Samoa
Samoa, officially the Independent State of
Samoa, is a country governing the western half of the Samoan
Islands archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean. Previous names were German Samoa
from 1900 to 1919, and Western
Samoa from 1914 to 1997. It was admitted
to the United Nations on 15 December 1976 as Samoa.
The entire island group, inclusive of American Samoa,
was known as Navigators
Islands before the
20th century because of the Samoans' seafaring skills.