U.S. Senate Ends Colonial Rivalry: Britain Relinquishes Samoa

The United States Senate accepted the Anglo-German Treaty of 1899 on January 16, 1900, ratifying an agreement that carved up the Samoan Islands among three colonial powers. The tiny Pacific archipelago had been a point of contention among Britain, Germany, and the United States for over a decade, with all three maintaining consulates, commercial interests, and periodic military presences. Tensions had nearly erupted into open conflict in 1889, when warships from all three nations gathered in Apia harbor during a political crisis. A typhoon destroyed or damaged six of the seven warships before shots were fired, and the natural disaster accomplished what diplomacy had not, forcing the powers to the negotiating table. The resulting treaty of 1899 divided Samoa: Germany received the western islands, including Upolu and Savai'i, which became German Samoa. The United States claimed the eastern islands, including Tutuila with its valuable deep-water harbor at Pago Pago, which became American Samoa and remains a U.S. territory today. Britain withdrew from Samoa entirely, receiving compensation elsewhere, including the Solomon Islands, parts of West Africa, and territorial adjustments in Tonga. The arrangement was negotiated entirely by the three colonial powers. No Samoan chief, matai, or representative participated in the discussions. The division split families, disrupted traditional political structures, and imposed arbitrary boundaries on a culture that had governed itself through an elaborate chiefly system for thousands of years. German Samoa later passed to New Zealand after World War I and achieved independence as the Independent State of Samoa in 1962.