Samoa seems to have been inhabited as far back as 1000 BC by Austronesian-speaking people. There was a little contact with Europeans until the early 1700s, but the major European contact came in the 1830s with missionaries and traders, mainly Dutch and French. The Europeans called the islands Navigators Islands because of the Samoans’ seafaring skills. An 1899 treaty to deal with conflicts of interest between the US, Britain and Germany resulted in the splitting of the Samoan islands into two sections. In 1904, the eastern islands went to the United States, the west to Germany. In 1914, the New Zealand army occupied the German section, then called Western Samoa, and in 1919 gained a mandate from the League of Nations to administer Western Samoa . In 1918, an influenza epidemic killed 20% of the Samoan population in a few weeks. Samoans, resisting New Zealand’s administration, started a movement called Mau, or ‘strongly held view’. and from 1926-36, there was non-violent action that culminated in an uprising and led to Samoa’s eventual independence. In 1946, Western Samoa became a United Nations trusteeship, and New Zealand was given the role of guiding Samoa’s move to Independence. 

Independence was gained in 1962, Samoa being the first South Pacific Country to become Independent. In July 1997, Samoa’s Constitution was amended to change the name of Samoa from Western Samoa to the Independent State of Samoa.

Part of Samoa’s recent history includes environmental events that have had huge impact on the islands’ people and economy.  In the 1990s, there were two massive cyclones, Ofa and Valerie, and an outbreak of taro leaf blight. In 2009, Samoa was affected by the global financial crises and then an earthquake and resulting tsunami.