colony · North America and Oceania
Territory of Western Samoa
Origins
New Zealand troops occupied German Samoa in August 1914, at Britain's request, and governed it under military rule for the rest of the war. Afterwards the League of Nations granted New Zealand a mandate over the territory, governed from 1920 by a civil administrator at Apia.
Rule and society
In 1918 the ship Talune brought influenza that killed about a fifth of the population, while American Samoa escaped through quarantine. Resentment fed the Mau movement of non-cooperation, led by the merchant Olaf Frederick Nelson and Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III. On 28 December 1929, Black Saturday, New Zealand police fired on a Mau procession in Apia, killing Tamasese and others. The territory became a United Nations trust territory in 1946.
Decline and legacy
Self-government advanced in the 1950s under Prime Minister Fiamē Mataʻafa. Western Samoa became independent on 1 January 1962, the first Pacific island state to do so, and was renamed Samoa in 1997. New Zealand formally apologised for its colonial wrongs in 2002.
Lineage
On the connections map
Open the full map →Connections (2)
- Territory of Western Samoa was a colony of Dominion of New Zealand1914 CE – 1947 CE
- Territory of Western Samoa was a colony of New Zealand1947 CE – 1962 CE
More states of North America and Oceania →
Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Territory of Western Samoa. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/territory-of-western-samoa
- MLA
- “Territory of Western Samoa.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/territory-of-western-samoa. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Territory of Western Samoa.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/territory-of-western-samoa.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Territory of Western Samoa’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/territory-of-western-samoa (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