Abrogated the Treaty of Friendship and Commerce Between the United States and the Government of the Samoan Islands of 17 February 1878 (20Stat.704; TS 312; 1 Bevans437). Abrogated the Treaty of Berlin of 14 June 1889 (26Stat.1497; TS 313; 1 Bevans 116).
Forerunners to the Tripartite Convention of 1899 were the Washington Conference of 1887, the Treaty of Berlin of 1889, and the Anglo-German Agreement on Samoa of 1899.
By the 1870s, modern economic conditions were well established and accepted by the Samoans, who had just enough of a government that could be manipulated at will by the foreign business interests in Samoa. After the United States concluded a friendship treaty with Samoa in 1878, Germany negotiated her own Favorite Nation Treaty in 1879 with the same Samoan faction as the U.S., while later in 1879 the Anglo-Samoan treaty was completed with a rival faction. Contentions among the whites in Samoa, plus native factional strife led to side-choosing that became deadly warring with the introduction of modern weapons.
Washington conference of 1887
To attempt to resolve some of the problems, the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom agreed to a conference in Washington in June 1887. After the surfacing of serious disagreements among the parties, the conference adjourned without results. Fighting by nationals of the three powers with their factional local allies led to a conflict that was only tempered by the Apia hurricane of 1889 that wrecked warships on the verge of hostilities.
The seriousness of the situation was finally recognized and German foreign minister Count Herbert von Bismarck (chancellor Otto von Bismarck's son) proposed to reconvene the adjourned Washington conference of 1887.[1] He invited U.S. and British representatives to Berlin in April 1889.[2] Bismarck's pragmatic approach proposed protection for life, property, and commerce of the treaty participants and relegated native government and their unstable "kings" to the Samoans, with which the British concurred. The United States insisted on a three-powers authority while preserving native rights. In the Treaty of Berlin of 1889 thus a joint protectorate or condominium was declared, with a European/American chief justice, a municipal council for Apia, and with the "free right of the natives to elect their Chief or King" as the signatory to the act, thus the treaty professed to recognize a Samoan independent government.[3]
No sooner was the native royal figurehead appointed (and, after disturbances, restored), then the other chiefs rebelled, and civil war ensued. By the end of the 19th century, the failure of the arrangement was freely admitted by the governments of the three powers, since the principal protagonists in Samoa acted directly for their own respective interests, frequently overruling the officials of the condominium.
The German government "had never made a secret of their belief that international control of Samoa was visionary and impractical ... and they began a series of diplomatic moves intended to eliminate it altogether."[4] In April the British government agreed to the formation of a joint commission of Germany, the US and the UK on the matter. The Joint Commission on Samoa was given authority to supersede local authorities and settle matters. Their arrival in May effectively ended hostilities. By July the commission had decided that the islands must be partitioned, as continued joint rule was infeasible. The American commissioner Bartlett Tripp endorsed the view of President McKinley and others that the United States should retain Tutuila and its harbor of Pago Pago.[5] With partitioning of Samoa by then the prevailing understanding, the United States expressed no objections to Britain and Germany coming to a preliminary agreement. The United Kingdom was then embroiled in the Second Boer War and therefore viewed as in a weakened bargaining position;[6] however, the German desire to rapidly conclude the negotiations and bring the western Samoan islands into their colonial empire had a balancing effect that was clearly evidenced in the agreement as signed.
Kaiser Wilhelm II had accepted an invitation to visit England in November 1899 and his government insisted that an agreement on Samoa should be concluded before his departure for Britain.[7] A settlement was reached at London by 9 November and signed on 14 November.[8] It was therefore this Anglo-German agreement on Samoa in tandem with the informal understanding with the United States that partitioned Samoa. It only remained for the three powers to negotiate a tripartite convention in order to secure the approval of the United States to the whole agreement.[9] The Tripartite Convention of 1899 was duly constituted and documents were signed at Washington on 2 December 1899 by the U.S. Secretary of State John Hay, Baron Theodor von Holleben, German ambassador to the United States, and Sir Julian Pauncefote, British ambassador to the United States, with ratifications exchanged on 16 February 1900.[10]
Positions resulting from the Tripartite Convention of 1899
United States:
Seal of American Samoa
President William McKinley signed an executive order on 19 February 1900, reading: "The Island of Tutuila, of the Samoan Group, and all other islands of the group east of longitude 171 degrees west of Greenwich, are hereby placed under the control of the Department of the Navy for a naval station. The Secretary of the Navy shall take such steps as are necessary to establish the authority of the United States and to give to the islands the necessary protection." On the same day John D. Long, Secretary of the Navy, stated further that these islands "... are hereby established into a naval station, to be known as the naval station, Tutuila, and to be under the command of a commandant." Rose Island, an uninhabited coral atoll, and the island of Aunuʻu were included. The cession of deeds of the islands of the Manua Group (Taʻū and Ofu-Olosega) did not take place until 1904, although the respective chiefs had previously accepted the sovereignty of the United States.[11] The term "American Samoa" entered into conscious usage in 1905 with a first assembly, or fono, of the Samoan chiefs on all ceded islands within the naval station.[12][13][14]
German Empire:
The Samoan islands of Upolu and Savaii and the small islands of Apolima and Manono, west of 171 degrees west longitude, were declared a protectorate of the German Empire, and became known as German Samoa, with a flag raising on 1 March 1900, and appointment of Wilhelm Solf as governor. This "happy acquisition" was viewed in Germany as a "splendid achievement in colonial policy, which is at the same time a genuinely popular one."[10]
"the shifting of the line of demarcation between German and British islands in the Solomon group so as to give to Great Britain all the German islands to the east and southeast of the island of Bougainville;"
"the division of the so-called neutral zone in West Africa by a definite boundary line between British and German possessions;"
"the promise of Germany to take into consideration, as much and as far as possible, the wishes which the Government of Great Britain may express with regard to the development of reciprocal tariffs in the territories of"
↑ Ryden 1975, p.455; in deference to the American delegation who had few German or French speakers (French was then the language of international diplomacy), Count Bismarck agreed to conduct the proceedings in English
↑ The United States Department of State was informed on 9 November 1899 through the U.S. embassy at Berlin that foreign minister Count Bernhard von Bülow expressed the hope to the U.S. chargé dʻaffaires that the Anglo-German "agreement would meet with the satisfaction of the United States," since according to the agreement, "... not only Tutuila would become the property of the United States, but also the smaller islands" of the Manua group (Ryden 1975, p.571).
