HISTORY
Migrants from Southeast Asia arrived
in the Samoan islands more than 2,000 years ago and from there
settled the rest of Polynesia further to the east. Contact with
Europeans began in the early 1700s but did not intensify until
the arrival of English missionaries and traders in the 1830s.
At the turn of the 20th century, the Samoan islands were split
into two sections. The eastern islands became territories of the
United States in 1904 and today are known as American Samoa. The
western islands became known as Western Samoa (now just Samoa),
passing from German control to New Zealand in 1914. New Zealand
administered Western Samoa under the auspices of the League of
Nations and then as a UN trusteeship until independence in 1962.
Western Samoa was the first Pacific Island country to gain its
independence.
In
July 1997 the constitution was amended to change the country's
name from Western Samoa to Samoa. Samoa had been known simply
as Samoa in the United Nations since joining the organization
in 1976. The neighboring U.S. territory of American Samoa protested
the move, feeling that the change diminished its own Samoan identity.
American Samoans still use the terms Western Samoa and Western
Samoans.
