AMERICAN SAMOA, a region of the UNITED STATES in the PACIFIC OCEAN, comprises of the eastern portion of the Samoan archipelago and contains five volcanic islands: the principle island of Tutuila and its littler accomplice, Anu’u, in addition to the islands of Ofu, Olosega, and Ta’u (the Manu’a Islands) toward the east.
The domain, with its capital at Pago, is 77.6 square mi (199 square km) and has a most astounding point at Lata of 3,188 ft (966 m). It has a populace of 70,260. The region likewise incorporates the more far off coral atolls, Rose and Sand, and minor Swains Island, far toward the north. The islands expand approximately 186 mi (300 km) from west to east and are situated around 66% of the route from HAWAII to NEW ZEALAND.
The fundamental town and authoritative focus, Pago, has a standout amongst the best characteristic deepwater harbors in the South Pacific Ocean, shielded from harsh oceans and high breezes. Deliberately situated at the intersection of the South Pacific, the harbor at Pago pulled in the consideration of the U.S. Naval force as right on time as the 1870s and remained an essential coaling point for U.S. ships crossing the Pacific until the finish of World War I, when oil supplanted coal in most bigger vessels. From that point forward, American Samoa has remained a relative backwater and has along these lines held quite a bit of its customary lifestyle, in contrast to a significant number of its neighbors.
American Samoa’s closest neighbors are the sovereign conditions of [Western] SAMOA and TONGA toward the west and southwest and the New Zealand conditions of Tokelau, Cook Islands and Niue toward the north, east, and south. The islands lie just toward the east of the INTERNATIONAL DATE LINE and at the crossing point of the three social divisions of POLYNESIA, MICRONESIA, and MELANESIA, however the Samoans themselves fall inside the Polynesian circle. The islands are volcanic in inception, with rough pinnacles and constrained beach front fields.
The atmosphere is tropical marine, with abundant precipitation, animating thick woods on most the islands and permitting development of bananas, coconuts, taro, breadfruit, yams, copra, pineapples, and papayas. Ventures are restricted to a few vast fish canneries, in addition to neighborhood painstaking work and articles of clothing. The travel industry isn’t substantial since there is restricted aircraft administration. The canneries were opened during the 1960s and established 90 percent of all fares in 1995. Be that as it may, couple of local people need to work there, so a large portion of the work power are outsiders, generally from Western Samoa and tonga. Youthful American Samoans are progressively leaving for the terrain United States for advanced education and work openings. The populace along these lines shifts generally (for instance, in 1984 it was given as just 36,000). About 90 percent live on Tutuila, mostly near Pago Pago.
The islands were settled well before European contact in the eighteenth century. Local boss looked to the United States in the late nineteenth century for insurance against the quarrels of European provincial forces. The principal settlement with a neighborhood head permitting U.S. pontoons to grapple in Pago Harbor was marked in 1872, and dealings between Great Britain, Germany, and the United States prompted a parcel in 1899 (at 171 degrees west longitude), however the positioning Samoan boss did not formally surrender their domains until 1904 (after the United States had officially set up its organization).
The bigger islands in the gathering, Upolu and Savai’i, went to GERMANY and from 1962 framed the free country of Samoa. The number of inhabitants in the eastern islands in 1900 was under 6,000. After World War I, the Samoans were for the most part left to themselves, and their conventional arrangement of government and familybased collective landownership was protected. Subsistence economy was effective and neighborhood conventions were solid, such a large number of Western impacts were either rejected or, similar to Christianity, formed to fit the Samoan way.
Since 1951 the islands have fallen under the purview of the U.S. Division of the Interior, and another constitution was embraced in 1966, be that as it may, in contrast to America’s different regions in the Pacific, there is little want to change existing conditions, either toward autonomy or toward closer alliance with the United States. The islands depend on substantial endowments and welfare programs but on the other hand are careful about losing their conventional lifestyle by submitting altogether to U.S. law (for instance, the continuation of government initiative by semi-genetic boss, the matai, and the arrangement of collective landholding, under which around 92 percent of the land keeps on being held by customary family gatherings). American Samoa along these lines remains a sloppy, unincorporated domain of the United States. Samoans are for the most part self-overseeing, and severe limitations of movement are planned to save their self-governance and conventional culture.