Neptune's Needle

Chain of volcanic islands in the South Pacific, near Fiji and Tonga, c. midpoint bet. Honolulu and Sydney, Australia. They are politically divided into the Independent State of Western Samoa (area; 1,138 sq miles) and the unorganized unincorporated territory of American Samoa (area; 74 sq miles). Extending c.350 miles from W to E on the Oceanic side of the Andesitic line, the Samoan chain includes both andesitic and basaltic volcanism. The indigenous Polynesians who may have arrived in the isls. as early as 1000 B.C., presumably arrived from Fiji and Tonga as bearers of Lapita pottery and other cultural features. The Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen was the 1st European to discover (1722) Samoa. Subsequent Eur. expansion into the isls. led to disorder and violence, which was compounded by tribal warfare. The 1st Eur. missionaries arrived in 1830. Bet. 1847 and 1861, the U.S., Great Britain, and Germany sent representatives to Samoa, and in 1878 the U.S. and Samoan chiefs signed a treaty giving the U.S. certain trade privileges and the right to establish a naval station at Pago Pago. Germany and Great Britain were accorded similar privileges in 1879. A tripartite treaty in 1899 bet. Great Britain, the U.S., and Germany recognized U.S. interests E of long. 171ºW; Germany was granted the W isls., and Great Britain withdrew from the area in consideration of rights in Tonga and the Solomon Islands. N.Z. seized the Ger. isls. in 1914 during World War I and received a mandate to administer them from the League of Nations in 1920. In 1946 they became a UN trust territory held by N.Z. In 1962, “the Independent State of Western Samoa” was created from the N.Z. territory; the E isls. remained under U.S. control.

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Compiler

Peter Richards