History
All of the Samoan islands west of long. 171°W were awarded to Germany under the terms of
an 1899 treaty among Germany, the United States, and Great Britain. New
Zealand seized the islands from Germany in 1914 and obtained a mandate
over them from the League of Nations in 1921. The United Nations made
the islands a trusteeship of New Zealand in 1946. New Zealand rule was
unpopular, and in the 1930s a resistance movement (known as
mau) emerged among Europeans and native
Polynesians. In 1961 a United Nations–supervised plebiscite was
held, and on Jan. 1, 1962, the islands became independent as Western
Samoa. The nation was renamed Samoa in 1997. Chief Susuga Malietoa
Tanumafili II became co-head of state in 1962 and sole head of state in
1963, serving until his death in 2007; Tuiatua Tupea Tamasese Efi, a
former prime minister, was elected to succeed him and and was reelected
in 2012. In 2017 Tuimaleali'ifano Va'aletoa Sualauvi II was elected head
of state. Fiame Mata'afa Faumuina Mulinu'u II was the country's first
prime minister, serving until 1970 and then again from 1975-77;
Tuila'epa Sailele Malielegaoi is the longest serving, ruling from 1998
to today. He was challenged in the April 2021 election by Fiame Naomi
Mata'afa, the head of a powerful family and daughter of the country's
first prime minister. The election resulted in a tie between the two
candidates, but was eventually settled and Mata'afa declared the victor;
however, just as she was about to be sworn in, Malielegaoi suspended
parliament.
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