Geological history The islands of Samoa were formed from the
Miocene period. For the past 2 million years, the Samoan archipelago has experienced activity related to
volcanic hotspots.
Early history Samoa was discovered and settled by the
Lapita people (Austronesian people who spoke
Oceanic languages), who travelled from
Island Melanesia. The earliest human remains found in Samoa are dated to between roughly 2,900 and 3,500 years ago. The remains were discovered at a Lapita site at
Mulifanua, and the scientists' findings were published in 1974. The Samoans' origins have been studied in modern times through scientific research on Polynesian
genetics,
linguistics, and
anthropology. Although this research is ongoing, a number of theories have been proposed. One theory is that the original Samoans were
Austronesians who arrived during a final period of eastward expansion of the Lapita peoples out of Southeast Asia and
Melanesia between 2,500 and 1,500 BCE. Intimate sociocultural and genetic ties were maintained between Samoa, Fiji, and Tonga, and the archaeological record supports oral tradition and native genealogies that indicate interisland voyaging and intermarriage among precolonial Samoans,
Fijians, and
Tongans. Notable figures in Samoan history included the
Tui Manu'a line, Queen
Salamasina,
King Fonoti and the four
tama a ʻāiga:
Malietoa,
Tupua Tamasese,
Mataʻafa, and
Tuimalealiʻifano.
Nafanua was a famous woman warrior who was deified in ancient Samoan religion and whose patronage was highly sought after by successive Samoan rulers. Today, all of Samoa is united under its two principal royal families: the Sā Malietoa of the ancient Malietoa lineage that defeated the Tongans in the 13th century; and the Sā Tupua, Queen Salamasina's descendants and heirs who ruled Samoa in the centuries that followed her reign. Within these two principal lineages are the four highest titles of Samoa – the elder titles of Malietoa and Tupua Tamasese of antiquity and the newer Mataʻafa and Tuimalealiʻifano titles, which rose to prominence in 19th-century wars that preceded the colonial period.
19th century Visits by American trading and
whaling vessels were important in the early economic development of Samoa. The
Salem brig
Roscoe (Captain Benjamin Vanderford), in October 1821, was the first American trading vessel known to have called, and the
Maro (Captain Richard Macy) of
Nantucket, in 1824, was the first recorded United States whaler at Samoa. The whalers came for fresh drinking water, firewood, provisions and, later, for recruiting local men to serve as crewmen on their ships. The last recorded whaler visitor was the
Governor Morton in 1870. Christian missionary work in Samoa began in 1830 when
John Williams of the
London Missionary Society arrived in
Sapapali'i from the
Cook Islands and
Tahiti. According to Barbara A. West, "The Samoans were also known to engage in 'headhunting', a ritual of war in which a warrior took the head of his slain opponent to give to his leader, thus proving his bravery." In
A Footnote to History: Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa (1892),
Robert Louis Stevenson details the activities of the
great powers battling for influence in Samoa – the United States, Germany and Britain – and the political machinations of the various Samoan factions within their indigenous political system. Even as they descended into ever greater interclan warfare, what most alarmed Stevenson was the Samoans' economic innocence. In 1894, just months before his death, he addressed the island chiefs: He had "seen these judgments of God" in
Hawaii, where abandoned native churches stood like tombstones "over a grave, in the midst of the white men's sugar fields". 's birthday fete at
Vailima, 1894 The Germans, in particular, began to show great commercial interest in the
Samoan Islands, especially on the island of Upolu, where German firms monopolised
copra and
cocoa bean processing. The United States laid its own claim, based on commercial shipping interests in Pearl Harbor in
Hawaii and Pago Pago Bay in eastern Samoa, and forced alliances, most conspicuously on the islands of
Tutuila and
Manu'a, which became
American Samoa. Britain also sent troops to protect British business enterprise, harbour rights, and consulate office. This was followed by an
eight-year civil war, during which each of the three powers supplied arms, training and in some cases combat troops to the warring Samoan parties. The
Samoan crisis came to a critical juncture in March 1889 when all three colonial contenders sent warships into Apia harbour, and a larger-scale war seemed imminent. A massive storm on 15 March 1889 damaged or destroyed the warships, ending the military conflict. The
Second Samoan Civil War reached a head in 1898 when
Germany, the
United Kingdom, and the United States were locked in dispute over who should control the Samoan Islands. The
Siege of Apia occurred in March 1899. Samoan forces loyal to Prince
Tanu were besieged by a larger force of Samoan rebels loyal to
Mataʻafa Iosefo. Supporting Prince Tanu were landing parties from four British and American warships. After several days of fighting, the Samoan rebels were finally defeated. (1832–1912), paramount chief and rival for the kingship of Samoa , the United States and
Great Britain abolished the Samoan kingship in June 1899. American and British warships shelled Apia on 15 March 1899, including the
USS Philadelphia. Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States quickly resolved to end the hostilities and divided the island chain at the
Tripartite Convention of 1899, signed at Washington on 2 December 1899 with ratifications exchanged on 16 February 1900. The eastern island-group became a territory of the United States (the Tutuila Islands in 1900 and officially Manu'a in 1904) and was known as American Samoa. The western islands, by far the greater landmass, became
German Samoa. The United Kingdom had vacated all claims in Samoa and in return received (1) termination of German rights in
Tonga, (2) all of the Solomon Islands south of Bougainville, and (3) territorial alignments in West Africa.
