Territory of Western Samoa Teritori o Sāmoa i Sisifo (Samoan) | |||||||||
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1920–1962 | |||||||||
Anthems: "God Defend New Zealand" (Samoan: Le Atua Puipui Niu Sila) "God Save the Queen" [lower-alpha 1] | |||||||||
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Status | Mandate of New Zealand (1920–1946) Trust Territory of New Zealand (1946–1962) | ||||||||
Capital | Apia 13°50′S171°45′W / 13.833°S 171.750°W | ||||||||
Common languages | English (official) Samoan (native) Austronesian languages Papuan languages | ||||||||
Monarch | |||||||||
• 1920–1936 | George V | ||||||||
• 1936–1936 | Edward VIII | ||||||||
• 1936–1952 | George VI | ||||||||
• 1952–1962 | Elizabeth II | ||||||||
Administrator | |||||||||
• 1914–1919 | Robert Logan | ||||||||
• 1919–1923 | Robert Tate | ||||||||
• 1923–1928 | George Richardson | ||||||||
• 1928–1931 | Stephen Allen | ||||||||
• 1931–1935 | Herbert Hart | ||||||||
• 1935–1946 | Alfred Turnbull | ||||||||
• 1960–1962 | Jack Wright | ||||||||
Historical era | British Empire | ||||||||
30 August 1914 | |||||||||
• Established | 17 December 1920 | ||||||||
• Trusteeship | 13 December 1946 | ||||||||
• Independence | 1 January 1962 | ||||||||
Currency | Pound sterling (1914–1930) New Zealand pound (1930–1962) Western Samoan pound (1930–67) | ||||||||
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Today part of | Samoa |
The Territory of Western Samoa was the civil administration of Western Samoa by New Zealand between 1920 and Samoan independence in 1962. In 1914, German Samoa was captured by the Samoa Expeditionary Force shortly after the outbreak of World War I, and was formally annexed as a League of Nations mandate in 1920 in the Treaty of Versailles. It was later transformed into a United Nations Trust Territory following the dissolution of the League of Nations in 1946.
At the outbreak of World War I German Samoa was a German colony. On 7 August 1914, the British government indicated to New Zealand (which was at this time a British dominion), that the seizure of a wireless station near Apia, the colony's capital which was used by the German East Asia Squadron, would be a "great and urgent Imperial service". [2] This was followed by the first action of New Zealand in the war, the sailing of a Samoa Expeditionary Force on 15 August, which landed at Apia two weeks later. Although Germany refused to officially surrender the colonies, no resistance was offered and the occupation took place without any fighting. Despite claims that German Samoa was the first enemy territory to fall to imperial forces, the first seizure of a German colony had occurred four days earlier when Togoland was captured as part of the West Africa Campaign. [3]
Colonel Robert Logan, who had commanded the Samoan Expeditionary Force, was the military administrator of the colony for the remainder of the war. [4] By 1918, Samoa had a population of some 38,000 Samoans and 1,500 Europeans. [5] Approximately one fifth of the population died in the Influenza epidemic of 1918–1919. [6] In 1919, The Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Epidemic concluded that there had been no epidemic of pneumonic influenza in Western Samoa before the arrival of the SS Talune from Auckland on 7 November 1918, which was allowed to berth by Logan without quarantine precautions. Within seven days of this ship's arrival influenza had become epidemic in Upolu and had then spread rapidly throughout the territory. [7]
On 17 December 1920, the League of Nations formally conferred a Class C Mandate over the former German Colony of Samoa to the Dominion of New Zealand. [8] [9] The mandate was supported by the Samoa Constitution Order, 1920, which had replaced the military occupation with a civil administration on 1 May 1920. [8] [10] On 1 April 1922, the Samoa Act 1921 came into force. [11]
Under the Samoa Act the New Zealand Governor-General appointed an administrator based in Apia to hold executive power and to report to the New Zealand Minister of External Affairs in Wellington; lawmaking power was held by the administrator and a local legislative council, although Wellington had final authority. [8] New Zealand administrators repressed freedom of media, freedom of association, and free speech on Western Samoa, as well as banished those who criticized New Zealand's rule. [12]
After 1945, the classification of the mandate was changed to a United Nations Trust Territory. [13]
The Mau (translates as "strongly held opinion") was a popular non-violent movement which had its beginnings in the early 1900s (decade) in Savai'i. It was first led by Lauaki Namulauulu Mamoe, an orator chief deposed by the German administration. The 1920s saw the resurgence of the Mau in opposition to the New Zealand administration. One of the Mau leaders was Olaf Frederick Nelson, a half Samoan and half Swedish merchant. [14] Nelson was exiled by the administration during the late 1920s and early 1930s, but he continued to assist the organisation financially and politically.
