Samoa
/səˈməʊə
/
1A group of islands in Polynesia, divided between American Samoa and the state of Samoa.
1.1A country consisting of the western islands of Samoa; population 220,000 (est. 2009); official languages, Samoan and English; capital, Apia.
First visited by the Dutch in the early 18th century, the islands were divided administratively in 1899 into American Samoa in the east and German Samoa in the west. After the First World War the nine western islands were mandated to New Zealand, and became an independent republic within the Commonwealth in 1962, as Western Samoa. The country became known as Samoa in 1997
