Occupation of German Samoa

Occupation of German Samoa
Occupation of German Samoa
Part of the Asian and Pacific theatre of World War I
Occupation of German-Samoa 1914.jpg
Union Flag at Government Building, Apia, 30 August 1914
Date 1914
Location German Samoa
Result Allied victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom United Kingdom
German Empire Germany

The Occupation of Samoa was the takeover and subsequent administration of the Pacific colony of German Samoa in August 1914 by an expeditionary force from New Zealand called the Samoa Expeditionary Force and New Zealand's first action in World War I. On 7 August 1914, the British government indicated that it would be a great and urgent Imperial service if New Zealand forces seized the wireless station near Apia,[1] one of several German radio stations used by the German East Asia Squadron. Since the days of Seddon, New Zealand had aspired to control Samoa, and in 1913 General Godley had discussed the seizure of German Samoa with British military authorities.

A 1,370-man force sailed on 15 August 1914. The convoy stopped in Fiji to collect some guides and interpreters, and to rendezvous with the battlecruiser HMAS Australia, cruiser HMAS Melbourne and the French cruiser Montcalm. The escorting "P" class cruisers Philomel, Pyramus and Psyche were no match for Admiral Maximilian von Spee’s East Asia Squadron with the armoured cruisers SMS Scharnhorst and SMS Gneisenau. Defence Minister James Allen recalls that the government was worried about the German Fleet, but McGibbon[2][3] says that there was no basis for the assertion in the 1923 history and subsequently by Michael King that the force narrowly escaped disaster, with the German cruisers being well to the north rather than only 15 miles (25 km) distant.

The force landed at Apia on 29 August 1914. Although Germany refused to officially surrender the islands, no resistance was offered and the occupation took place without any fighting. The first seizure of a German colony was four days earlier at Togoland, captured as part of the West Africa Campaign, thus nullifying claims that German Samoa was the first enemy territory to fall to British imperial forces.[4] The German cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau hastened to Samoa after Admiral von Spee learned of the occupation. He arrived off Apia on 14 September 1914, three days after the departure of the Dominion cruisers and transports. The admiral was informed that approximately 1,600 New Zealand volunteers were on Upolu, poorly trained and miserable in their woolen winter-weight uniforms, and that he could easily recapture the colony. However, he determined that a landing would only be of temporary advantage in an Allied dominated sea and headed for Tahiti, then rejoined the other ships of his fleet and moved on toward South America.[5]

After escorting the Samoa force, the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force sailed to Port Moresby and met the Queensland contingent aboard the transport Kanowna. The force then sailed for German New Guinea on 7 September, for another takeover of a German colony.

The story that Francis Fisher then Minister of Marine recalled (as published by Downie Stewart in 1937) that the government asked London what defences there were in Samoa and was told by the British Colonial Secretary to consult Whitaker's Almanac was not supported by a search of papers in Archives New Zealand.[6] The authorities in Melbourne advised that Samoa had a German-officered constabulary of about 80 men and a gunboat, which could have been augmented by seamen off merchant ships.

The force occupied German Samoa until 1920. New Zealand then governed the islands from 1920 to independence in 1962 as a League of Nations Class C Mandate and after 1945 a United Nations Trust Territory.[7]

External links

Notes

  1. ^ New Zealand Electronic Text Centre
  2. ^ McGibbon, p. 65
  3. ^ Blue-Water Rationale: The Naval Defence of New Zealand 1914–1942 by I. C. McGibbon, p. 21-22 (Government Printer, Wellington, 1981) ISBN 0 477 01072 5
  4. ^ McGibbon, p. 65
  5. ^ Gray, J.A.C. Amerika Samoa, A History of American Samoa and its United States Naval Administration. Annapolis: United States Naval Institute. 1960, p. 185
  6. ^ McGibbon, p. 64
  7. ^ "Imperialism as a Vocation: Class C Mandates". http://www.jamesrmaclean.com/archives/archive_vocational_imperialism.html. Retrieved 27 November 2007. 

References

  • McGibbon, Ian The Shaping of New Zealand’s War Effort August–October 1914 (The Occupation of German Samoa, pages 63–65) in New Zealand’s Great War: New Zealand, the Allies and the First World War edited by John Crawford and Ian McGibbon (2007, Exisle, Auckland) ISBN 0-908988-85-0
  • Leary, L P New Zealanders in Samoa (1918, William Heinemann, London)
  • Smith, S J The Samoa (N.Z.) Expeditionary Force 1914–1915 (1924, Ferguson and Osborne, Wellington) Semi-official, with a forward by Prime Minister Massey.


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • German New Guinea — Deutsch Neuguinea German colony ← …   Wikipedia

  • Samoa allemandes — Deutsch Samoa 1900 – 1914 …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Samoa — This article is about the Independent State of Samoa. For the Samoan Archipelago, see Samoan Islands. For U.S. Territory of American Samoa, see American Samoa. For other uses, see Samoa (disambiguation). Malo Sa oloto Tuto atasi o Samoa… …   Wikipedia

  • German Empire — This article is about the unified German monarchy existing from 1871 to 1918. For Germany before 1806, see Holy Roman Empire. For Germany between 1918 and 1933, see Weimar Republic. For Germany between 1933 and 1945, see Nazi Germany. For German… …   Wikipedia

  • Samoa — /seuh moh euh/, n. a group of islands in the S Pacific, the islands W of 170° W longitude constituting an independent state and the rest belonging to the U.S. Formerly, Navigators Islands. Cf. American Samoa, Western Samoa. * * * Samoa… …   Universalium

  • Samoa — <p></p> <p></p> Introduction ::Samoa <p></p> Background: <p></p> New Zealand occupied the German protectorate of Western Samoa at the outbreak of World War I in 1914. It continued to administer the… …   The World Factbook

  • German nationality law — German citizenship is based primarily on the principle of jus sanguinis. In other words one usually acquires German citizenship if a parent is a German citizen, irrespective of place of birth. A significant reform to the nationality law was… …   Wikipedia

  • History of Samoa — European contactContact with Europeans began in the early 1700s but did not intensify until the arrival of the English. In 1722, Dutchman Jacob Roggeveen was the first European to sight the islands. Missionaries and traders arrived in the 1830s.… …   Wikipedia

  • Politics of Samoa — takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic state whereby the Prime Minister of Samoa is the head of government. The government generally controls the legislative assembly as it is formed from the party which controls… …   Wikipedia

  • American Samoa — Infobox Country native name = Amerika Sāmoa / Sāmoa Amelika conventional long name = American Samoa common name = American Samoa |125px |80px national motto = Samoa, Muamua Le Atua spaces|2(Samoan) Samoa, Let God Be First national anthem = The… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”