Western Samoa

Samoans comprise almost 93 percent of the total population of Western Samoa. Samoans also account for 89 percent of the population of neighboring American Samoa, a territory of the United States. The Samoans are the second-largest branch of the Polynesians, a people occupying the scattered islands of the Pacific from Hawaii to New Zealand and from eastern Fiji to Easter Island. Most of the remaining Western Samoans are of mixed Samoan and European or Asian descent.

Western Samoa is a group of mountainous South Pacific islands with a population of about 165,000. Since 1962 they have been formed into an independent nation and joined the Commonwealth in 1970. The capital is Apia and the main crops are copra, cocoa, and bananas. In 1899 eastern Samoa was annexed by the USA, Western Samoa by Germany. In 1914 troops from New Zealand, 1,600 miles to the south, occupied Western Samoa and it became a New Zealand mandate in 1920.

J. A. Cannon

WESTERN SAMOA (Now called Samoa). A country of Oceania, a monarchy, and member of the COMMONWEALTH. Languages: Samoan, English (both official). A German colony from late 19c, Western Samoa was a League of Nations mandate in 1920, and later a United Nations trust territory administered by New Zealand, gaining its independence in 1962.

Western Samoa Former name of Samoa