Cocoa, Cyclones, Colonialism: The Samoan Civil Wars
Whatever else is true, humans need two things: power over others, and chocolate.
By the late 19th century, the islands of Samoa had emerged in the global economic market as a valuable producer of coconuts and cocoa. Samoa had been governed for years by a complex system of chieftains and nobles, known as Malietoa and Mata'afa. The system had been peaceful for many years, though after increased colonial influence, certain Mata’afa were supported by colonial powers in an effort to protect their interests. If you couple Samoa’s economic prospects with a succession dispute, you have a perfect reason, seemingly, for colonial intervention.
Mata’afa Iosefo.
Malietoa Laupepa.
The first of the two Samoan Civil Wars started in 1886 between rival factions. One side supported Malietoa Laupepa of Samoa, while the other fought in the name of Mata’afa Iosefo, who eventually usurped the throne during the war. Like any conflict involving colonial powers, each received arms and significant amounts of training. The Germans supported Iosefo, while the British and the Americans supported Laupepa. By the first year of the war, the Americans, British, and Germans were locked in a stalemate.
By 1887, the two sides found one another equally eristic, and British and American ships remained in a standoff in a harbour off the coast of Samoa’s city of Apia. Funnily enough, the standoff (known later as the Samoan Crisis) was not ended by a spontaneous act of diplomacy, nor a brash act of warfare, but an uncontrollable force of nature: a tropical cyclone. In 1899, after two years of pernicious tensions, the cyclone decimated all 6 battleships moored in the harbour.
Following the destruction of the ships, all three powers agreed to support Malietoa Laupepa as the ruler of the islands, though conflict among native factions continued until 1894. Mata’afa Iosefo was exiled. Despite being seemingly insignificant, Samoa cemented itself in the world’s newspapers.
Robert Louis Stevenson, the renowned Scottish author of Treasure Island and Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, had even purchased a house in Samoa and written about the conflict. His 1892 book, titled A Footnote to History, is revered as a comprehensive account of tensions leading up to the First Samoan Civil War. His work had even led to the removal of two British officers, and Stevenson feared his own deportation. A Footnote to History gave Stevenson political capital in Samoa, and many Samoans in positions of power listened to his political advice, which they regularly asked for. Stevenson unintentionally gained significant political influence in colonial-era Samoa.
Though peace had finally come to Samoa’s small coastal villages and cocoa plantations for the first time in eight years, animosity between colonial powers and native factions hung over the islands like a thick, unshakeable fog. A second war, it seemed, was inevitable.
The Second Samoan Civil War broke out in the spring of 1898 after Mata’afa Iosefo returned from exile and attempted to usurp the Samoan throne for a second time. The Germans renewed their alliance with Iosefo’s rebels, while the United States and Great Britain supported the royal faction, now led by Malietoa Laupepa’s son, Malietoa Tanumafili I. American marines quickly worked to repel the rebels after skirmishes near the city of Apia and the Vailele Plantation.
Samoan soldiers march to Vailele Plantation.
During one American defeat near the Vailele Plantation, Ensign John R. Monaghan received the Medal of Honor for valiantly defending his wounded superior, Lieutenant Philip Lansdale.
The German-supported Mata’afans emerged victorious after a year-long conflict, and the Second Samoan Civil War was ended by Germany, Britain, and the U.S. in the 1899 Tripartite Convention. Iosefo was installed as the paramount chief of Samoa, and Germany received Samoa’s two largest islands, Upolu and Savai’i, while the Americans received the islands that consist today of American Samoa. After 13 years of bloodshed, the British withdrew all claims in Samoa, gaining territory in the nearby Marshall Islands instead.
Although the Samoan Civil War provides historians with a plethora of interesting stories, the war ultimately reveals the worldwide scope of colinalism. Germany had proved that few countries are immune to empire. By the eve of World War One in 1914, their overseas empire spread from the beer halls of Munich to the deserts of Namibia, jungles of Cameroon, and the cocoa plantations of Samoa.
