Samoa, country, SW Pacific Ocean: History

History

All of the Samoan islands west of long. 171°W were awarded to Germany under the terms of an 1899 treaty among Germany, the United States, and Great Britain. New Zealand seized the islands from Germany in 1914 and obtained a mandate over them from the League of Nations in 1921. The United Nations made the islands a trusteeship of New Zealand in 1946. New Zealand rule was unpopular, and in the 1930s a resistance movement (known as mau) emerged among Europeans and native Polynesians. In 1961 a United Nations–supervised plebiscite was held, and on Jan. 1, 1962, the islands became independent as Western Samoa. The nation was renamed Samoa in 1997. Chief Susuga Malietoa Tanumafili II became co-head of state in 1962 and sole head of state in 1963, serving until his death in 2007; Tuiatua Tupea Tamasese Efi, a former prime minister, was elected to succeed him and and was reelected in 2012. In 2017 Tuimaleali'ifano Va'aletoa Sualauvi II was elected head of state. Fiame Mata'afa Faumuina Mulinu'u II was the country's first prime minister, serving until 1970 and then again from 1975-77; Tuila'epa Sailele Malielegaoi is the longest serving, ruling from 1998 to today. He was challenged in the April 2021 election by Fiame Naomi Mata'afa, the head of a powerful family and daughter of the country's first prime minister. The election resulted in a tie between the two candidates, but was eventually settled and Mata'afa declared the victor; however, just as she was about to be sworn in, Malielegaoi suspended parliament.

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