On 28 December 1929, the newly elected leader, high chief Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III, led his fellow uniformed Mau in a peaceful demonstration in downtown Apia. [15] The New Zealand police attempted to arrest the high chief. When he resisted, a struggle occurred between the police and the Mau. The officers began to fire randomly into the crowd and a Lewis machine gun, mounted in preparation for this demonstration, was used to disperse the Mau. [16] Chief Tamasese was shot from behind and killed while trying to bring calm and order to the Mau demonstrators, screaming "Peace, Samoa". Ten others died that day and approximately fifty were injured by gunshots and police batons. [17]
That day would come to be known in Samoa as Black Saturday. The Mau grew, remaining steadfastly non-violent, and expanded to include a highly influential women's branch. After repeated efforts by the Samoan people, Western Samoa gained independence in 1962 and signed a Friendship Treaty with New Zealand. Samoa was the first country in the Pacific to become independent.
In 2002, New Zealand's prime minister Helen Clark, on a trip to Samoa, formally apologised for New Zealand's role in the banishment of Samoan leaders, the failure to quarantine SS Talune, and the Apia shootings. [18] [19]
Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands ; two smaller, inhabited islands ; and several smaller, uninhabited islands, including the Aleipata Islands. Samoa is located 64 km (40 mi) west of American Samoa, 889 km (552 mi) northeast of Tonga, 1,152 km (716 mi) northeast of Fiji, 483 km (300 mi) east of Wallis and Futuna, 1,151 km (715 mi) southeast of Tuvalu, 519 km (322 mi) south of Tokelau, 4,190 km (2,600 mi) southwest of Hawaii, and 610 km (380 mi) northwest of Niue. The capital and largest city is Apia. The Lapita people discovered and settled the Samoan Islands around 3,500 years ago. They developed a Samoan language and Samoan cultural identity.
The Samoan Islands were first settled some 3,500 years ago as part of the Austronesian expansion. Both Samoa's early history and its more recent history are strongly connected to the histories of Tonga and Fiji, nearby islands with which Samoa has long had genealogical links as well as shared cultural traditions.
Apia is the capital and only city of Samoa. It is located on the central north coast of Upolu, Samoa's second-largest island. Apia falls within the political district (itūmālō) of Tuamasaga.
The flag of Samoa was first adopted from 24 February 1949, for UN Trusteeships, and continuously applied for the state's independence on 1 January 1962. It consists of a red field with a blue rectangle in the canton. The blue rectangle bears the Southern Cross: four large white stars and one smaller star. It makes a total of five white stars.
The Mau was a non-violent movement for Samoan independence from colonial rule during the first half of the 20th century. Mau means 'resolute' or 'resolved' in the sense of 'opinion', 'unwavering', 'to be decided', or 'testimony'; also denoting 'firm strength' in Samoan. The motto for the Mau were the words Samoa mo Samoa. Similarly in Hawaiian Mau means to strive or persevere, and is often linked with Hawaiian poetry relating to independence and sovereignty struggles.
Sir James Allen was a prominent New Zealand politician and diplomat. He held a number of the most important political offices in the country, including Minister of Finance and Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was also New Zealand's Minister of Defence during World War I.
Tupua Tamasese Mea'ole was a Western Samoan paramount chief. He held the royal title of Tupua Tamasese from 1929 to 1963, and O le Ao o le Malo jointly with Malietoa Tanumafili II from 1962 until his death the following year.
