Samoa is formally the Independent State of Samoa and also up until 1997 known as Western Samoa, a Polynesian island country consisting of two major islands (Savai’i as well as Upolu), 2 smaller sized, occupied islands (Manono and also Apolima), as well as numerous smaller sized, uninhabited islands, consisting of the Aleipata Islands (Nu’utele, Nu’ulua, Fanuatapu and also Namua).

Samoa is located 64 kilometres (40 mi) west of American Samoa, 889 kilometres (552 mi) northeast of Tonga (closest international country), 1,152 kilometres (716 mi) northeast of Fiji, 483 km (300 mi) east of Wallis and also Futuna, 1,151 kilometres (715 mi) southeast of Tuvalu, 519 kilometres (322 mi) south of Tokelau, 4,190 kilometres (2,600 mi) southwest of Hawaii, as well as 610 kilometres (380 mi) northwest of Niue. The capital city is Apia. The Lapita individuals discovered and settled the Samoan Islands around 3,500 years ago. They developed a Samoan language and also Samoan cultural identity.

Samoa is a unitary parliamentary freedom with 11 management divisions. The sovereign state belongs to the Republic of Nations. Western Samoa was confessed to the United Nations on 15 December 1976. Because of the Samoans’ seafaring skills, pre-20th-century European travelers described the entire island group (which includes American Samoa) as the “Navigator Islands”.

The nation was a colony of the German Realm from 1899 to 1915, then came under a joint British as well as New Zealand colonial administration until 1 January 1962, when it became independent.