↑ Beginning with the American-Samoan Friendship treaty of 1878, and continuing through the Washington Conference of 1887, the Berlin Conference (in 1889), and to the Tripartite Convention of 1899, the United States held a consistent position ((not always publicly), to acquire the coaling station at Pago Pago Bay. It was the probability of building a canal in Central America (eventually to be controlled by the U.S. and realized as the Panama Canal) that defined this American perspective.
↑ Swains Island, a privately-owned atoll in the Tokelau group, became officially part of American Samoa by annexation on 4 March 1925.
↑ Referred to as, 'Britain' or 'Great Britain', when mentioned in direct quotes
Gray, J. A. C. (1980). Amerika Samoa: A History of American Samoa and Its United States Naval Administration. Navies and men. New York: Arno Press. ISBN978-0-405-13038-0.
Ryden, George Herbert (1975). The foreign policy of the United States in relation to Samoa. New York: Octagon Books. ISBN978-0-374-97000-0. (Reprinted by special arrangement with Yale University Press. Originally published at New Haven: Yale University Press. 1928.)
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.
Pago Pago is the capital of American Samoa. It is in Maoputasi County on Tutuila, which is American Samoa's main island.
The flag of American Samoa consists of a red-edged white triangle pointing towards the hoist charged with a bald eagle clutching a war club and fly-whisk, with dark blue upper and lower triangles. Adopted in April 1960 to replace the "Stars and Stripes" as the official flag of the territory, it has been the flag of the Territory of American Samoa since that year. The colors used epitomize the traditional colors of the United States and Samoa.
The Samoan Islands are an archipelago covering 3,030 km2 (1,170 sq mi) in the central South Pacific, forming part of Polynesia and of the wider region of Oceania. Administratively, the archipelago comprises all of the Independent State of Samoa and most of American Samoa. The land masses of the two Samoan jurisdictions are separated by 64 km (40 mi) of ocean at their closest points.
Wilhelm Heinrich Solf was a German scholar, diplomat, jurist and statesman.
Tutuila is the largest and most populous island of American Samoa and is part of the archipelago of the Samoan Islands. It is the third largest island in the Samoan Islands chain of the Central Pacific. It is located roughly 4,000 kilometers (2,500 mi) northeast of Brisbane, Australia and lies over 1,200 kilometers (750 mi) to the northeast of Fiji. It contains a large, natural harbor, Pago Pago Harbor, where Pago Pago, the capital of American Samoa, is situated. Pago Pago International Airport is also located on Tutuila. The island's land expanse is about 68% of the total land area of American Samoa. With 56,000 inhabitants, it is also home to 95% of the population of American Samoa. The island has six terrestrial and three marine ecosystems.
The Manuʻa Islands, or the Manuʻa tele, in the Samoan Islands, consists of three main islands: Taʻū, Ofu and Olosega. The latter two are separated only by the shallow, 137-meter-wide Āsaga Strait, and are now connected by a bridge over the strait. The islands are located some 110 kilometers east of Tutuila and are a part of American Samoa, an unincorporated territory of the United States. Their combined area is 56 square kilometers, and they have a total population of 1,400. Taʻu is the largest of these islands, with an area of 44 km2 (17 sq mi), and it has the highest point of the Manuʻa, at 931 meters. Politically, the islands form the Manuʻa District, one of the three administrative divisions of American Samoa.
The Second Samoan Civil War was a conflict that reached a head in 1898 when Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States were locked in dispute over who should have control over the Samoan island chain, located in the South Pacific Ocean.
The islands of Samoa were originally inhabited by humans as early as 1000 BC. After being invaded by European explorers in the 18th century, by the 20th and 21st century, the islands were incorporated into Samoa and American Samoa.
