U.S. Senate Ends Colonial Rivalry: Britain Relinquishes Samoa
The tiny Pacific islands had been a colonial chess match for decades. Britain, Germany, and the United States had been circling Samoa like competing predators, each wanting strategic control. But this treaty finally carved up the archipelago: Germany got Western Samoa, the U.S. claimed Eastern Samoa (now American Samoa), and Britain walked away with diplomatic credits. And just like that, an entire nation's sovereignty was negotiated thousands of miles from its people, without a single Samoan at the table.
January 16, 1900
126 years ago
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