New Zealand in the Pacific - capture of Samoa

Early NZ aspirations in the Pacific

Even as a fledgling British colony, New Zealand turned its gaze towards the Pacific. From the 1840s, early New Zealand politicians such as Sir George Grey (1812-98), Sir Robert Stout (1844-1930) and Sir Julius Vogel (1835-99) actively promoted a vision of New Zealand as the centre of a great South Pacific empire.

As a small, remote and under-populated British colony, New Zealand was vulnerable. It wanted economic stability and security against invasion. It wanted Britain to extend her control of trade routes and prevent rival imperial powers such as France and Germany from increasing their influence in the region.

Grey, Stout and Vogel advocated ambitious policies of expansion in the Pacific. But their persistent calls for Britain annexations in the region, particularly the larger island groups of Samoa and Fiji, were rejected by London's reluctant and often dismissive Colonial Office.

Richard Seddon in the Cook Islands

During the 1890s, politician Richard Seddon (1845-1906) actively promoted New Zealand as the ‘Britain of the South Pacific'. Like those before him, ‘King Dick' believed that New Zealand's geographical position and its experience governing Maori made it ideally suited to administer other Pacific territories on behalf of Britain.

Seddon was angry when Britain agreed to the United States' annexation of Hawaii in 1898. However he was furious at the ‘great betrayal’ the following year, when Britain allowed Samoa to be partitioned between Germany and the United States. In 1900, his carefully staged ‘health cruise’ around the Pacific sought evidence to persuade the Colonial Office that the inhabitants of the Cook Islands, Niue, Fiji and Tonga desired New Zealand annexation.

Seddon's efforts seemed rewarded when, in 1901, Britain had allowed New Zealand to annex the Cook Islands and Niue. However these were not the prizes imperialists hoped for. New Zealand's first Pacific acquisitions were ‘a remote and worthless group’ according to the Colonial Office.

German Samoa

German Samoa postal sign

The Samoan archipelago comprises six main islands, two atolls, and numerous smaller islets located at the southwest end of the South Pacific Ocean. Its closest neighbour, the northern members of the Tonga group, is situated 210 kilometres to the southwest.

Samoans were not consulted when Britain, Germany and the United States agreed to partition their islands in December 1899. Germany acquired the western islands (Savai’i and ‘Upolu, plus seven smaller islands), while the United States acquired the eastern islands (Tutuila and the Manu’a group) to support its Pacific naval base.