German Samoa
| German Samoa | ||||||||||
| Deutsch-Samoa | ||||||||||
| German colony | ||||||||||
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 Brown = German New Guinea; Yellow = German Pacific Protectorates; Red = German Samoa; Orange = North Solomons, ceded to Britain
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| Capital | Apia | |||||||||
| Languages | German (official), Samoan | |||||||||
| Political structure | Colony | |||||||||
| Head of State | Kaiser Wilhelm II | |||||||||
| Gouvenor: Wilhelm Solf | ||||||||||
| highest Chief: Mata'afa | ||||||||||
| Historical era | German colonization in the Pacific Ocean | |||||||||
| • | Tripartite Convention | 2 December 1899 | ||||||||
| • | Colonization | 1 March 1900 | ||||||||
| • | NZ occupation | 30 August 1914 | ||||||||
| • | Treaty of Versailles | 10 January 1920 | ||||||||
| • | League mandate | 17 December 1920 | ||||||||
| Currency | Goldmark | |||||||||
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German Samoa (German: Deutsch-Samoa) was a German protectorate from 1900 to 1914, consisting of the islands of Upolu, Savai'i, Apolima and Manono, now wholly within the independent state Samoa, formerly Western Samoa. Samoa was the last German colonial acquisition in the Pacific basin, received following the Tripartite Convention signed at Washington on 2 December 1899 with ratifications exchanged on 16 February 1900. It was the only German colony in the Pacific, aside from the Kiautschou concession in China, that was administered separately from German New Guinea.
In 1855 J.C. Godeffroy & Sohn expanded its trading business into the Pacific following negotiations by August Unshelm, Godeffroy’s agent in Valparaiso. He sailed out to the Samoan Islands, which were then known as the Navigator Islands. During the second half of the 19th century German influence in Samoa expanded with large scale plantation operations being introduced for coconut, cacao and hevea rubber cultivation, especially on the island of 'Upolu where German firms monopolized copra and cocoa bean processing.
The trading operations of J.C. Godeffroy & Sohn extending to islands in the Central Pacific. In 1865 a trading captain acting on behalf of J.C. Godeffroy & Sohn obtained a 25-year lease to the eastern islet of Niuoku of Nukulaelae Atoll. J. C. Godeffroy und Sohn was in 1879 taken over by Handels-und Plantagen-Gesellschaft der Südsee-Inseln zu Hamburg (DHPG). Competition in the trading operations in the Central Pacific came from Ruge, Hedemann & Co, established in 1875, which was succeeded by H. M. Ruge and Company until that firm failed in about 1887.
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