Second Samoan Civil War

Second Samoan Civil War

Map featuring the locations of battles in which British and U.S. forces fought.
Date1898–1899
Location
Result

Compromise;

Belligerents
Allies: Mataafans
Supported by:
 Germany
Commanders and leaders
Mata'afa Iosefo
Casualties and losses
24 killed or wounded 127 killed or wounded
2 forts damaged

The Second Samoan Civil War was a conflict that reached a head in 1898 when Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States were locked in dispute over who should have control over the Samoan island chain, located in the South Pacific Ocean.

At the war's conclusion in 1899, the United States were granted the eastern section of the islands, the Germans were granted the western section of the islands, and the British were given the northern Solomon Islands of Choiseul, Isabel and the Shortland Islands that had formerly belonged to Germany.[1][2] The German half is now an independent nation – Samoa. The U.S. half still remains under the control of the U.S. government as the territory of American Samoa.

  1. ^ Lawrence, David Russell (October 2014). "Chapter 5 Liberalism, Imperialism and colonial expansion" (PDF). The Naturalist and his "Beautiful Islands": Charles Morris Woodford in the Western Pacific. ANU Press. p. 168. ISBN 9781925022032.
  2. ^ Ryden, George Herbert. The Foreign Policy of the United States in Relation to Samoa. New York: Octagon Books, 1975. (Reprint by special arrangement with Yale University Press. Originally published at New Haven: Yale University Press, 1928), p. 574; the Tripartite Convention (United States, Germany, Great Britain) was signed at Washington on 2 December 1899 with ratifications exchanged on 16 February 1900