Samoa Treaty (1899)

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In the Samoa Treaty of 1899 (English Tripartite Convention ) the longstanding conflict over Samoa between the German Empire , Great Britain and the USA was settled. It was decided to split the Samoa archipelago between Germany and the United States, with the United Kingdom being compensated with other Pacific islands. The western part of the Samoa islands became the German colony of German Samoa , while the eastern part became a protectorate of the United States as American Samoa .

causes

After the three great powers had agreed at the Berlin Samoa Conference in 1889 to jointly administer the Kingdom of Samoa, a conflict broke out again ten years later. When Malietoa Laupepa , the King of Samoa, died, the Germans supported a different successor than the British and Americans.

The Samoa Treaty came about on November 14th, 1899 under German pressure. In it, Germany and Great Britain declared their ownership claims in the Pacific, but also in Africa. The USA joined on December 2, 1899. Great Britain had to give in, mainly because of the Second Boer War that broke out at the same time .

Content of the contract (extract)

  • Great Britain renounced all rights in the Samoa Islands (Article 1).
  • Germany renounced all rights to the Tonga Islands and those islands that are southeast of Buka and Bougainville (Article 2).
  • The Samoa Islands were divided between Germany and the United States along the 171st longitude.
  • The neutral zone in West Africa ( Salaga area ) between the German Togo and the British Gold Coast was divided (Article 5)
  • Germany gave up its extraterritorial rights to Zanzibar (Article 6).

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