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Sponsored LinksTravel reviews & great deals at TripAdvisor: HistoryAll of the Samoan islands west of long. 171°W were awarded to Germany under the terms of an 1899 treaty among Germany, the United States, and Great Britain. New Zealand seized the islands from Germany in 1914 and obtained a mandate over them from the League of Nations in 1921. The United Nations made the islands a trusteeship of New Zealand in 1946. New Zealand rule was unpopular, and in the 1930s a resistance movement (known as mau) emerged among Europeans and native Polynesians. In 1961 a United Nations–supervised plebiscite was held, and on Jan. 1, 1962, the islands became independent as Western Samoa. The nation was renamed Samoa in 1997. Samoa, a constitutional monarchy, has a 49-member legislative assembly. Since 1991 all of its members have been elected by universal suffrage, but candidates can be chosen only from among the titled heads of families (matai), except for two members elected by non–ethnic Samoans. Executive power rests in the head of state, who is selected by the assembly from among the royal families and serves (since 2007) a five-year term. The head of state in turn chooses a prime minister and cabinet from among members of the assembly. Chief Susuga Malietoa Tanumafili II became co-head of state in 1962 and sole head of state in 1963, serving until his death in 2007; Tuiatua Tupea Tamasese Efi, a former prime minister, was elected to succeed him. Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi has been prime minister since 1998. Sections in this article: The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
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