After the arrival of the missionaries and European traders, vast plantations producing copra and cotton were developed for export, and Apia soon became a major commercial centre in the South Pacific. By the late 1800s, internal strife amongst the Samoan chiefs, and power struggles between the then present opposing colonial powers of Germany, America and Britain, led to a period of instability. In 1899, a treaty was signed and Samoa was annexed by Germany.

The country prospered, until Germany’s expulsion by New Zealand forces at the outbreak of World War One (WW1). New Zealand administered tenuously thereafter, but Samoan discontent, headed by the Mau Movement, and a desire for self-government, led to a referendum in 1961. In January 1962, after overwhelming support for freedom from foreign rule, Samoa (formerly Western Samoa) was made the first self governing nation in the South Pacific. The national and official name of the country was changed from Western Samoa to simply Samoa in 1997.