Treaty of Berlin, 1899
Encyclopedia
The Tripartite Convention of 1899 resulted in the act that formally partitioned the Samoan archipelago into a German colony and a United States territory and was the culmination of years of civil war among Samoan factions and of rivalry between the United States
, Germany
and the United Kingdom
at the brink of war. Forerunners to the Tripartite Convention of 1899 were the Washington Conference of 1887, the Treaty of Berlin of 1889
and the Anglo-German Agreement on Samoa of 1899. For the Samoans the convention meant that their immediate future was decided in the light of Western interests, as they now lost an independence that had been nominal at best.
. After the United States concluded a friendship treaty with Samoa in 1878, Germany negotiated her own Favorite Nation Treaty in 1879 with the same Samoan faction as the U.S., while later in 1879 the Anglo-Samoan treaty was completed with a rival faction. Contentions among the whites in Samoa, plus native factional strive led to side-choosing that became deadly warring with the introduction of modern weapons.
Washington conference of 1887
To attempt to resolve some of the problems, the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom agreed to a conference at Washington in June 1887. After the surfacing of serious disagreements among the parties, the conference adjourned without results. Fighting by nationals of the three powers with their factional local allies led to a conflict that was only tempered by the Apia hurricane of 1889
that wrecked warships on the verge of hostilities.
Treaty of Berlin of 1889
The seriousness of the situation was finally recognized and German foreign minister Count Herbert von Bismarck
(chancellor Otto von Bismarck
’s son) proposed to reconvene the adjourned Washington conference of 1887. He invited U.S. and British representatives to Berlin in April 1889. Bismarck’s pragmatic approach proposed protection for life, property and commerce of the treaty participants and relegated native government and their unstable "kings" to the Samoans, with which the British concurred. The United States insisted on a three powers authority while preserving native rights. In the Treaty of Berlin of 1889 thus a joint protectorate or condominium
was declared, with a European/American chief justice, a municipal council for Apia, and with the "free right of the natives to elect their Chief or King" as the signatory to the act, thus the treaty professed to recognize a Samoan independent government.
No sooner was the native royal figurehead appointed, and after disturbances restored, the other chiefs went into rebellion and civil war ensued. By the end of the 19th century, the failure of the arrangement was freely admitted by the governments of the three powers since the principal protagonists in Samoa acted directly for their own interests, frequently overruling the officials of the condominium. A dissolution of the condominium created by the “entangling alliance”
was now in play.
with its key asset, the existing coaling station at Pago Pago. With "partitioning of Samoa" by then the prevailing understanding, the United States expressed no objections to Britain and Germany "coming to a preliminary agreement."
Kaiser Wilhelm II had accepted an invitation to visit England in November 1899 and his government insisted that an agreement on Samoa should be concluded before his departure for Britain. A settlement was reached at London by 9 November and signed on 14 November. It was therefore this Anglo-German agreement on Samoa in tandem with the informal understanding with the United States that partitioned Samoa. It only remained for the three powers to negotiate a tripartite convention in order to secure the approval of the United States to the whole agreement. The Tripartite Convention of 1899 was duly constituted and documents were signed at Washington on 2 December 1899 by the U.S. Secretary of State John Hay
, Baron Theodor von Holleben
, German ambassador to the United States, and Sir Julian Pauncefote, British ambassador to the United States, with ratifications exchanged on 16 February 1900.
Germany:
United Kingdom:
These treaty arrangements of the Tripartite Convention of 1899 stayed in place until the outbreak of the Great War
in 1914.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Germany
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
at the brink of war. Forerunners to the Tripartite Convention of 1899 were the Washington Conference of 1887, the Treaty of Berlin of 1889
Treaty of Berlin (1889)
The Treaty of Berlin was the concluding document of the conference at Berlin in 1889 on Samoa. The conference was proposed by German foreign minister Count Herbert von Bismarck to reconvene the adjourned Washington conference on Samoa of 1887...
and the Anglo-German Agreement on Samoa of 1899. For the Samoans the convention meant that their immediate future was decided in the light of Western interests, as they now lost an independence that had been nominal at best.
Politics prior to the convention
By the 1870s modern economic conditions were well established and accepted by the Samoans, who had just enough of a government that could be manipulated at will by the foreign business interests in SamoaSamoa
Samoa , officially the Independent State of Samoa, formerly known as Western Samoa is a country encompassing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It became independent from New Zealand in 1962. The two main islands of Samoa are Upolu and one of the biggest islands in...
. After the United States concluded a friendship treaty with Samoa in 1878, Germany negotiated her own Favorite Nation Treaty in 1879 with the same Samoan faction as the U.S., while later in 1879 the Anglo-Samoan treaty was completed with a rival faction. Contentions among the whites in Samoa, plus native factional strive led to side-choosing that became deadly warring with the introduction of modern weapons.
