Military - note: defense is the responsibility of the US
Transnational Issues Wake Island
Disputes - international: claimed by Marshall Islands
This page was last updated on 1 January 2002
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Samoa
Introduction
Samoa
Background: New Zealand occupied the German protectorate of Western Samoa at the outbreak of World War I in 1914. It continued to administer the islands as a mandate and then as a trust territory until 1962, when the islands became the first Polynesian nation to reestablish independence in the 20th century. The country dropped the "Western" from its name in 1997.
Geography Samoa