Samoa History

History
Toward the end of the 19th century, conflicting interests of the U.S., Britain, and Germany resulted in an 1899 treaty that recognized the paramount interests of the U.S. in those islands west of American Samoa and Germany's interests in the other islands of Western Samoa.

New Zealand seized Western Samoa from Germany in 1914, and in 1946 it became a UN trust territory administered by New Zealand. A resistance movement to both German and New Zealand rule, known as the Mau or strongly held view movement, helped to edge the islands toward independence.

In May 1961, a plebiscite held under the supervision of the United Nations on the basis of universal adult suffrage voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence. In October of the same year, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution to terminate the trusteeship agreement as of January 1, 1962, on which date Western Samoa became an independent sovereign state. Western Samoa earned the distinction of being the first independent sovereign state in the South Pacific.

The prefix Western was dropped in July 1997 and the country renamed itself the Independent State of Samoa. A constitutional monarchy, Samoa has a legislative assembly whose members are from the titled class. A referendum in 1990 gave women the right to vote for the first time. In 1997, a new constitutional amendment changed the country's name to Samoa. 

Timeline
1830's - English missionaries and traders began arriving 1918 - 1919 Approximately one fifth of the Samoan population died in the influenza epidemic 1997 - The government amended the constitution to change the country's name from Western Samoa to Samoa 2017 - Parliament established an amendment to Article 1 of the Samoan Constitution, making Christianity the state religion