New
Zealand occupied the German protectorate of Western Samoa at the
outbreak of World War I in 1914. It continued to administer the islands
as a mandate and then as a trust territory until 1962, when the islands
became the first Polynesian nation to reestablish independence in the
20th century. The country dropped the "Western" from its name in 1997.
Samoan (Polynesian) and
English
are spoken.