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alaska and hawaii or the last frontier
and the aloha state the two states that
don't border in other states
in these united states both the last two
states to join the union
both have a really high cost of living
this is because
not only are the two desirable states to
live in but they are so
isolated so far from most other places
where most
things are produced the high cost of
shipping causes everything in both
states to be much more expensive
that said alaska has a lower cost of
living compared to hawaii perhaps
because of the high cost of living both
states are slowly losing residents
both are dominated by their largest
cities
anchorage in alaska and hana hulu
in hawaii around half of all alaskan
residents live in the anchorage
metropolitan area
and more than two-thirds of all of
hawaii's residents
live in the hanahulu metropolitan area
both have dramatically
diverse and beautiful natural scenery
and both have dramatically diverse
rainfall
patterns it's kind of crazy actually
okay so
in southeast alaska and the coastal
mountain ranges there
they can often get more than 200 inches
of precipitation a year while just south
of the alaska range they get about
60 inches a year 12 inches a year in the
interior
and less than six inches a year in the
north slope
in hawaii it's just as crazy around the
summit of mauna kea
it gets about eight inches a year but
down near big bog on the windward slope
of haleakala
maui they can get up to 404 inches a
year
whoaness both have lots of islands
well hawaii is just islands
there are eight main islands but 137 in
total
alaska has 2 and seventy islands total
here they all are did you read that
wow you're good the most well-known of
these are the aleutian islands which
shoot out into the northern pacific
ocean way past
the 180th meridian some of those islands
should technically be part of tomorrow
you know since
they are west of the international date
line the one
furthest out that is part of alaska atu
is the largest uninhabited island in the
country and
1500 miles from anchorage it's about 15
times the size of manhattan island but
no one lives there because the weather
sucks
so bad most fun fact ever a two is both
the united states's westernmost
and easternmost point anyway the
aleutian islands
form the northernmost part of the ring
of fire an area where lots of
earthquakes and volcanic eruptions
tend to occur and yep there are 57
volcanoes on those islands 2
433 miles or 3 916 kilometers
separate them from hawaii and yep both
hawaii
and alaska have to worry about volcanoes
heck
hawaii only exists because of volcanoes
lava rising from the ocean floor over
millions of years
created them the big island which is
only 300
000 years old is still getting bigger
due to the kilauea volcano continuously
erupting
both also have to worry about
earthquakes although
alaska more so the most powerful
earthquake in north american
history happened in alaska the good
friday earthquake which happened on
march 27
1964 lasted four minutes and 38 seconds
and destroyed towns across
south central alaska ultimately killing
131 people
look at that picture yeah that happened
in
anchorage it caused the land to
literally rise several meters in many
areas
and caused tsunamis that reached as far
away as
you guessed it hawaii residents of both
speak a lot of different languages
hawaii has
two official languages english and
hawaiian
although many there also speak hawaiian
pidgin
an english-based creole language but
that's about all the two states have in
common
before i get into the differences did
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okay let's do this here are all the big
differences between the two
alaska is bigger 89 times bigger
alaska is by far the biggest state in
the country
and i think most folks really don't
realize just how big it is
you could fit almost four californias
into alaska
and it's more than twice as big as texas
while
alaska borders canada hawaii is the only
u.s
states not actually connected to north
america
it's part of a bigger region of more
than one thousand islands known as
polynesia hawaii is the only island
state
and only state in the tropics hawaii has
more people
and one more electoral vote the
population density is of course
much higher in hawaii alaska is easily
the most
sparsely populated state in the country
both states are in different
time zones well a portion of the
aleutian islands
share the same time zone as hawaii while
both do have a big variety of climate
zones the climate of both states overall
is very different alaska has a
reputation as this very cold place
all the time but parts of it get quite
warm
during the summer in the far north yes
it's cold all year long
that's the tundra where the polar bears
chill out most of the state has a
continental
climate and sub-arctic climate in these
areas
of course it gets ridiculously cold
during the winter but summers are
usually nice
oh but they have that permafrost to
worry about fairbanks alaska is a great
example to demonstrate
the wide range of temperatures the
lowest recorded temperature there is
