic traditions of their own began to suffer.  Famine and diseases invaded the island, including measles, smallpox, syphilis and tuberculosis.  These diseases were unknown to Hawaiians and spread like wildfire.  It is believed that an outbreak in 1804 halved the population.  In just three generations, the Polynesian Hawaiian population fell from 150,000 in 1804 to a mere 75,000 in 1850.  In the state today, there are less than 10,000 full blooded Polynesian Hawaiians, but a sixth of the population is part Polynesian.

When sugar plantations were established in Hawaii, contract workers were brought in as a source of labor.  Native Hawaiians temporarily served as agricultural laborers but dwindling numbers made them unwilling workers.  Contract workers were first brought in from China, followed by Japan and the Philippines.  Between 1852 and 1930, more than 400,000 contract workers were brought into Hawaii.  In 1852, the Polynesian Hawaiian heritage accounted for more then 95% of the island population.  Less than 50 years later, the population favored East Asians, compromising nearly 75% while Polynesians were only 15%. 

In 1910, one out of ten Hawaiian residents was of European descent (White).  Now, that rate has grown to about 40% of the population having European ancestry.  Chinese, Japanese and Filipinos remain a dominant ethnicity, Japanese making up 21% of the population, Filipino 18%.  Major cities have a population mixture that contain the three major groups: White, Chinese and Japanese.  In 2006, about 80% of the population reported being a single race, Asian dominated at 41%. There are Blacks on the island but the population number is relatively small, only about 2%.