Washington conference of 1887
To attempt to resolve some of the problems, the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom agreed to a conference at Washington in June 1887. After the surfacing of serious disagreements among the parties, the conference adjourned without results. Fighting by nationals of the three powers with their factional local allies led to a conflict that was only tempered by the Apia hurricane of 1889
1889 Apia cyclone
The 1889 Apia cyclone was a Pacific tropical cyclone, which swept across Apia, Samoa on March 15, 1889 during the Samoan crisis. The effect on shipping in the harbour was devastating, largely because of what has been described as 'an error of judgement that will forever remain a paradox in human...
that wrecked warships on the verge of hostilities.
Treaty of Berlin of 1889
The seriousness of the situation was finally recognized and German foreign minister Count Herbert von Bismarck
Herbert von Bismarck
Herbert, Prince of Bismarck was a German politician, who served as Foreign Secretary from 1886 to 1890. His political career was closely tied to that of his father, Otto von Bismarck, and he left office a few days after his father's dismissal...
(chancellor Otto von Bismarck
Otto von Bismarck
Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince of Bismarck, Duke of Lauenburg , simply known as Otto von Bismarck, was a Prussian-German statesman whose actions unified Germany, made it a major player in world affairs, and created a balance of power that kept Europe at peace after 1871.As Minister President of...
’s son) proposed to reconvene the adjourned Washington conference of 1887. He invited U.S. and British representatives to Berlin in April 1889. Bismarck’s pragmatic approach proposed protection for life, property and commerce of the treaty participants and relegated native government and their unstable "kings" to the Samoans, with which the British concurred. The United States insisted on a three powers authority while preserving native rights. In the Treaty of Berlin of 1889 thus a joint protectorate or condominium
Condominium (international law)
In international law, a condominium is a political territory in or over which two or more sovereign powers formally agree to share equally dominium and exercise their rights jointly, without dividing it up into 'national' zones.Although a condominium has always been...
was declared, with a European/American chief justice, a municipal council for Apia, and with the "free right of the natives to elect their Chief or King" as the signatory to the act, thus the treaty professed to recognize a Samoan independent government.
No sooner was the native royal figurehead appointed, and after disturbances restored, the other chiefs went into rebellion and civil war ensued. By the end of the 19th century, the failure of the arrangement was freely admitted by the governments of the three powers since the principal protagonists in Samoa acted directly for their own interests, frequently overruling the officials of the condominium. A dissolution of the condominium created by the “entangling alliance”
Treaty of Berlin (1889)
The Treaty of Berlin was the concluding document of the conference at Berlin in 1889 on Samoa. The conference was proposed by German foreign minister Count Herbert von Bismarck to reconvene the adjourned Washington conference on Samoa of 1887...
was now in play.
The Tripartite Convention of 1899
The German government "had never made a secret of their belief that international control of Samoa was visionary and impractical ... and they began a series of diplomatic moves intended to eliminate it altogether." German diplomats in Washington had ascertained during the summer of 1899 that the United States administration was satisfied with obtaining the island of TutuilaTutuila
Tutuila is the largest and the main island of American Samoa in the archipelago of Samoan Islands. It is the third largest island in the Samoan Islands chain of the Central Pacific located roughly northeast of Brisbane, Australia and over northeast of Fiji. It contains a large, natural harbor,...
with its key asset, the existing coaling station at Pago Pago. With "partitioning of Samoa" by then the prevailing understanding, the United States expressed no objections to Britain and Germany "coming to a preliminary agreement."
Kaiser Wilhelm II had accepted an invitation to visit England in November 1899 and his government insisted that an agreement on Samoa should be concluded before his departure for Britain. A settlement was reached at London by 9 November and signed on 14 November. It was therefore this Anglo-German agreement on Samoa in tandem with the informal understanding with the United States that partitioned Samoa. It only remained for the three powers to negotiate a tripartite convention in order to secure the approval of the United States to the whole agreement. The Tripartite Convention of 1899 was duly constituted and documents were signed at Washington on 2 December 1899 by the U.S. Secretary of State John Hay
John Hay
John Milton Hay was an American statesman, diplomat, author, journalist, and private secretary and assistant to Abraham Lincoln.-Early life:...
, Baron Theodor von Holleben
Theodor von Holleben
Theodor von Holleben was a German diplomat.-Biography:Holleben was educated at the universities of Heidelberg, Berlin and Göttingen; became an officer in the Bodyguard Hussar Regiment; and took part in the Franco-Prussian War...
, German ambassador to the United States, and Sir Julian Pauncefote, British ambassador to the United States, with ratifications exchanged on 16 February 1900.
Positions as a result of the Tripartite Convention of 1899
United States:- President William McKinleyWilliam McKinleyWilliam McKinley, Jr. was the 25th President of the United States . He is best known for winning fiercely fought elections, while supporting the gold standard and high tariffs; he succeeded in forging a Republican coalition that for the most part dominated national politics until the 1930s...
signed an executive order on 19 February 1900, reading: "The Island of Tutuila, of the Samoan Group, and all other islands of the group east of longitude 171 degrees west of Greenwich, are hereby placed under the control of the Department of the Navy for a naval station. The Secretary of the Navy shall take such steps as are necessary to establish the authority of the United States and to give to the islands the necessary protection." On the same day John D. LongJohn Davis LongJohn Davis Long was a U.S. political figure. He served as the 32nd Governor of Massachusetts between 1880 and 1883. He later served as the Secretary of the Navy from 1897 to 1902....
