Samoa - Chronological History of Samoa

In the islands of Savaii, Upolu and Tutuila are large defense walls known as Pa-Tonga (Tongan-Walls). They are the lasting signs of slavery and sufferings under the Tongan yoke. Large boulders weighing several tons, that modern equipment could hardly lift nowadays, were used in building the walls for forts which stretch long distances over hills and valleys. In their last attempt to defeat the Tongans, the Malietoa family planned the successful invasion of Upolu. In the eastern end of the island the historical war started. In remembrance of a bloody battle there, a place was named Malaela (Basking Ground). It is said that the captives were tied and placed in the blazing sun the whole day. Originally the village was named Malae-faala.

The battle continued westward around the windward side of the island. The Tongans were again severely beaten in Solosolo. The original name of the village, "Solosolo-ga-toto" (Wiping of Blood) is suggestive of a very bloody battle fought there. Solosolo is now one of the very prominent villages of the Atua District. When the Malietoas reached the westernmost end of the island, the Tongans were said to have been fighting from the sea. Continued war being hopeless for the Tongans, they decided to surrender. From the stern of the Tongan war-canoe their leader addressed the victorious Samoan warriors as follows: "Ua malie toa! Ua malie tau! Ou te le toe sau i le auliuli tau. Ae o le a ou sau i le auliuli folau." ("Congratulations thou hero! I am pleased with your fighting! I shall return (to Samoa no more as a warrior but I will come back as your guest.") This historic utterance, used as terms for an armistice by the Tongans, originated the name "Malietoa" which was properly given to the most popular king of Samoa, who liberated them from several generations of bondage. The brief but meaningful statement by the defeated Tongan warrior was made very popular for almost five centuries and is quoted frequently by famed orators on reconciliations and in congratulatory speeches.

The grotesque and gruesome past has long been buried. Friendly relations with the Tongans have been undisturbed since the decisive battle won for Samoa by the Malietoas. The late Queen, Her Majesty Salote Tubou, D.B.E., of Tonga, has had occasion to entertain the kings of Samoa as her guests in Nuku'alofa (Village of Love), her home. Likewise have Malietoa, Tamasese and Mataafa on several occasions received queen Salote in Samoa during her official visits.

The history and legends of Samoa record 133 major wars, starting from the battle of Anuilagi (Rebels of Pulotu and Papatea). The last was the Korean war fought abroad in the British and American armed forces. The second World War also drafted many of the Samoan youths of whom several died on the battlefield.

1722	The Samoan islands were first sighted by Jacob Rogeveen, while in command of the
	"Dutch Three Ship Expedition."

1768	The French circumnavigator, Bougainville, arrived. He named Samoa "The Navigators
	Islands."

1787	The French La Perouse expedition visited Tutuila and Upolu. Captain de Langle went
	ashore at Au, on the north shore of Tutuila, with four boats to get water. The party was
	attacked by natives. When de Langle ordered his men to fire over the heads of the
	natives, a shower of stones rained on their boats and all around them. Among the dead
	were Captain de Langle, M. de Lemanon, a physicist, and ten of his men. An enclosed
	monument was erected to their memory in Asu by the French Government in 1883.

1830	John Williams and Charles Barff, the pioneer missionaries of the London Missionary
	Society, arrived with several Tahitian teachers, landing on Sapapalii, Savaii, during the
	Aana War.

1838	(August 18) The United Exploring Expedition, under Charles Wilkes, sailed from
	Hampton Roads. The scientific cops, including naturalists, botanists, mineralogists,
	horticulturalists, draughtsmen and interpreters, explored the islands.

1844	The Mission Institute of Malua, Upolu, was founded.
1846	First Catholic priests arrived and settled on Savaii.
1847	Great Britain established a consular office at Apia.
1848	Native wars began, that lasted nine years.
1853	United States established a consular office at Apia.
1861	Germany established a consular office at Apia.

1869	Malietoa Laupepa, son of Malietoa Milo was said to have been brought secretly to
	Apia by Mr. Williams, a missionary, and crowned king. Immediately the followers of
	his uncle, Malietoa Talavou, half-brother of Malietoa Moli, crowned him king at
	Mulinuu. Civil war followed between the Malietoas. This ended in the establishment new
	of the government of the Ta'imua and Pule.

1873	The State Department of the United States sent Col. A. B. Steinberger to Samoa as a
	special agent to report on conditions in the islands.

1875	The Faipule Council elected in January two kings to represent the two families of
	Malietoa and Tupua. Steinberger became the Premier of the Government of Samoa. A
	new Constitution was adopted by the Ta'imua, May 18, superseding the one of August,
	1873. A hereditary monarchy was established. The kings were to be chosen alternately
	from the two houses of Malietoa and Tupua, each king to reign four years.

