Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, 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.
German Samoa was a German protectorate from 1900 to 1920, consisting of the islands of Upolu, Savai'i, Apolima and Manono, now wholly within the Independent State of Samoa, formerly Western Samoa. Samoa was the last German colonial acquisition in the Pacific basin, received following the Tripartite Convention signed at Washington on 2 December 1899 with ratifications exchanged on 16 February 1900. It was the only German colony in the Pacific, aside from the Jiaozhou Bay Leased Territory in China, that was administered separately from German New Guinea.
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.
Tupua Tamasese Meaʻole 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, who was recognized as king of Samoa by many Western countries, Tanumafili was immediately crowned, with Tupua Tamasese Lealofi I serving as vice-king. Tanumafili was backed by the United States and United Kingdom, however Germany supported rebel chief Mata‘afa Iosefo who was 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.
Mataʻafa Faumuina Fiame Mulinuʻu I was a high chief of Samoa and a leader of the country's pro-independence Mau movement during the 1920s and 1930s. He was the holder of high-ranking aliʻi chiefly titles: the Tamaʻāiga Mataʻafa, 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.
