German protectorate (officially styled 'Kingdom of Samoa', Königreich Samoa) over Upolu, Savaii, Apolima and Manono, established by the 1899 Tripartite Convention (ratifications exchanged 16 February 1900), Germany's last Pacific colonial acquisition and the only German Pacific colony administered separately from German New Guinea. Capital and administrative seat was Apia on Upolu.
Occupied without resistance by a New Zealand Expeditionary Force in late August/early September 1914 at the outbreak of World War I, ending German administration in practice; formally stripped from Germany and made a League of Nations Class C Mandate to New Zealand under the 1919 Treaty of Versailles (effective 1920), which is the date Wikidata records as the polity's dissolution. Continued as New Zealand-administered Western Samoa (see 'Territory of Western Samoa' record) thereafter.
Verified scholarly study of German Pacific colonial administration including Samoa.
A recent Oxford history of liberal imperialism in German Samoa, covering the colony directly cited by this record.
Covers German colonial administration (1900-1914) as part of the longer arc to independence.