Editing Samoa (section)

===Early history===
Samoa was discovered and settled by the [[Lapita people]] (Austronesian people who spoke [[Oceanic languages]]), who travelled from [[Island Melanesia]]. The earliest human remains found in Samoa are dated to between roughly 2,900 and 3,500 years ago. The remains were discovered at a Lapita site at [[Mulifanua]], and the scientists' findings were published in 1974.<ref name=green>{{cite journal |url=http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document/Volume_98_1989/Volume_98,_No._3/New_information_for_the_Ferry_Berth_site,_Mulifanua,_Western_Samoa,_by_H._M._Leach,_p_319-330/p1 |title=New Information for the Ferry Berth Site, Mulifanua, Western Samoa |first1=Roger C. |last1=Green |first2=Helen M. |last2=Leach |journal=Journal of the Polynesian Society |volume=98 |issue=3 |year=1989 |pages=319–330 |access-date=30 January 2011 |archive-date=4 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220704062837/http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document/Volume_98_1989/Volume_98,_No._3/New_information_for_the_Ferry_Berth_site,_Mulifanua,_Western_Samoa,_by_H._M._Leach,_p_319-330/p1?page=0&action=searchresult&target= |url-status=live }}</ref> The Samoans' origins have been studied in modern times through scientific research on Polynesian [[genetics]], [[linguistics]], and [[anthropology]]. Although this research is ongoing, a number of theories have been proposed. One theory is that the original Samoans were [[Austronesian peoples|Austronesians]] who arrived during a final period of eastward expansion of the Lapita peoples out of Southeast Asia and [[Melanesia]] between 2,500 and 1,500 BCE.<ref>The Political Economy of Ancient Samoa: Basalt Adze Production and Linkages to Social Status (Winterhoff 2007)</ref>

Intimate sociocultural and genetic ties were maintained between Samoa, Fiji, and Tonga, and the archaeological record supports oral tradition and native genealogies that indicate interisland voyaging and intermarriage among precolonial Samoans, [[Fijians]], and [[Tongans]]. Notable figures in Samoan history included the [[Tui Manu'a]] line, Queen [[Salamasina]], [[Falefa|King Fonoti]] and the four ''tama a ʻāiga'': [[Malietoa]], [[Tupua Tamasese]], [[Mataʻafa]], and [[Tuimalealiʻifano]]. [[Nafanua]] was a famous woman warrior who was deified in ancient Samoan religion and whose patronage was highly sought after by successive Samoan rulers.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |editor1-last=Suaalii-Sauni |editor1-first=Tamasailau M. |editor2-last=Tuagalu |editor2-first=I'uogafa |editor3-last=Kirifi-Alai |editor3-first=Tofilau Nina |editor4-last=Fuamatu |editor4-first=Naomi |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1057446674 |title=Su'esu'e manogi in search of fragrance : Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Ta'isi Efi and the Samoan indigenous reference |date=November 2017 |publisher=Huia Publishers |isbn=978-1-77550-296-8 |oclc=1057446674 |access-date=17 June 2020 |archive-date=18 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200618025906/http://worldcat.org/oclc/1057446674 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Today, all of Samoa is united under its two principal royal families: the Sā Malietoa of the ancient Malietoa lineage that defeated the Tongans in the 13th century; and the Sā Tupua, Queen Salamasina's descendants and heirs who ruled Samoa in the centuries that followed her reign. Within these two principal lineages are the four highest titles of Samoa – the elder titles of Malietoa and Tupua Tamasese of antiquity and the newer Mataʻafa and Tuimalealiʻifano titles, which rose to prominence in 19th-century wars that preceded the colonial period.<ref name=":1" /> These four titles form the apex of the Samoan matai system as it stands today.

Contact with Europeans began in the early 18th century. [[Jacob Roggeveen]], a Dutchman, was the first known non-Polynesian to sight the Samoan islands in 1722. This visit was followed by French explorer [[Louis Antoine de Bougainville]], who named them the Navigator Islands in 1768. Contact was limited before the 1830s, which is when British [[missionaries]] of the London Missionary Society, whalers, and traders began arriving.<ref>{{Cite book |title=International Dictionary of Historic Places, Volume 5: Asia and Oceania |publisher=Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers |year=1996 |isbn=1-884964-04-4 |editor-last=Schellinger |editor-first=Paul |location=Chicago |pages=724 |editor-last2=Salkin |editor-first2=Robert}}</ref>