American Samoa

American Samoa is a United States territory in the South Pacific, made up of the eastern islands of the Samoan archipelago. Pago Pago on Tutuila is the capital, and Samoan and English are the official languages.

The territory covers Tutuila, Aunuʻu, Ofu, Olosega and Taʻū, the uninhabited Rose Atoll and the distant Swains Island, about 64 km (40 mi) southeast of the country of Samoa. Polynesians lived there long before Europeans, and oral history tells of the Tui Manuʻa kings ruling a network of islands that reached as far as Uvea and Tokelau. The Dutch navigator Jacob Roggeveen was the first known European to see the Samoan Islands, in 1722, and the French navigator Lapérouse later landed parties on the north shore of Tutuila.

The Tripartite Convention of 1899 split the Samoan Islands between Germany and the United States, and chiefs signed deeds of cession of the eastern islands in 1900 and 1904. The US Navy turned the coaling station in the sheltered natural harbor of Pago Pago Bay into Naval Station Tutuila. When the Department of the Interior moved in 1949 to incorporate the territory, Samoan chiefs, known as matai, persuaded Congress to stop, fearing for their culture and land. A constitution adopted in 1967 created local self-government with a governor and a legislature called the Fono.

People born in American Samoa are United States nationals rather than citizens, an arrangement many Samoans defend to protect communal land and their language, and the territory runs its own immigration system. The US military has a strong presence, and enlistment rates are the highest of any state or territory. Canned tuna is the main export, while rainforest covers 90% of the land.