Samoa
The heart of Polynesia
Samoa lies at the cultural heart of Polynesia, a pair of large volcanic islands, Upolu and Savaii, and several smaller ones in the central South Pacific, where the traditional way of life known as fa'a Samoa still governs village society. Lush, mountainous, and ringed by reefs and waterfalls, the islands are crossed by extinct and dormant volcanoes and dotted with the open meeting houses called fale. Apia, on Upolu, is the capital and the only city, a town that once hosted the writer Robert Louis Stevenson, who is buried on a hill above it.
The two main islands are volcanic and rugged, with interiors rising to forested peaks, and Mount Silisili on Savaii is the highest point at 1,858 meters, and Savaii is among the larger volcanic islands of the Pacific, with relatively recent lava fields. The climate is tropical, warm and rainy, and the islands lie within the cyclone belt. Coastal villages and coconut plantations occupy the lowlands, while the mountainous interiors remain densely forested. In 2011 Samoa famously shifted to the western side of the international date line to align with its main trading partners.
Polynesians settled Samoa some three thousand years ago, and the islands became a center from which much of Polynesia was peopled. After a period of German and then New Zealand administration, Samoa in 1962 became the first Pacific island nation to gain independence in the modern era. Society remains organized around extended families and chiefly titles, and the economy rests on agriculture, fishing, tourism, and remittances from the large Samoan communities living in New Zealand, Australia, and the United States.