Inhabited since the 1000s a. C., the Fa’a inhabited the islands until the arrival of the Westerners. They believed in a numerous mythology, and that they were descendants of the gods that inhabited the islands in ancient times. For the Fa’a the most important thing is to take care of the family. The extended families were ruled by a patriarch called the matai. The religions would disappear when “unifying” the missions to all the gods in one.
Century XVIII
Contact with Europeans began in the early 18th century. Jacob Roggeveen, a Dutchman, was the first European to sight the Samoan Islands in 1722. This visit was followed by the French explorer Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, who called them the Navigator Islands in 1768. Contact is limited before the decade from 1830, which is when the English missionaries and merchants began to arrive. Contact Western Early included a battle in the 18th century between French explorers and islanders at Tutuila, for which the Samoans were blamed in the West, giving them a reputation for ferocity. The site of this battle is called Massacre Bay.
XIX century
According to Homosociety, missionary work in the Samoas had begun in the late 1830s, when John Williams of the London Missionary Society arrived from the Cook Islands and Tahiti. By this time, the Samoans had gained a reputation for being wild and belligerent, violent altercations had already occurred between the natives and the European visitors. However, in the late 19th century, French, British, German and American ships were routinely detained in Samoa as they valued Pago Pago port as a refueling station for the transportation of coal and for whaling. In March 1889, a German naval force invaded a Samoan town, and in doing so, destroyed an American property. Three American warships then entered the port of Apia and ready to participate three German warships found there. Before firearms were fired, a typhoon destroyed both the American and German ships. A mandatory truce was called due to the lack of warships.
Twentieth century
At the beginning of the 20th century, international rivalries in the second half of the century were resolved by the 1899 tripartite convention in which Germany and the United States divided the islands of Samoa into two parts: the eastern group of islands became a territory of the United States (the Tutuila Islands in 1900 and officially Manu’a in 1904) and now known as American Samoa, the Western Isles, by far the largest land mass, became known as German Samoa after Great Britainannulled all Samoa claims and accepted termination of German rights in Tonga and some areas of the Solomon Islands and West Africa. Precursors of the Tripartite Agreement of 1899 were the Conference of Washington of 1887, the Treaty of Berlin of 1889 and the Anglo-German Agreement of Samoa in 1899.
The following year, the United States formally took its part: a small group of eastern islands, one of which surrounds the well-known port of Pago Pago. After the United States Navy took possession of eastern Samoa, on behalf of the United States, the existing coal station at Pago Pago Bay was expanded to a full naval station, known as Naval Station Tutuila under the command of a commander of the United States. The Navy secured a Tutuila Assignment Act in 1900 and a Manua Assignment Act in 1904.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Swains Island, which had been included in the list of guano islands belonging to the United States and united under the Guano Islands Act, was annexed in 1925.
After World War I there was a corresponding American Samoan Mau movement, led by Samuelu Ripley, a veteran of World War I, who was from the town of Leona, Tutuila. After meetings in the continental United States, he was prevented from disembarking from the ship that brought him home to American Samoa and was not allowed to return because the American Mau Samoa movement was suppressed by the United States Navy. In 1930, the United States Congresssent a commission to investigate the situation in American Samoa, led by Americans who had played a role in the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii.
During World War II, the United States Navy in Samoa outnumbered the local population, which has a great cultural influence. The young Samoan men of the age of 14 and above were combat trained by the US military. Samoans served in various positions during World War II, including as combatants, medical personnel, code personnel, and ship repairers.
The 1 of July of 1967 entered into force a Constitution that designo American Samoa as an independent, is also registered list of the United Nations of island noautónomos, a list that is disputed by officials of territorial government, who do not consider themselves as freelancers.
