Samoa and the Powers
King Malietoa Talavou died on November 8, 1880. His nephew, Malietoa Laupepa, was totally unable to check the renewed outbreak of civil war among the natives; in fact, at the beginning of 1886 one party chose, at the advice of Kugeu Brandeis, the chief Tamasese as king. He found support from the Germans, because Laupepa, in November, 1885, had secretly offered the sovereignty to England. Continued injury to German interests, and insults and outrages inflicted by Laupepa's adherents on German civil servants, led, in August, 1887, to Laupepa being arrested by German marines, and taken first to the Cameroons and then to the Marshall Islands.
Tamasese's rule was also brief. On September 9, 1888, the adherents of Malietoa Laupepa proclaimed the renowned Mataafa king, and defeated Tamasese. When his people ventured on outrages against the Germans, the two German warships lying off Apia, at the request of the German consul, Knappe, landed their crews; but through treachery they fell into an ambush on December 18, and were almost annihilated. Stronger German detachments were required before the rebels were repulsed. In addition to this, a hurricane, on March 19, 1889, wrecked the two German gunboats, "Eber" and "Adler," in the harbour of Apia, and ninety-five brave sailors lost their lives. The English ship, HMS Calliope, escaped by steaming out, and the captain, Kane, displayed the greatest skill and seamanship. The Americans suffered nearly as heavily as the Germans.
A settlement of Samoan affairs was the result of the conference held in Berlin during the summer of 1889, to which Germany, England, and the United States sent representatives. In the final protocol of June 14 the island group was declared independent and neutral under the joint protection of the three powers. Tamasese and Mataafa were deposed, and Malietoa Laupepa, who had been brought back to Samoa in late autumn, was reinstated on the throne. Mataafa, however, was soon re-elected king by his party; but in 1893 was conquered on Manono and banished by the powers who signed the treaty. Tamasese the Younger took his place, and the civil war continued. Malietoa Laupepa then died on August 22, 1898. Only two candidates for the succession were seriously to be considered,— the banished but popular Mataafa, and Tanu Mafili, the son of Laupepa, aged sixteen, a protegt of the English mission, and thus of the English and American governments. Tamasese the Younger was kept by the English in reserve merely as a substitute for Tanu.
The subject of the drama, which was unfolded in the winter of 1898-1899 in the distant South Sea archipelago, was not so much the welfare of the few Samoans or the possession of the small islands as far weightier conflicting interests. No words need be wasted about the causes of the intense Anglo-Australian longing for the islands. The United States of North America, who had obtained Hawaii and the Philippines immediately before this, thus possessed magnificent strategic and commercial bases for the northern part of the Pacific, but not for the south. The interests of Germany, finally, were based on economics. In production and trade it considerably surpassed both parties; and it was a point of honour with the German government not to let the prize which had once been grasped escape in the end from their fingers.
The Samoans chose Mataafa by an overwhelming majority. At the same time the American Chief Justice Chambers, on December 21, declared that the young Tanu was elected with his approval, and that Mataafa could not come into the question, since he was excluded by the Berlin protocol, although a clause to that effect proposed by Prince Bismarck had not been adopted in the final version. The remonstrances of the German consul, Rose, and the German municipal councillor, Dr. Raffel, were disregarded. Mataafa then took the matter into his own hands and drove the supporters of Tanu out of Apia down to the sea and the ships of the allied powers. After repeated bombardments of the coast villages by the British and American war vessels in the second half of March, a joint committee of inquiry was instituted in the spring of 1899 at the suggestion of Germany, and this transferred in July the rights of the abolished monarchy temporarily to the consuls of the three powers. In the treaty of London of November 14 Germany and England came to an agreement, and in the Washington protocol of December 2 the United States also gave their assent.
Great Britain under this treaty entirely renounced all claim to the Samoan Islands. By the repeal of the Samoa act, Upolu and Savaii, with the adjacent small islands, became the absolute property of Germany, while Tutuila and the other Samoan Islands east of 171° W. longitude fell to the United States. Germany in return renounced her claims to the Tonga Islands and Savage Island in favour of England, and ceded to the same power the two Solomon Islands, Choiseul and Isabel. The German Reichstag approved the treaty on February 13,1900. On Marcli 1 the newly nominated German governor, Solf, took formal possession of the islands. On August 14, finally, the wisely conceded self-government of the natives came into force again. The royal dignity alone was abolished. Mataafa bore, instead of the former title of Tupu, that of a Alii Sili, or high chief.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
