Samoan Islands

An archipelago in the South Pacific divided politically between the independent country of Samoa and the U.S. territory of American Samoa.

Samoa: An independent Polynesian country occupying the western part of the Samoan Islands. Its islands form the archipelago’s western, independent political unit.
Treaty of Berlin (1889): An agreement among Germany, Britain, and the United States concerning Samoa’s governance and neutrality. It attempted to manage international rivalry over the islands before partition.
Malietoa Tanumafili II: A Samoan head of state who served from independence in 1962 until his death in 2007. He became a central symbol of the independent western state.
Apia: The capital and largest city of Samoa, located on Upolu. It is the western islands’ principal urban and administrative center.
American Samoa: A U.S. territory occupying the eastern part of the Samoan Islands. Its islands form the archipelago’s eastern political unit.
Tripartite Convention of 1899: An agreement that divided the Samoan Islands between Germany and the United States, with Britain compensated elsewhere. It established the political division that still shapes the archipelago.
Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III: A leader of the Mau independence movement killed by New Zealand police in 1929. His death during the Mau struggle marked the cost of resistance in Western Samoa.
Pago Pago: The capital of American Samoa, situated on Tutuila beside a deep natural harbor. Its harbor has made Tutuila a strategic center for shipping and administration.
Upolu: A volcanic island in Samoa and the country’s most populous island. It contains Apia and anchors Samoa’s principal population center.
German Samoa: The German colonial territory in the western Samoan Islands from 1900 to 1914. It preceded the independent state that now occupies the western islands.

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