Hawaii , with it's uniquely isolated location in the central Pacific Ocean and it's straddling of both American and East Asian spheres, lead it to developed a dynamic and very diverse population. Today Chinese, Japanese, Americans, Portuguese, British, and native Hawaiians all meld together I'm one of the most diverse populations in the United States if not the world. Hawaiians had lived in the islands for thousands of years before western contact. British and Portuguese whaling ships brought a small population of rough and tumble men to the islands. Chinese were brought to the islands as cheap labor to work the plantations and were brutally exploited. The Japanese government even after the Meiji restoration banned immigration to the islands until the 1870's for fear that they would be disgraced. The Americans came first as wealthy industrialist and plantation owners, later as the military sought yo set up a navel base to ensure the projection of American power in the Pacific after the Spanish American war and to rival the growing naval power of the Japanese Empire. American immigration increases enormously after the islands became a US state in 1959 and the state economy moved to a tourist based and hospitality industry similar to Florida.