Samoa is an independent island nation in the South Pacific Ocean located about 2,900 kilometers (1,800 miles) northeast of New Zealand and halfway from Hawaii. Samoa consists of nine islands with a total land area of 2,934 square kilometers (1,133 square miles) and an estimated population in 2004 of 178,173. Together with Tonga, Samoa is considered the traditional and historical base of the development and spread of Polynesian civilization.

An 1899 treaty among Great Britain, Germany, and the United States split the Samoan Islands into Western Samoa, annexed by Germany, and American Samoa, controlled by the United States. New Zealand occupied Western Samoa at the outbreak of World War I (1914–1918) and continued to administer it as a mandate and a trust territory until 1962, when Western Samoa became the first Polynesian nation to gain independence. Western Samoa changed its official name to Samoa in 1997. American Samoa continues to be a territory of the United States.

The...