Samoa's traditional political order rested on four paramount titles (Tui Atua, Tui Aana, Gatoaitele, Tamasoalii), whose combined holder was called the Tafaifa; the Malietoa title — held by the Sa Malietoa dynasty since a legendary victory over a Tuʻi Tonga overlord — became the most consistently dominant claim to overall Samoan authority from the 18th century onward, repeatedly securing the Tafaifa and, in the 19th century, contesting kingship of a unified 'Samoa' against rival titleholders (Tupua line) amid escalating Western interference. This entry represents pre-colonial/pre-partition Samoan authority centered on the Malietoa title over Upolu and Savaii, distinct from the Tui Manuʻa paramountcy of the separate Manuʻa island group to the east (already in the atlas, ending 1904).
Overall Samoan political authority was fractured by the Samoan crisis and two civil wars (1886-1894, 1898-1899) among Western-backed claimants; the 1899 Tripartite Convention (ratified 1900) partitioned the archipelago between Germany (Upolu/Savaii, as German Samoa) and the United States (Tutuila/Manuʻa), ending independent Samoan sovereignty. The Malietoa title itself survived as a customary/ceremonial dignity under German, then New Zealand, then independent Samoan government, and continues today (e.g., Malietoa Tanumafili II served as Samoa's head of state 1962-2007); it was never abolished, only stripped of sovereign political authority in 1899-1900.
Standard scholarly account of traditional Samoan title politics (Tafaifa, Malietoa) and the transition to colonial rule.
Dedicated history of the Malietoa title and dynasty, verified in Open Library.
Classic ethnography of Samoan social and political structure shortly after this period, useful background on fa'a Samoa authority.