<Tr> <Th_colspan="2"> Demographics </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Population </Th> <Td> 1,450,000 (2015) </Td> </Tr> <P> The Hawaiian Islands (Hawaiian: Mokupuni o Hawai'i) are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) from the island of Hawai ʻi in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll . Formerly the group was known to Europeans and Americans as the "Sandwich Islands", a name chosen by James Cook in honor of the then First Lord of the Admiralty John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich . The contemporary name is derived from the name of the largest island, Hawaii Island . </P> <P> The Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown by wealthy U.S. and European settlers in 1893 . The usurpers then established a republic, and despite opposition from the majority of the Hawaiian people, successfully negotiated with the United States for annexation in 1898 . The U.S. state of Hawaii now occupies the archipelago almost in its entirety (including the uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands), with the sole exception of Midway Island, which instead separately belongs to the United States as one of its unincorporated territories within the United States Minor Outlying Islands . </P>

Who discovered sandwich (now hawaiian) isles