negative 65.9 degrees fahrenheit but the
highest recorded temperature there
is 99 degrees fahrenheit don't get me
wrong
it gets pretty freaking cold in alaska
but folks
also forget that the temperature is
moderated along the coast
especially down by juno in southeast
alaska
where it rarely gets that cold in the
winter compared to
i don't know minnesota also being at
such a high latitude
the summer days are long in alaska but
the fall and winter days are
short hawaii is known as a tropical
paradise
with generally perfect weather but did
you know that it has
10 different climate zones it has a
tundra climate
too say what oh you know it well
at its really high elevations but yeah
hawaii also has
subpolar oceanic human subtropical cold
summer mediterranean
warm summer mediterranean hot semi-arid
savannah
monsoon and rain forest but yeah the
local wind patterns are all crazy due to
the varied landforms on the islands the
vast majority of alaska is wilderness
almost 96 of alaskan land is
public just 19 of hawaii
is public land alaska is only 51 miles
or 82 kilometers from russia at the most
narrow point of the bering strait yep
just that narrow strip of water
separates the united states and russia
believe it or not
oh it used to be connected several
thousand years ago when the earth was
covered with much much more ice
it was the bering land bridge and it's
likely that the earliest humans who
migrated to the americas
crossed it hey let's go through some
history shall we hawaii's earliest
settlers were polynesian voyagers
arriving there more than 1 000 years
before european explorers
ever got there and thousands of years
before that indigenous peoples lived all
over what is now
alaska europeans first came across the
area in the 1700s maybe
even before that it was those russians
one famous russian expedition was led by
a danish dude named vedis baring oh hey
baring
yep the bering strait was named after
him after his expedition
russian hunters were regularly making
trips to alaska to make some money
and many stayed out there in 1784
gregory
shelikov established the first permanent
russian colony in alaska
on kodiak island meanwhile in 1778
the british explorer james cook was the
first european to reach hawaii
although the spanish possibly stopped by
200 years before
and didn't document it anyway james cook
called them the sandwich islands because
that was his favorite food just kidding
he named them to honor his sponsor john
montague
the fourth earl of sandwich the english
recorded the native name for the islands
as
hawaii cook visited hawaii twice
and afterward published several books
about his voyages which attracted
further european visitors
mostly folks who wanted to make money of
course for the rest of the 1700s spain
sent expeditions to alaska to try to
stake claims
all over the pacific northwest however
the russian-american company was more
successful
at colonizing alaska in the first part
of the 1800s the russians were probably
less
harsh to the natives than most european
groups but sadly many
indigenous peoples died from diseases
the russians brought over
due to not being immune to them many
indigenous peoples
also sadly died from diseases they
weren't immune to from europeans who
came to hawaii
in 1795 the warrior chief kami hamaya
the great
who led the independent island of hawaii
conquered the
other independent islands of oahu maui
molokai
and lanai and unify them under one
government beginning the kingdom of
hawaii
in 1820 american protestant missionaries
began arriving
trying to all westernize the islands and
stuff
five years later king kamehameha the
third
took over and ended up being the longest
reigning monarch in the kingdom's
history
eventually helping it transfer from an
absolute monarchy to a constitutional
monarchy by 1840
britain france and the united states
were all regularly interacting with the
kingdom of hawaii
trying to influence it to fight off the
influence of britain and france
king kamehameha iii signed a treaty with
the united states that placed hawaii
under its protection
more and more americans came out there
to set up plantations to grow
sugar many immigrants from japan china
and the philippines
also eventually came to work at those
plantations in 1867
russia sold alaska to the united states
for 7.2 million dollars
just happy to get rid of it i have a
whole video about that here
maybe check it out and stuff most people
made fun of the american who made the
deal
william seward saying what good is that
icebox
in the following decades the united
states didn't do much with alaska but at
least they owned it
in 1887 the kingdom of hawaii granted
the united states permission to build a
naval base
at pearl harbor and then private
businessmen
overthrew queen leo kalani after years
of reducing the monarchy's power
and straight up ended the kingdom of
hawaii establishing hawaii as a republic
in 1893 a few years later
the united states annexed hawaii and it
became a u.s territory in 1900
by that time gold had been discovered in
alaska which brought
thousands of settlers up there trying to
strike it rich
because of this alaska became a u.s
territory in 1912.