German Samoa (1900–1914) The
German Empire governed the western part of the Samoan archipelago from 1900 to 1914.
Wilhelm Solf was appointed the colony's first governor. In 1908, when the non-violent
Mau a Pule resistance movement arose, Solf did not hesitate to banish the Mau leader
Lauaki Namulau'ulu Mamoe to Saipan in the German
Northern Mariana Islands. The German colonial administration governed on the principle that "there was only one government in the islands." Thus, there was no Samoan
Tupu (king), nor an
alii sili (similar to a governor), but two
Fautua (advisors) were appointed by the colonial government.
Tumua and
Pule (traditional governments of Upolu and Savai'i) were for a time silent; all decisions on matters affecting lands and titles were under the control of the colonial Governor. In the first month of
World War I, on 29 August 1914, troops of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force landed unopposed on Upolu and
seized control from the German authorities, following a request by Great Britain for New Zealand to perform this "great and urgent imperial service."
New Zealand rule (1914–1961) From the end of
World War I until 1962, New Zealand controlled Western Samoa as a
Class C Mandate under
trusteeship through the
League of Nations, then through the United Nations. Between 1919 and 1962, Samoa was administered by the
Department of External Affairs, a government department which had been specially created to oversee New Zealand's Island Territories and Samoa. In 1943, this department was renamed the
Department of Island Territories after a separate
Department of External Affairs was created to conduct New Zealand's foreign affairs. During the period of New Zealand control, their administrators were responsible for two major incidents.
Flu pandemic In the first incident, approximately one fifth of the Samoan population died in the
influenza epidemic of 1918–1919. Samoa suffered the most of all Pacific islands, with 90% of the population infected; 30% of adult men, 22% of adult women and 10% of children died. The cause of the epidemic was confirmed in 1919 by a
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
Talune from Auckland on 7 November 1918. However, native Samoans greatly resented New Zealand's colonial rule, and blamed inflation and the catastrophic 1918 flu epidemic on its misrule. By the late 1920s the resistance movement against colonial rule had gathered widespread support. One of the Mau leaders was
Olaf Frederick Nelson, a half Samoan and half Swedish merchant. Nelson was eventually
exiled during the late 1920s and early 1930s, but he continued to assist the organisation financially and politically. In accordance with the Mau's non-violent philosophy, the newly elected leader, High Chief Tupua Tamasese Lealofi, led his fellow uniformed Mau in a peaceful demonstration in downtown Apia on 28 December 1929. The New Zealand police attempted to arrest one of the leaders in the demonstration. When he resisted, a struggle developed between the police and the Mau. The officers began to fire randomly into the crowd and used a
Lewis machine gun, mounted in preparation for the demonstration, to disperse the demonstrators. Mau leader and paramount chief
Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III was shot from behind and killed while trying to bring calm and order to the Mau demonstrators. Ten others died that day and approximately 50 were injured by gunshot wounds and police batons. That day would come to be known in Samoa as Black Saturday. On 13 January 1930, the New Zealand authorities banned the organisation. As many as 1500 Mau men took to the bush, pursued by an armed force of 150 marines and seamen from the
light cruiser HMS Dunedin, and 50 military police. They were supported by a seaplane flown by Flight Lieutenant
Sidney Wallingford of the
New Zealand Permanent Air Force. Villages were raided, often at night and with fixed bayonets. In March, through the mediation of local Europeans and missionaries, Mau leaders met New Zealand's Minister of Defence and agreed to disperse. Supporters of the Mau continued to be arrested, so women came to the fore rallying supporters and staging demonstrations. The political stalemate was broken following the victory of the Labour Party in New Zealand's 1935 general election. A 'goodwill mission' to Apia in June 1936 recognised the Mau as a legitimate political organisation, and Olaf Nelson was allowed to return from exile. with representatives of the
Mau movement winning 31 of the 39 seats.