1877	The Puletua rebellion became so serious that in April the Ta'imua and Faipule sent a
	delegation to Fiji to appeal for British protection. United States Consul Foster was
	assisting the insurgents. On December 8, High Chief Mauga escaped with his forces,
	under cover of night, to Aunuu.

1879	(January 21) A treaty was concluded between Germany and Samoa, under which Samoa
	gave Germany the right to establish a naval station in the harbour of Saluafata. A
	treaty between Samoa and Great Britain was negotiated by Sir Arthur Gordon. On
	November 16 the peace agreement was signed. The treaty provided that Malietoa
	Alavou should be king and Malietoa Laupepa, vice-king, would succeed his uncle on
	his death. All flags were abolished and a new one adopted, to show the unity of Samoa.
	The government decided on a red flag with a white cross, and also a white star with
	five points. The star was to be in the upper part next to the flagstaff.

1880	Malietoa was anointed king, according to the Samoan custom. On November 9, word
	was received in Apia of the death of King Malietoa, Talavou, on the island of Savaii,
	where he had been for some time. War broke out in full force soon after.

1881	(March 9) Malietoa was duly anointed king. The three consuls of Germany, Great
	Britain, and the United States were present. On April 21, the Tamasese followers met at
	Leulumoega and declared him king of Atua and Aana Districts, to hold office for two
	years and then to be succeeded by Mataafa.

1882	The legislature of the reformed government met for the first time July 12 in Mulinuu.

1883	Malietoa was induced to apply to Great Britain for annexation of Samoa.

1884	(November 5) A petition was signed by the king, the vice-king and 48 chiefs, asking Her
	Majesty, the Queen of England, to make Samoa an English Colony, or to connect it with
	the Government of New Zealand.

1885	(January 23) Dr. Sterubel hoisted the Imperial German flag at Mulnuu.

1887	Hawaiian Mission to Samoa, J. E. Bush was commissioned by King Kalakaua and
	Gibson of Hawaii as envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the kings of
	Samoa and Tonga. The purpose was to advance Hawaii's claim to the supremacy of the
	Pacific. The mission was disapproved and the Hawaiians returned home via Pago Pago.
	A conference was held in Washington by the Secretary of State with the British and
	German ministers. The appointment of a foreign adviser to the king was proposed. On
	September 15, Tamasese was declared king, with Eugen Brandeis as adviser.
	Malietoa was sent into exile on the 18th, first to the Cameroons, then to Germany.
	From there he was sent to Jaluit in the Marshall Islands.

1888	Malietoa Tooa Mataafa was crowned at Faleula, Upolu, on September 9. Germany at
	this time sided with Tamasese, the British and the United states with Mataafa. The first
	missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (known as Mormons)
	arrived in Samoa.

1889	Tamasese steadily lost support, and Brandis left Samoa early in the year. A destructive
	hurricane on march 13 sank six ships of the Three Powers in the Apia Harbour.
	Malietoa Laupepa was returned to Apia by a German gunboat from the Marshalls. He
	was declared king again in Lelepa, Manono, December 4.


	Reading the Treaty of Berlin in 1889 concluded among the Great powers - Great Britain, the United States and Germany - guaranteeing the Samoans full rights of Government. Among Samoans, this is considered the greatest single event in their history. His Royal Highness Malietoa Laupepa received the translation surrounded by a military guard.
1890	Robert Louis Stevenson (Tusitala) arrived in Samoa. He was 45 years old when he died
	in Vailima, December 3, 1894.

1892	Robert Louis Stevenson forwarded to the Three Powers, via the consul in Apia, certain
	proposals and alterations to the Berlin Treaty, adopted at a public meeting at which he
	was chairman.

1893	Mataafa and his force were utterly defeated by King Malietoa. Mataafa and his
	followers were made prisoners of war without any bloodshed at Manono Island, July 18.
	Mataafa and eleven ringleaders were exiled to the Union Islands and later to Jaluit in
	the Marshall Islands.

1895	Secretary of State of the United States, W. Q. Gresham, said his government opposed
	constitution of the exile of Mataafa and his associates on the island of Jaluit. Ample
	punishment had already been indicated and the United states would not any longer
	assume one-third of the expenses.

1898	The three consuls notified their governments that certain rebel chiefs of Tumua had
	declared their independence by raising a separate flag at Leulamoega. The consuls
	demanded that the rebel chiefs change and that Malietoa be recognized as the only king
	in Samoa. Mataafa was pardoned and returned to Samoa after he signed an agreement
	promising allegiance to Malietoa. He arrived in Apia September 17. Since there was
	no consideration of parliamentary rules and no provision in the laws of the Samoan
	Government that a vote of the majority rules, agitation continued. there were three
	claimants to the throne: Mataafa, Tamasese, Malietoa Tanu (son of Laupepa).
	Tamasese withdrew. Supporters of the two remaining claimants were armed and
	ready for war. On December 31, the Chief Justice decided in favour of Malietoa.
	Civil war broke out immediately. The Chief Justice, Tamasese, and Malietoa Tanu
	took refuge with the American consul General aboard the H.B.M.S. Porpoise on
	January 4, the three consuls issued a proclamation in which Mataafa and 13 other
	chiefs were referred to as the provisional government of Samoa. This step was
	taken to avoid further bloodshed.

