History states the Hawaiian Islands were discovered by Captain James Cook in 1778. He called them the “Sandwich Islands”. After being discovered by Cook, other American and European explorers and traders began making stops and settling in Hawaii.
This may be true but I believe the Spanish “discovered” it over 2 centuries earlier. There are Spanish maps of the time in which islands are shown at the same latitude, but a little further east. A sea chart dated 1551 and signed by Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Italian and French cartographers shows an archipelago (island chain) located at points close to the location of the Hawaiian Islands as we now know them. 
By 1816, Kamehameha the Great had united the islands under one ruler and commissioned the Hawaiian Flag.
There are conflicting reports on who actually designed it but its symbolism is clear. The design of Hawaii’s flag was a compromise between the flags of England and America. The Union Jack was used to show the king’s friendship with England. The stripes were said to represent the red, white and blue of the American flag. There are eight horizontal stripes that represent the eight main islands of Hawaii. It was a good way of showing a combination of Hawaii’s growing bond and loyalty with England and the United States.