Fagatogo is the downtown area of Pago Pago. Located in the low grounds at the foot of Matafao Peak, it was the location of the first American settlement on Tutuila Island. It includes the sub-village of Malaloa. Today, Fagatogo is the government, commercial, financial, and shipping center of Tutuila. It is also the administrative capital of American Samoa. It is the location of the American Samoa Fono (legislature), and is listed in the Constitution of American Samoa as the territory's official seat of government. Its population is 1,737.
Benjamin Franklin Tilley was an American Naval officer who served from the end of the American Civil War through the Spanish–American War. He was the first acting governor of American Samoa as well as the territory's first naval governor.
The Constitution of American Samoa is the constitution that defines the government of American Samoa. Unlike constitutions of a state, it is subject to unilateral change by the federal government. Constitutional documents of the territory include the treaties that created it and the 1960 constitution approved by the federal government and popular referendum.
The Treaty of Berlin (1889) was the concluding document of the conference at Berlin in 1889 on Samoa. The conference was proposed by German foreign minister Count Herbert von Bismarck to reconvene the adjourned Washington conference on Samoa of 1887. Herbert von Bismarck invited delegations from the United States and the British Empire to Berlin in April 1889.
Government House, also known as Building No.1, Naval Station, Tutuila or Government House, U.S. Naval Station Tutuila, is a historic government building on the grounds of the former United States Naval Station Tutuila in Pago Pago, American Samoa. Built in 1903, it has served as a center of government on the island for much of the time since then. Government House was listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places in 1972, and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1990.
American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the Polynesia region of the South Pacific Ocean. Centered on 14.3°S 170.7°W, it is 40 miles (64 km) southeast of the island country of Samoa, east of the International Date Line and the Wallis and Futuna Islands, west of the Cook Islands, north of Tonga, and some 310 miles (500 km) south of Tokelau. American Samoa is the southernmost territory of the United States, situated 2,200 miles (3,500 km) southwest of the U.S. state of Hawaii, and one of two U.S. territories south of the Equator, along with the uninhabited Jarvis Island.
John Martin Poyer was the Naval Governor of American Samoa, from March 1, 1915, to June 10, 1919. He held the longest term of any American governor appointed over the territory by the United States Government. A Naval Academy graduate, Poyer served in numerous positions and retired in 1906 on account of failing health; however, the navy recalled him to service in 1915 to serve as governor. During the 1918 flu pandemic, Poyer quarantined the territory to stop the spread of the pandemic to American Samoa. Because of his actions, no deaths occurred in American Samoa, and he received the Navy Cross. Upon his final retirement, Poyer had reached the rank of commander.
The Samoan crisis was a standoff between the United States, the German Empire, and the British Empire from 1887 to 1889 over control of the Samoan Islands during the First Samoan Civil War.
The Treaty of Cession of Tutuila, also known as the Deed of Cession of Tutuila, was a treaty between several chiefs of the island of Tutuila and the United States signed on April 17, 1900, whereby the chiefs swore allegiance to, and ceded the island of Tutuila to, the United States, which now forms part of American Samoa. In the late 19th century there was increased competition among the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom for influence and control in the Pacific region, which was a strategic location for naval bases. The Second Samoan Civil War occurred between 1898 and 1899 because of conflicts among high-ranking Samoan chiefs and the influence of Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom for control over the Samoan islands. The Tripartite Convention of 1899 ended the Second Samoan Civil War and was signed between the United States, the United Kingdom, and the German Empire partitioning the Samoan islands under German and U.S. control. The Samoan Islands had also experienced political instability and conflict among rival chiefs. U.S. representatives in the region engaged with local chiefs to persuade them of the benefits of ceding the territory to the U.S. The chiefs agreed and the treaty was formally signed on April 17, 1900, in the Gagamoe area in Pago Pago. The first American flag was raised later that same day on Sogelau Hill in Fagatogo. It was ratified by the United States Congress by the Ratification Act of 1929 officially incorporating Tutuila into what is now American Samoa. This treaty marked the beginning of American Samoa as a U.S. territory. Initially, the U.S. Navy governed the island for over fifty years before the territory became self-governing. American Samoa remains an unincorporated territory of the United States.
The Treaty of Cession of Manuʻa, also known as the Deed of Cession of Manuʻa, was a treaty between Tui Manuʻa Elisala and the United States signed on 16 July 1904 that ceded the islands of Manuʻa to the United States, which now forms part of American Samoa. It came about because of the Second Samoan Civil War and the Tripartite Convention of 1899 between the United States, the United Kingdom, and the German Empire. It was ratified by the United States Congress by the Ratification Act of 1929.
The Ratification Act of 1929 was a joint resolution of the United States Congress that authorized the ratification of the 1900 Treaty of Cession of Tutuila and the 1904 Treaty of Cession of Manu'a, which respectively ceded to the United States the islands of Tutuila and Manu'a that now form part of American Samoa. As such, it is one of the basic Constitutional documents of American Samoa. These agreements came about because of the Second Samoan Civil War and the Tripartite Convention of 1899 between the United States, the United Kingdom, and the German Empire.
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