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History
Polynesians are believed to have settled there in 1000 BC.
They probably came from Tonga. Samoans migrated to many other
parts of the ocean and Samoa may be the legendary "Havaiki,
birthplace of lands" known in oral tradition throughout
the Polynesian world.
European Contacts
Roggeveen, a Dutchman, sighted them in 1722. The Frenchman Bougainville
visited in 1768.
The first missionaries settled in 1830. Britain, Germany and
the US appointed consuls. The Samoans fought amongst themselves
to establish a paramount state with the help of European weapons
- more or less as proxies for the imperial powers.
A US agent Colonel Steinberger arranged a peace in 1873, drafted
a constitution and then made himself prime minister of the state,
making it his personal state. He was deported by the British
in 1876. The British then established the municipality of Apia
in 1879. However, the Berlin treaty in 1889 agreed on the independence
and neutrality of Samoa but war between the chiefs and the king
broke out again in 1899 when a new treaty of Berlin annexed Western
Samoa to Germany and the US got the rest. The Samoans resisted
the Germans from 1908. New Zealand took the islands from Germany
in 1914. The League of Nations awarded them as a mandate to New
Zealand in 1920. Samoan resistance continued, now directed against
NZ.
The United States built bases on Upola during world war two.
Afterwards they became a UN Trust Territory still given to NZ.
Independence in 1962. NZ remains the agent for foreign affairs
if requested.
pop. 160,000.
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