Samoa - Early History
The long list of proud genealogies with an infinity of names tells of the vigorous life of the petty States on the several islands and their divisions; tradition also records various invasions from Fiji and Tonga. But there was not the smallest information about the date of the various events to which the legends refer. The investigations of George Turner, W. von Bulow, O.Stubel, Augustin Kramer, and others went to prove that the general conditions of Samoa in the periods before its discovery by Europeans was hardly distinguished from that of other archipelagoes. Its political organisation and to some degree its stage of social institutions had alone been somewhat more fully developed. The vendettas and disputes between different influential families, which are also recorded, are of little importance to the world, although they have naturally been exaggerated to great events from the perspective of the Polynesians.
The traditions of Samoa do not run back very far; not more than five hundred years for its inhabitants as a historical nation; how far before that date their immigration must be placed, is difficult to calculate. The chief event of early history is the subjugation by the Tongans, and the Samoan war of liberation which was connected with that (according to Von Billow, about 1600 AD, according to KrSmer about 1200 AD). That was their heroic age. Malie tau, malie too. (" Well fought, brave warriors ") was, according to legend, the admiring shout of the Tongan king to two young chiefs, as he pushed off from shore on his return journey. This title, which then passed to the elder of the two brothers, Savea, has been hereditary in his family down to the present day.
Samoa is the land of titles. Above the common people stood the nobles, at the head of whom are the village chief Alii, and the district governor Tui, while the highest chief (king) bears the title of Tupu. Little inferior to him are the Tulafale, or orators, whose political position, generally, depended entirely on their personal abilities. Besides this, titles taken from certain districts or places, in commemoration of certain persons or events, were conferred as honorable distinctions, whose possession is a preliminary condition for the attainment of the political headship. The most famous of these titles is the "Malietoa," which the township of Malie, lying nine miles to the west of Apia, had the right to confer; a second and hardly less renowned is " Mata'afa," which is bestowed by the village of Faleata. On the other hand, the claim to the sovereignty rested on the lawfully conferred right to the four names, Tuiatua and Tuiaana, Gatoaitele and. Tamasoalii, the last two of which were traced to the names of two princesses.
Shortly before Jean Francis Count Laperouse landed on Samoa, in 1787, Galumalemana, a chief of the Tupua family, had, after fierce civil wars, usurped the sovereignty of the whole island. On his death, about 1790, violent struggles brokeout between the brothers entitled to the inheritance, from which at first Nofoasaefa (an ancestor of Tamasese) emerged victoriously. He could not, however, permanently maintain his position, but retired to his ancestral home, Asau, on Savaii.
And once more revived the cannibalism which had almost been forgotten in SamoaGalumalemana's posthumous son, J'amafana, who even before his birth had been called by the dying father prophetically the uniter of the kingdom, finally inherited the throne. He was succeeded (after 1800) by Mata'afa Filisounu'u, who was at once involved in serious wars with the Malietoas. The victory rested with the Malietoa Vaiinupo, an ally of the ruler of Manono, who conquered the country of Aaana and seized the power on the same day of August in the year 1830 on which John Williams (Vol. VII, p. 362) set foot on Savaii as the first missionary. Malietoa assumed in consequence the title " Tupa," which has since been customary in Samoa. He also was converted to Christianity, and received the name of Tavita (David); he died on May 11, 1841.
The two decades after his death were in Samoa once more a war of all against all. Out of the number of claimants to the throne, Malietoa Laupepa and his uncle Pe'a, or Talavou, finally held the power jointly for some years. But influenced by the foreigners in the country, the Samoans in 1868 resolved to put only one chief at the head of affairs, and to assemble the estates of the realm no longer in Manono, but in Mulinuu, near Apia. Manono, jealous of its ancient precedence, declared Pe'a king, and conquered Malietoa Laupepa and his followers. Finally, in 1873, through the intervention of the foreign consuls, who had been appointed in-the interval, a treaty was concluded, by which the ruling power was put in the hands of the seven members of the Ta'imua, an upper house, by the side of which the meetings of the district governors, the Fai Pule, or lower house, still continued. But in 1875 disorders recommenced, and this time the impulse came from outside.
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