1899	The U.S.S. Philadelphia, flagship of Rear Admiral Albert Kautz, united States Navy,
	arrived at Apia March 6 with instructions to act according to the decision of the majority
	of the consular representatives of the Three Powers. Mataafa and his followers were
	ordered to go quietly to their homes and obey the law of Samoa and respect the Berlin
	treaty. The German Consul General issued a proclamation of denial, stating he would
	uphold the provisional government until he was officially informed from Berlin of a
	change. Mataafa's forces and villages were shelled by the American and British men-
	of-war. In April, the powers' representatives decided to send immediately from the
	United States to Samoa, a joint commission of three members, one from each power, to
	exercise supreme power and authority in the islands and prepare a strong and stable
	government for the future. They were Mr. Bartlett Tripp for the United States, C. N.
	E. Eliot, C.B. for Great Britain, and Freiherr Speck von Sternberg for Germany. In
	early September the commission agreed that the division of the islands was the best
	solution. The United States Government expressed its willingness to accept Tutuila
	and Manu'a and Germany and England to divide the rest. The Three Powers each
	renounced their rights to islands which were to belong to other governments. On
	December 2, ratifications were signed in which Germany was to take Upolu and Savaii
	and other adjoining islands. Britain took the Solomon Islands, including Tonga and the
	Savage Islands.

1900	On March 2, the German flag was hoisted at Mulinau, Upolu, for German Samoa, with
	Dr. Solf as their first governor. On April 17, the American flag was hoisted in Pago
	Pago, Tutuila, by the United States for American Samoa, with Commander Tilley,
	U.S.N., as their first governor.

1914	(August 25) A New Zealand expeditionary force arrived off Apia and demanded that
	Germany surrender the town and territory. The demand was refused by there was no
	resistance offered. The occupation during World War One took place without any
	fighting. A Council of the League of Nations conferred upon His Britannic Majesty for
	and on behalf of the Dominion of New Zealand, the authority to administer German
	Samoa. Col. Ward Tate was the first civil administrator. The first military governor
	during the expeditionary force occupation was Colonel Logan, who took possession
	when the German governor, Dr. Schultz, capitulated the islands to the new Zealand
	force within the half-hour demanded upon their arrival at Apia Harbour.

1918	Toward the end of the year Western Samoa was plagued by the world epidemic of
	pneumonic influenza, from which more than a fifth of the population died. Their
	neighbours in American Samoa - sixty miles away - escaped entirely, owing to the
	maintenance of strict quarantine.

1929	(December 28) Prince Tamasese with Tuimalealiifano and two other high chiefs was shot
	at by a fully-armed European police force from New Zealand. They were marching
	ahead of a parade made up of members of the Mau (an organization protesting the
	government), who were marching to the dock to meet some of their members who were
	returning from New Zealand where they had been deported. Tamasese, suffering from
	several wounds, fell. While in agony he pleaded, "Samoa, hold fast to peace." That
	evening, while in the Motootua Hospital, Tamasese issued a manifesto to all Samoa,
	"If I die, peace must be maintained at any price. My blood is honourably spilled for
	the noble cause." During she early hours of the following day, all hope for his recovery
	ended. He died and all Samoa was shocked. The native casualties were eleven killed
	- including two high chiefs - and sixteen wounded, many of them seriously. The
	Samoan league known at the "Mau", heeded Tamasese's pleading, and no revenge
	was ever displayed. Through proper negotiation and strict reverence for their chiefs,
	Western Samoa now enjoys an independent form of government.

1951	The United States Navy Administration over Tutuila and Manu'a was changed to a civil
	form of government by act of the Congress of the United States. A Senate and a House
	of Representative was established for the first time in American Samoa

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A.D.	450	First actual record of Polynesia in Fiji. Apparently the people have reached Tonga. Possibly they had communicated with the Samoans.
A.D.	575	Tonga-Fijians occupied the coasts of Savaii and Upolu for 25 generations.
A.D.	1000-1200	The influence of the Tuimanu'a (King of the Manu'a group) in Upolu and Savaii had long been extinct. Aana and Atua Districts had risen into prominence.
A.D.	1200	The Tongans had power over Samoa, excluding Manu'a, possessing the four great royal titles - Tuiaana, Tuiatua, Gatoaitele and Tamasoaalii.
A.D..	1600	Tongans expelled from Samoa, led by the Malietoa family.