The Probert Encyclopaedia of Places of the World

SAMOA

The Independent State of Samoa is a country comprising the Samoa island group in the south-west Pacific ocean. The islands were first colonised for Europeans by the Dutch in 1722, and were known in the West as the Navigator Islands. During the 19th century Britain, Germany and the USA competed for influence over the islands, resulting in their division in 1899 into American Samoa and the German colony of Western Samoa. After the Great War Western Samoa was administered by New Zealand, befre becoming the first independent Polynesian nation in 1962 and changing its name to Samoa in 1997.
Research Samoa