samoa mo samoa mata usi wikipedia samoa i s mo samoan s moa ipa sa moa officially the independent state of samoa samoan malo sa'oloto tuto'atasi o s moa formerly known as western samoa is a country encompassing the western part of the samoan islands in the south pacific ocean samoa announced their independence to aotearoa new zealand in the main island of samoa is upolu and is one of the largest islands in the polynesian triangle next to savai'i the capital city apia and faleolo international airport are situated on the island of upolu samoa was admitted to the united nations on december the entire island group inclusive of american samoa has been called navigators islands by late european explorers who at years after polynesia's age of navigation surged into an era of exploration before the th century because of the samoans' seafaring skills and origins of polynesian culture history main article history of samoa many recent studies into the pre history of samoa has been taken up by asia pacific universities including departments in aotearoa new zealand in general public education the polynesian expansion is chronologically studied in the range of years leading off at a lapita site at mulifanua during the s the origins of the samoan expansions are linked to the pre historical waves of southeast asian expansions which is a continued study in modern research in various scientific disciplines such as genetics linguistics and anthropology scientific research resides on the results that the samoans originate from or of the ancient lines of austronesian expansions and predecessors during some of the first waves expansions eastward across southern asia and asia pacific the lapita expansion period from southeast asia through melanesia between and bce is an on going anthropological interest the samoan origins are currently being thoroughly assessed due to new scientific evidence and carbon dating findings from and onwards it's theorized that intimate sociocultural and genetic ties were maintained in pre historical eras between the polynesian lapita colonies archaeological record supports samoan oral history and genealogy that indicate inter island exploration war colonization and eras of monarchal ties between ancient samoans tongans fijians and in eastern polynesia orders ali'i studio photo depicting preparation of the samoa 'ava ceremony c interior of samoan house apia urville at the final arrival of western exploration in the early th century jacob roggeveen a dutchman was the first documented to sight the samoan islands in this visit was followed by another western explorer louis antoine de bougainville who named them the navigator islands in contact was limited before the s which is when missionaries and traders began seeking relations with samoan orders religious missions were cautious in samoa which began in the late 's by john williams of the london missionary society arriving in sapapali'i from the cook islands and tahiti according to barbara a west another western author seeking interests of readers the samoans were also known to engage in headhunting a practice invoked in ancient samoan warfare in which a warrior took the head of his slain opponent to give to his leader thus taking his mana by that time the samoans had gained a reputation of being savage and warlike from a famously published french journal of the times which insued panic during that time and a wonder of samoan invasion the violent altercations had occurred between a village of samoa and a french expedition la perouse expedition who had lost almost the entire crew leaving the expedition adrift over a french sailor direspecting a samoan woman later expeditions by the british german and american forces who by the late nineteenth century understood the invaluble oceanic position of samoan trade sought it's cooperation in resupply and refueling for coal fired shipping and whaling wilhelm solf german governor of samoa mata'afa iosefo paramount chief rival for the kingship of samoathe germans in particular began to show great academic and commercial interest in samoa especially on the island of 'upolu where german firms established trade with samoa in copra and cocoa bean processing the united states rushed into the new pacific international trade and formed alliances with samoan orders be it the chiefs high chiefs of the public or with the current anointed monarch most intuitively the american government established their strongest relations on the islands of legend tutuila and manu'a which later became a pro