• Samoa:
• History

Samoa - History

Samoa seems, on archaeological evidence, to have been inhabited at least as far back as 1000 BC by Austronesian-speaking people. Evidence from legends and from genealogies shows that the country had frequent contact with Fiji and Tonga from the mid-13th century. There was some European contact in the first half of the 18th century, and settlement by refugees and beachcombers until the early 19th century. The Christian missionary John Williams came to Savai’i in 1830.

In 1889, Britain, the USA and Germany, all seeking influence in Samoa, held a conference in Berlin and signed a treaty giving the Samoan islands an independent government, with British, American and German supervision. Later in the same year, Britain relinquished its interest in the country, and the other two agreed that Germany should annex Western Samoa and the US Eastern Samoa. In 1914 the New Zealand army occupied Western Samoa, and in 1919 the League of Nations gave New Zealand a mandate to administer the country. An epidemic of influenza broke out in 1918; the Samoans at the time had no immunity to the disease and 20% of the population died in a few weeks.

Samoans resisted New Zealand’s rule, with non-violent action (1926–36), culminating in the Mau uprisings. After the Second World War, the country was made a UN trust territory, with New Zealand’s role now being to guide Western Samoa to independence.

A legislative assembly was set up in 1947. A constitution, which aimed at combining the traditional lifestyle with modern-style government, was adopted in August 1960. At a plebiscite organised by the UN and held in 1961, the nation voted for independence. The country achieved independence on 1 January 1962, the first South Pacific island country to do so.

In 1970 Western Samoa joined the Commonwealth as a full member. Since 1962 it has had a Treaty of Friendship with New Zealand.