Upolu

Upolu is a large volcanic island in the Samoan archipelago, its long volcanic mountain spine descending to fertile coastal districts. Samoan villages and chiefly families maintained relationships across the island and with neighboring Savaiʻi, Tonga and Fiji. Its coastal villages were part of districts whose chiefs held titles rooted in their families’ histories. Authority was expressed through titles and kinship, while voyages connected communities across the sea.

The Dutch navigator Jacob Roggeveen sighted Samoa in 1722, and Louis Antoine de Bougainville later sailed through the archipelago. In 1830 the missionary John Williams visited Savaiʻi and met Malietoa Vainuʻupo. Christianity spread through the islands in the following years, entering a society with long-established political traditions and networks between its districts.

The later city of Apia lies here.