Rick,

The Kingdom of Hawai'i is our current lawful government. Its been in existence for more than 200 years ( You forgot to add the last 124 years of the unlawful US occupation of the Kingdom of Hawai'i ).

Before that Hawai'i was made up of moku and districts under the leadership of ali'i nui and mo'i ali'i. This is not unlike the example of England which was at one time made up of independent kingdoms until it became unified under one monarch.

Hawai'i existed as a nation for more than 2000 years since the first Polynesians established the nation of Hawai'i around the year 1 a.d., long before the Kingdom of Hawai'i was created by paie'a kamehameha I.

Even the United States was originally made up of 13 independent colonies that became unified under one government as one nation.

So Hawaii's case is not unlike England or America's. In each of these cases unification represents a consolidation of governance under a single rule or administration.