Kingdom of Samoa

Origins

Samoa was divided among districts and great titles such as Malietoa, Tupua Tamasese and Mataʻafa. As the German firm Godeffroy developed plantations near Apia, Samoan chiefs formed a central government at Mulinuʻu in 1873, with a council of chiefs and an assembly. The American adventurer Albert Steinberger acted as premier until British and American consuls had him deported in 1876.

Rule and society

Kingship, held mostly by Malietoa Laupepa, was repeatedly disputed in civil wars, with each rival courting a foreign power. Germany backed Tamasese against Laupepa in 1887, and a naval confrontation at Apia ended only when a hurricane wrecked the German and American warships in 1889. The Berlin Treaty of 1889 restored Laupepa under a three-power supervision. Robert Louis Stevenson, living at Vailima, wrote against foreign meddling.

Decline and legacy

After Laupepa's death in 1898, war between supporters of Mataʻafa Iosefo and Malietoa Tanumafili I drew in foreign navies. The Tripartite Convention of 1899 abolished the kingship and partitioned the islands into German Samoa and American Samoa.