colony · North America and Oceania
German Samoa
Origins
Germany had dominated Samoa's plantation economy since the 1850s through the firm Godeffroy and its successor, the DHPG. When the Tripartite Convention of 1899 partitioned the Kingdom of Samoa, Germany received the western islands of Upolu and Savaiʻi, and the colony was proclaimed at Apia on 1 March 1900.
Rule and society
Governor Wilhelm Solf, from 1900 to 1911, ruled indirectly through Samoan chiefs and protected Samoan land from further sale, while abolishing the contested kingship; Mataʻafa Iosefo was recognised as paramount chief. Coconut and cocoa plantations used labourers from China and the Melanesian islands. In 1909 the orator chief Lauaki Namulauʻulu Mamoe led the Mau a Pule protest and was exiled to Saipan.
Decline and legacy
At the outbreak of the First World War, a New Zealand force landed at Apia on 29 August 1914 and took the colony without resistance. It was then governed as the Territory of Western Samoa.
Lineage
On the connections map
Open the full map →Connections (2)
- German Samoa was a colony of German Empire1900 CE – 1914 CE
- German Samoa was conquered by Dominion of New Zealand1914 CE
More states of North America and Oceania →
Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). German Samoa. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/german-samoa
- MLA
- “German Samoa.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/german-samoa. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “German Samoa.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/german-samoa.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘German Samoa’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/german-samoa (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