during the first half of the 1900s more
and more americans began moving to both
alaska
and hawaii during world war ii hawaii's
importance as a military outpost
became critical when japan attacked
pearl harbor on december 7
1941. that attack led to the united
states declaring war on japan
and thus entering the entire war the
next year
japan occupied two of the outer aleutian
islands
of alaska kiska and the afore mentioned
at two where a brutal two-week-long
battle
took place in which hardly any japanese
surrendered
because of world war ii the united
states built several military bases in
alaska
which further helped the territory grow
by the 1950s both had enough people to
become states and both became states in
1959
although alaska joined the union first
also
in the 1950s the plantation owners
finally lost
power as the descendants of immigrant
laborers who were now u.s citizens
voted against them this dramatically
changed hawaiian politics
afterward in 1968 the discovery of oil
at prudo bay and then later the
completion of the trans-alaska pipeline
in 1977
led to an oil boom in alaska today
mostly because
of that oil alaska residents pay way
less taxes than hawaii
overall in fact alaskans pay less taxes
than residents of
all other states they even get money
back from the government
yep funded by the state's oil revenue
every year citizens get a payout
via the alaska permanent fund it has
paid out an average of around sixteen
hundred dollars
each year to every resident since it
began in the 1970s
also alaska doesn't have an income tax
hawaii
does as well as a much higher sales tax
still the median household income is
higher in hawaii
also the poverty rate is lower there
however the minimum wage
is currently slightly higher in alaska
the median age
is higher in hawaii more hawaii
residents have college degrees
hawaii is more ethnically diverse the
largest
ethnic group there is asian american
which makes up about 37 percent of its
population
the second largest ethnic group is
european-american
followed by hispanic and native hawaiian
alaska's largest minority ethnic group
is native alaskans one in five
alaska residents identify as either
american indian
or alaska native this is the highest
percentage of any state
politically speaking alaska is generally
more conservative
or more accurately more libertarian
hawaii residents generally tend to be
pretty loyal to the democratic party
they haven't elected a republican for
president since
ronald reagan in 1984. meanwhile
alaska residents have only voted for a
democrat for
president once for lyndon johnson way
back in 1964. alaska has had a couple of
independent governors
since it became a state major industries
in hawaii include
tourism agriculture manufacturing and
healthcare
major industries in alaska also include
tourism but additionally petroleum
fishing and mining alaska is
experiencing
higher job growth and hawaii's economy
was hit harder by the current
coven 19 pandemic alaska has more
national parks
alaska has way way way more wilderness
while both have beaches believe it or
not hawaiian beaches are some of the
best in the world
due to the influence of its unique mix
of hawaiian
southeast asian east asian and north
american cultures hawaii's culture
is one of the most distinct cultures in
the world
i mean just by a sampling of hawaiian
food you
quickly learn that oh and i just gotta
mention spam
not that kind of spam yeah that kind of
spam
per capita more hawaiians eat spam than
any other
area of the world other than guam
originally
american soldiers brought it with them
to hawaii as part of their rations
but it became an important source of
protein for hawaiians
after fishing was prohibited during
world war ii
the main two ways to get to alaska and
around
in alaska are by plane and boat
only one highway which is really just a
glorified road in some places
makes it all the way up there from the
contiguous united states through canada
the alaska highway which fun fact i've
been on
there's not even a road that leads to
juno alaska's capital
surfing of course remains a huge part of
hawaiian culture
as well in fact the ancient polynesians
were the first
known humans who surfed alaska has
denali the tallest peak in north america
oh and the north pole is actually there
and there's a post office in hawaii
where you can mail a coconut
i mean like without putting it in a box
just the coconut
look there is so much more i could get
into but i grow weary for now so
just know that i shall come back to
these two magical places for future
videos
because they are indeed two of the most
epic states of all of these united
states
[Music]
i want to give a special shout out to
adam christians for helping me make
this video he helped out with some of
the research and made some of the
animations
it was amazing to have that kind of help
thank you adam you rock
also a shout out to a couple people who
have sent me things
in the mail i have a p.o box remember
this maryland shirt
thank you chris for that and then i got
a postcard from uh
at classic fumble i don't know your real
name but
thank you very much okay so i've never
been to hawaii but i hope to go
soon my brother and i did drive all the
way to alaska back in 2010
and i made a little documentary about it
i'll link that in the description i
couldn't include everything so
what did i miss also which states should
i compare next
as always let me know down below and
thanks for watching