Independence After repeated efforts by the Samoan independence movement, the New Zealand Western Samoa Act of 24 November 1961 terminated the Trusteeship Agreement and granted the country independence as the
Independent State of Western Samoa, effective 1 January 1962. Western Samoa, the first small-island country in the Pacific to become independent, signed a
Treaty of Friendship with New Zealand later in 1962. Western Samoa joined the
Commonwealth of Nations on 28 August 1970. While independence was achieved at the beginning of January, Samoa annually celebrates 1 June as its independence day. At the time of independence,
Fiamē Mataʻafa Faumuina Mulinuʻu II, one of the four highest-ranking
paramount chiefs in the country, became Samoa's first
prime minister. Another paramount chief,
Tuiaana Tuimalealiʻifano Suatipatipa II, was admitted to the
Council of Deputies; the remaining two –
Tupua Tamasese Meaʻole and
Malietoa Tanumafili II – became joint heads of state for life. On 15 December 1976, Western Samoa was admitted to the
United Nations as the 147th
member state. It asked to be referred to in the United Nations as the
Independent State of Samoa. Travel writer
Paul Theroux noted marked differences between the societies in Western Samoa and
American Samoa in 1992. Western Samoa ratified the
UN Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1994, making the island nation a Party in efforts to manage marine resources and protect its vast regional ocean territory. The convention entered into force for Western Samoa on 13 September 1995. On 4 July 1997 the government amended the constitution to change the name of the country from
Western Samoa to
Samoa, the name it had been called by in the United Nations since it joined. In 2002, New Zealand prime minister
Helen Clark formally apologised for New Zealand's role in the Spanish influenza outbreak in 1918 that killed over a quarter of Samoa's population and for the Black Saturday killings in 1929. On 7 September 2009, the government changed the rule of the road from
right to left, in common with most other Commonwealth countries – most notably countries in the region such as Australia and New Zealand, home to large numbers of Samoans. This made Samoa the first country in the 21st century to switch to driving on the left. At the end of December 2011, Samoa changed its time zone offset from UTC−11 to UTC+13, effectively jumping forward by one day, omitting Friday, 30 December from the local calendar. This also changed the shape of the
International Date Line, moving it to the east of the territory. This change aimed to help the nation boost its economy in doing business with Australia and New Zealand. Before this change, Samoa was 21 hours behind
Sydney, but the change means it is now three hours ahead. The previous time zone, implemented on 4 July 1892, operated in line with American traders based in
California. In October 2021, Samoa ceased
daylight saving time. In 2017, Samoa signed the UN
treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. In June 2017, Parliament amended Article 1 of the Samoan Constitution to make
Christianity the state religion. In September 2019, a
measles outbreak resulted in the deaths of 83 people. Following the outbreak, the government imposed a curfew in December later during the same year. In May 2021,
Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa became Samoa's first female prime minister. Mataʻafa's
FAST party narrowly won the
election, ending the rule of long-term Prime Minister
Tuilaʻepa Saʻilele Malielegaoi of the
Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP), although the
constitutional crisis complicated and delayed this. On 24 May 2021, she was sworn in as the new prime minister, though it was not until July that the Supreme Court ruled that her swearing-in was legal, thus ending the constitutional crisis and bringing an end to Tuilaʻepa's 22-year premiership. The FAST party's success in the 2021 election and subsequent court rulings also ended nearly four decades of HRPP rule. ==Government and politics==