| Originally occupied as
early as 1000 BC, Samoa was not gained by European explorers
until the 18th century. International rivalries in the latter half
of the 19th century were settled by an 1899 Treaty of Berlin inside
which Germany and the U.S. divided the Samoan archipelago. The U.S.
officially occupied its portion-a smaller group of eastern islands
by having the noted harbor of Pago Pago-the following season. The
western islands are at present the independent state of Samoa.
After the U.S. took possession of American Samoa,
the U.S. Navy built a coaling post on Pago
Pago Bay for its Pacific Squadron and appointed a local Secretary.
The navy secured a Deed of Cession of Tutuila within 1900 and a
Deed of Cession of Manua in 1904. The late sovereign of Manu?a,
the Tui Manua Elisala, was forced to sign a Deed of Cession of Manua
as a result a series of US Naval trials, known as the "Trial
of the Ipu", in Pago Pago, Tau, and alongside a Pacific Squadron
gunboat.
During World War II, U.S. Marines in American
Samoa outnumbered the local population, having a huge cultural influence.
Later the war, Organic Act 4500, a U.S. Department of Interior-sponsored
attempt to incorporated American Samoa, was overcame in Congress,
primarily through the efforts of American Samoan chiefs, led by
Tuiasosopo Mariota. These chiefs' efforts led to the foundation
of a local legislature, the American Samoa Fono, which meets in
the village of Fagatogo,
the territory's de facto and de jure capital.
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