Samoa

Samoa was a group of Polynesian islands including Savaiʻi, Upolu and Tutuila. According to tradition, the brothers Tuna, Fata and Savea expelled the Tuʻi Tonga around 1250, and Savea took the title Malietoa.

Warrior queen Nafanua and her niece Salamasina shaped the system of family and village chiefs. Jacob Roggeveen sighted the islands in 1722, and Bougainville named them the Navigator Islands in 1768. In 1787 La Pérouse’s expedition clashed with islanders on Tutuila, with deaths on both sides. In 1830 John Williams landed and Malietoa Vainuʻupo opened Samoa to Christianity.