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Location:
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State of Hawaii, United States of America
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Status:
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Admission to Statehood: August 21, 1959
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Capital City:
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Honolulu
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Main Cities:
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Honolulu, Hilo, Kailua, Kaneohe, Waipahu, Pearl City
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Population:
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1,211,537; 42nd, 12/00
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Area:
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10,932 sq.mi, 43rd largest
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Currency:
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1 US dollar = 100 cents
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Languages:
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English, Spanish, and over 30 others
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Religions:
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Protestant, Roman Catholic, Judaism
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The flag of Hawaii: Ka Hae Hawai‘i, or the flag of Hawai‘i, is the official standard symbolizing Hawaii as a kingdom (under a short British annexation), protectorate, republic, territory and state. Ka Hae Hawai‘i is the only state flag in the United States to have been flown under so many various forms of government and the only one that features the Union Flag (more commonly known as the Union Jack), the flag of the United Kingdom. Ka Hae Hawai‘i officially predates a majority of the states of the Union.
Design: The canton of Ka Hae Hawai‘i is the Union Flag, prominent over the top quarter closest to the flag mast. The field of the flag is composed of eight horizontal stripes symbolizing the eight major inhabited islands. The color of the stripes, from the top down, follows the sequence: white, red, blue, white, red, blue, white, red. They represent the islands of Hawai‘i, O‘ahu, Kaua‘i, Kaho‘olawe, Lana‘i, Maui, Moloka‘i and Ni‘ihau.
Origins: There are various accounts of the earliest history of Ka Hae Hawai‘i. One relates how king Kamehameha I flew a Union Flag given to him by British explorer Captain George Vancouver as a token of friendship with King George III. An advisor to Kamehameha noted that the Union Flag could draw Hawaii into international conflict as it would be seen as an ally of the United Kingdom. Kamehameha lowered the Union Flag from his home. While disputed as historically accurate, one account of events that followed stated that in order to placate American interests during the War of 1812, a flag of the United States was raised over Kamehameha's home only to be removed when British officers in the court of Kamehameha vehemently objected to it. This account then explains why the resulting flag of Hawai‘i was a deliberate hybrid of the two nations' flags. Another reason for this may be that during the time of Pacific Expansion (Manifest Destiny) in the United States, and when Hawai`i was taken over for a day by the United Kingdom, it was made to show that Hawai‘i was a country, and put both emblems of the flags into one, showing that Hawai‘i would not be taken over.
In 1816, Kamehameha commissioned his own flag to avoid conflict. As a result, Ka Hae Hawai‘i was born. Historians attribute the design of Ka Hae Hawai‘i to an officer of the Royal Navy, based on a form of the British naval flag. There is debate as to the name of the officer. The original flag was designed to feature stripes alternating red-white-blue, also attributed to various historical flags of the United Kingdom. However, some have argued that the stripes were influenced by the American flag. In error, the flag used at the first official flying of Ka Hae Hawai‘i ordered the stripes white-red-blue. The number of stripes also changed: originally, the flag was designed with seven horizontal stripes, and in 1845 it was officially changed to eight stripes. The latter arrangement was adopted and is used today. The first two nations to officially recognize Ka Hae Hawai‘i for official international use were the United Kingdom and France. The United States and Japan followed.
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The flag is a piece of cloth, often flown from a pole or mast, generally used for signalling or identification. The design of a flag displayed in another form is also referred to as a flag. The first flags were used to assist military coordination on battlefields, and flags have evolved into a general tool for rudimentary signalling and identification, especially in environments where communication is similarly challenging (such as the maritime environment where semaphore is used).
National flags are potent patriotic symbols with varied wide-ranging interpretations, often including strong military associations due to their original and ongoing military uses. Flags are used in messaging or advertising, or for decorative purposes, though at this less formal end the distinction between a flag and a simple cloth banner is blurred. The study of flags is known as vexillology, from the Latin vexillum meaning flag or banner.
Although flag-like symbols have been used by ancient cultures for thousands of years, the origin of flags in the modern sense is a matter of dispute. Some believe flags originated in China, while others hold that the Roman Empire's vexillum was the first true flag. Originally, the standards of the Roman legions were not flags, but symbols like the eagle of Augustus Caesar's Xth legion; this eagle would be placed on a staff for the standard-bearer to hold up during battle. But a military unit from Scythia had for a standard a dragon with a flexible tail which would move in the wind; the legions copied this; eventually all the legions had flexible standards — our modern-day flag.
During the Middle Ages, flags were used mainly during battles to identify individual leaders: in Europe the knights, in Japan the samurai, and in China the generals under the imperial army.
From the time of Christopher Columbus onwards, it has been customary (and later a legal requirement) for ships to carry flags designating their nationality; these flags eventually evolved into the national flags and maritime flags of today. Flags also became the preferred means of communications at sea, resulting in various systems of flag signals; see International maritime signal flags.
Beginning in the 17th century, European knights were replaced by centralized armies, and flags became the means to identify not just nationalities but also individual military units. Flags became much more elaborate, and were seen as objects to be captured or defended. Eventually these flags posed too much danger to those carrying them, and by World War I these were withdrawn from the battlefields, and have since been used only at ceremonial occasions.
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