Samoan Civil War

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The Samoan Civil Wars is a Western definition of political activity in the Samoa Islands of the South Pacific in the late 19th century. By this non-Samoan definition, the Samoan Civil Wars were a series of wars between Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States, ending in the partitioning of the island chain in 1899. The concluding event was the Second Samoan Civil War.The first Samoan Civil War lasted for eight years. The warring Samoan parties were supplied arms, training and sometimes even combat troops by Germany, Britain and The United States. The three powers were playing them off against each other as each country wanted Samoa as a refueling station for coal fired shipping. They also wanted Samoa due to the scarcity of unclaimed territory from 1870 onwards to gain more power in Europe.

[edit] References

"A Footnote to History, Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa" by Robert Louis Stevenson