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Samoa

Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa, is a country comprising a group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean. Previous names were German Samoa from 1900 to 1919, and Western Samoa from 1914 to 1997. more...

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It was recognized by the United Nations on 15 December 1976 (UN members) as Samoa. The entire group was known as Navigators Islands before the 20th century because of the Samoans' seafaring skills. It has a population of 176,710 (2001 census).

History

Some historians hypothesize that the first Polynesians to arrive in the Pacific came from Southern Taiwan. A group of people called the "Lapita" are thought to have travelled south from Taiwan through South-East Asia, eventually reaching Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu. It is also believed that Polynesians are the result of a mix of Lapita people from Asia, and Melanesians who were already in countries such as Vanuatu and Fiji. From linguistic evidence, it is believed that Samoa was the first place discovered by the Polynesians: Tonga, a country just south of Samoa means "South" in many Pacific languages; and Tokelau, a country to the north of Samoa means "North" in many Pacific languages. Also, in Polynesian legends the homeland of all Polynesians is called "Hauaiki" in Tongan, "Hawaiki" in Māori, and "Hawaiʻi" in Hawaiian. This is thought to be Savai'i, one of the main islands in Samoa. Samoa enjoys a rich history, preserved in folklore and myth, of voyages across the ocean, conquests of different islands, and inter-island warfare with other West Polynesian polities, mainly the Kingdom of Tonga and certain Fijian chieftainships. Some people believe that a temple on the island of Manono has a record, using a system of stone cairns, commemoratating more than 150 wars. Robert Louis Stevenson, who spent the last four years of his life in Samoa, remarked that "War is Samoa's favourite pastime." (It is fair to say that in contemporary times team competition, particularly rugby, volleyball, kirikiti, traditional song and dance, and traditional water sports, have replaced war.)

Contact with Europeans began in 1722, but intensified after the 1830s, when English missionaries and traders began arriving. Mission work in Samoa was begun in late 1830 by John Williams, of the London Missionary Society. By that time, the Samoans had gained a reputation of being savage and warlike, as they had clashed with French, British, German and American forces, who, by the late nineteenth century, valued Samoa as a refuelling station for coal-fired shipping.

As Germany began to show more interest in the Samoan Islands, the United States laid its own claim to them. Britain also sent troops to express its interest. There followed an eight-year civil war, where each of the three powers supplied arms, training, and in some cases combat troops, to the warring Samoan parties. All three sent warships into Apia harbour, and a larger-scale war seemed imminent, until a massive storm damaged or destroyed the warships, ending the military conflict. At the turn of the twentieth century, the Treaty of Berlin split the Samoan Islands into two parts: the eastern group became a territory of the United States (the Tutuila Islands in 1900 and officially Manu'a in 1905), and are today known as American Samoa; the western islands, by far the greater landmass, became known as German Samoa after the British gave up claims to the islands in return for Fiji and some Melanesian territories. New Zealand troops landed in 'Upolu on 29 August 1914 and seized control from the German authorities, following a request by Britain that New Zealand forces take over a German radio station there.