, Secretary of the Navy, stated further that these islands "... are hereby established into a naval station, to be known as the naval station, Tutuila, and to be under the command of a commandant." Rose IslandRose AtollRose Atoll, sometimes called Rose Island or Motu O Manu by people of the nearby Manu'a Islands, is an oceanic atoll within the U.S. territory of American Samoa. It is an uninhabited wildlife refuge. It is the southernmost point in the United States. The land area is 0.214 km²...
, an uninhabited coral atoll, and the island of Aunu'uAunu'uAunu'u is a small volcanic island off the southeastern shore of Tutuila in American Samoa. It has a land area of and a 2000 census population of 476 persons. Politically it is a part of the Eastern District, one of the primary divisions of American Samoa....
were included. The cession of deeds of the islands of the Manua Group (Ta'u, OfuOfuOfu may refer to*Ofu , an island and its village in Vava'u in Tonga*Ofu-Olosega, an island in the Manu'a group in American Samoa*Ofu, Nigeria, a town and Local Government Area in Kogi State...
and OlosegaOfu-OlosegaOfu and Olosega are parts of a volcanic doublet in the Manu‘a Group of the Samoan Islands—part of American Samoa. The twin islands, formed from shield volcanoes, have a combined length of 6km. They are geographic volcanic remnants separated by the narrow 137m wide Asaga strait, a natural...
) did not take place until 1904, although the respective chiefs had previously accepted the sovereignty of the United States. The term American SamoaAmerican SamoaAmerican Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the sovereign state of Samoa...
entered into conscious usage in 1905 with a first assembly or fono of Samoan chiefs from all ceded islands within the naval station.
Germany:
- The Samoan islands of UpoluUpoluUpolu is an island in Samoa, formed by a massive basaltic shield volcano which rises from the seafloor of the western Pacific Ocean. The island is long, in area, and is the second largest in geographic area as well as the most populated of the Samoan Islands. Upolu is situated to the east of...
and Savaii and the small islands of ApolimaApolimaApolima is the smallest of the four inhabited islands of Samoa and situated in the Apolima Strait, between the country's two largest islands Upolu to the east and Savai'i to the west....
and ManonoManono IslandManono is an island of Samoa, situated in the Apolima Strait between the main islands of Savai'i and Upolu, 3.4 km WNW off Lefatu Cape, the westernmost point of Upolu....
, west of 171 degrees west longitude, were declared a protectorate of the German Empire and became known as German SamoaGerman SamoaGerman Samoa was a German protectorate from 1900 to 1914, consisting of the islands of Upolu, Savai'i, Apolima and Manono, now wholly within the independent state Samoa, formerly Western Samoa...
, with flag raising on 1 March 1900 and appointment of Wilhelm SolfWilhelm SolfWilhelm Heinrich Solf was a German scholar, diplomat, jurist and statesman.-Early life:Wilhelm Solf was born into a wealthy and liberal family in Berlin. He attended secondary schools in Anklam in western Pomerania and in Mannheim...
as governor. This "happy acquisition" was viewed in Germany as a "splendid achievement in colonial policy, which is at the same time a genuinely popular one."
United Kingdom:
- By surrendering all rights in Samoa, the United Kingdom "obtained extensive compensation from Germany elsewhere," in effect, "transfer of all of the German rights in the TongaTongaTonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga , is a state and an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, comprising 176 islands scattered over of ocean in the South Pacific...
group including that of establishing a naval and coaling station, and the right of extraterritoriality; the shifting of the line of demarcation between German and British islands in the SolomonSolomon IslandsSolomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...
group so as to give to Great Britain all the German islands to the east and southeast of the island of BougainvilleBougainville IslandBougainville Island is the main island of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville of Papua New Guinea. This region is also known as Bougainville Province or the North Solomons. The population of the province is 175,160 , which includes the adjacent island of Buka and assorted outlying islands...
; the division of the so-called neutral zone in West Africa by a definite boundary line between British and German possessions; the promise of Germany to take into consideration, as much and as far as possible, the wishes which the Government of Great Britain may express with regard to the development of reciprocal tariffs in the territories of TogoTogolandTogoland was a German protectorate in West Africa from 1884 to 1914, encompassing what is now the nation of Togo and most of what is now the Volta Region of Ghana. The colony was established during the period generally known as the "Scramble for Africa"...
and the Gold CoastGold Coast (British colony)The Gold Coast was a British colony on the Gulf of Guinea in west Africa that became the independent nation of Ghana in 1957.-Overview:The first Europeans to arrive at the coast were the Portuguese in 1471. They encountered a variety of African kingdoms, some of which controlled substantial...
; the renouncing by Germany of her rights of extraterritoriality in ZanzibarZanzibarZanzibar ,Persian: زنگبار, from suffix bār: "coast" and Zangi: "bruin" ; is a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania, in East Africa. It comprises the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of numerous small islands and two large ones: Unguja , and Pemba...
."
These treaty arrangements of the Tripartite Convention of 1899 stayed in place until the outbreak of the Great War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
in 1914.