Ta'isi Olaf Frederick Nelson was a Samoan businessman and politician. He was one of the founding leaders of the anti-colonial Mau movement.
Susuga Malietoa Tanumafili I was the Malietoa in Samoa from 1898 until his death in 1939. After the death of his father, Malietoa Laupepa, the recognized King of Samoa by many western countries, Tanumafili was immediately crowned as King, alongside Tupua Tamasese Lealofi I as vice-king. Tanumafili was backed by the United States and United Kingdom, however Germany supported rebel chief Mata'afa Iosefo who eyeing the throne. The battle between the two made up the Second Samoan Civil War and in the end caused the Tripartite Convention that split the islands. After the war, Malietoa pursued education in Fiji and then came back to Samoa, where he was appointed as an advisor.
SS Talune was built in 1890 and scuttled in 1925. She was a passenger and freight steamship employed in the Tasman Sea and South Seas trades in the last decade of the 19th century and the first two decades of the 20th century. It was a typical ship of its time and type in every way. It would be unknown except that it was the ship that brought the deadly 1918 Spanish flu pandemic from New Zealand to Samoa and other Pacific islands.
The Occupation of Samoa was the takeover – and subsequent administration – of the Pacific colony of German Samoa by New Zealand during World War I. It started in late August 1914 with landings by the Samoa Expeditionary Force from New Zealand. The landings were unopposed and the New Zealanders took possession of Samoa for the New Zealand Government on behalf of King George V. The Samoa Expeditionary Force remained in the country until 1915, while its commander, Colonel Robert Logan, continued to administer Samoa on behalf of the New Zealand Government until 1919. The takeover of Samoa was New Zealand's first military action in World War I.
The Samoa Expeditionary Force (SEF) was a small volunteer force of approximately 1,400 men raised in New Zealand shortly after the outbreak of World War I to seize and destroy the German wireless station in German Samoa in the south-west Pacific. Britain required the German wireless installations to be destroyed because they were used by Vizeadmiral Maximilian von Spee's East Asia Squadron of the Imperial German Navy, which threatened merchant shipping in the region. Following the capture of German possessions in the region, the SEF provided occupation forces for the duration of the war. Australia provided a similar force for the occupation of German New Guinea.
Alfred James Tattersall was a New Zealand photographer, who lived in Samoa for most of his life and contributed a significant collection of images of the Pacific Island country and its peoples during the colonial era.
Tupua Tamasese Lealofi-o-ā'ana III was a paramount chief of Samoa, holder of the Tupua Tamasese dynastic title and became the leader of the country's pro-independence Mau movement from early 1928 until his assassination by New Zealand police in 1929. Inspired by his Christian beliefs, traditional customs and culture of Samoa, Lealofi III became one of the first leaders of the 20th century to employ nonviolent resistance against colonial rule which laid the foundations for Samoa's successful campaign for independence, which it attained in 1962.
Mata'afa Faumuina Fiame Mulinu'u I was a high chief of Samoa and a leader of the country's pro-independence Mau movement during the 1920's and 1930's. He was the holder of high-ranking ali'i chiefly titles: the Tama-a-'aiga Mata'afa, Fiame from Lotofaga and Faumuina from Lepea.
Sir Stephen Shepherd Allen was a New Zealand lawyer, farmer, colonial administrator, local-body politician, and mayor of Morrinsville.
Robert Logan was an officer in the New Zealand Military Forces who served in the First World War as the Military Administrator of Samoa.
Evelyn Gertrude Brown,, usually known as Eva, was a New Zealand civilian and military nurse. She served during the First World War and was the only New Zealand nurse to receive the Royal Red Cross and Bar.
New Zealand and Samoa have had close relations based on a treaty of friendship between the two countries since Samoa became independent in 1962. New Zealand administered Samoa under a League of Nations mandate then a United Nations trusteeship from 1920 to 1961. Both nations are members of the Commonwealth of Nations and the Pacific Islands Forum.
Olive Virginia Malienafau Nelson was the first Pacific Island graduate of the University of Auckland.