Editing German Samoa (section)

===Colonial administration===
[[File:Raising the German flag at Mulinu'u, Samoa 1900 photo AJ Tattersall.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Raising the German flag at [[Mulinuʻu]], 1900 (photo by [[Alfred James Tattersall]])]]
[[File:Group Wilhelm Solf, C H Mills, Mata'afa Iosefa - Samoa 1903.jpg|thumb|right|260px|Group with Governor [[Wilhelm Solf]] (wearing peaked cap), New Zealand parliamentarian [[Charles H. Mills]] and paramount chief [[Mata'afa Iosefo]] during a visit by Mills to German Samoa, 1903]]
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 137-31813, Samoa, Dr. Wilhelm Solf.jpg|thumb|right|260px|Governor Wilhelm Solf at Apia in 1910]]
The German colonial period lasted for 14 years and officially began with the raising of the imperial flag on 1 March 1900.  [[Wilhelm Solf]] became the first governor.
In its political relations with the Samoan people, Solf's government showed similar qualities of intelligence and care as in the economic arena.<ref>Davidson, p. 78</ref> He skillfully grafted Samoan institutions into the new system of colonial government by the acceptance of native customs.<ref>Lewthwaite, in ''Western Samoa'', p. 130</ref> Solf himself learned many of the customs and rituals important to the Samoan people, observing cultural etiquette including the ceremonial drinking of [[kava]].<ref name=nr>{{cite book
|url= https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-RowSamo-t1-front1-d9.html
|via=NZETC
|title=Samoa Under the Sailing Gods
|first=Newton A
|last=Rowe
|page=11
|publisher=Putnam
|year=1930
|access-date=25 February 2010
}}</ref>

"German rule brought peace and order for the first time. ... Authority, in the person of the governor, became paternal, fair, and absolute.  Berlin was far away; there was no cable or radio."<ref>McKay, ''Samoana'', p. 18</ref> The German administrators inherited a system by which some two hundred leading Samoans held various public offices. Over the years, rivalries for these positions, as well as appointments by colonial officials created tensions that dissident [[fa'amatai|''matai'']] (chiefs) gathered together into a militant movement to eventually march armed on [[Apia]] in 1909. Governor Solf met the Samoans, his resolute personality persuaded them to return home. However, political agitation continued to simmer, several warships arrived and Solf's patience came to an end. He had ten of the leaders, including their wives, children and retainers, in all 72 souls, deported to [[Saipan]] in the German Mariana Islands, in effect terminating the revolt.<ref>McKay, p. 20</ref>

Energetic efforts by colonial administrators established the first public school system; a hospital was built and staffed and enlarged as needed.<ref>''Samoanisches Gouvernementsblatt'', Apia, 20 March 1909</ref> Of all colonial possessions of the European powers in the Pacific, German Samoa was by far the best-roaded;<ref>Lewthwaite, p. 153</ref> all roads up until 1942 had been constructed under German direction. The imperial grants from the Berlin treasury which had marked the first eight years of German rule were no longer needed after 1908.  Samoa had become a self-supporting colony.<ref>Schultz-Naumann, ''Unter Kaisers Flagge'', p. 163, the only other German protectorate in this category was ''Togoland''</ref> Wilhelm Solf left Samoa in 1910 to be appointed Colonial Secretary at Berlin; he was succeeded as governor by Erich Schultz, the former chief justice in the protectorate. The Germans built the [[Telefunken Railroad (Samoa)|Telefunken Railroad]] from Apia onto the [[Mount Vaea]] for transporting building materials for the 120 m high mast of their [[Telefunken]] wireless station, which was inaugurated as planned on 1 August 1914, just a few days after the beginning of [[World War I]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ESD19140803.2.44.15 |title=THE GERMAN PACIFIC FLEET. |work=Evening Star |date=3 August 1914 |access-date=16 August 2021 |via=Papers Past}}</ref>

The German colonial administrator used the former home of writer [[Robert Louis Stevenson]] as a residence; the building is now the [[Robert Louis Stevenson Museum]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Robert Louis Stevenson Museum|url=http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/robert-louis-stevenson-museum|access-date=2021-05-16|website=Atlas Obscura|language=en}}</ref>

Germany did not experience similar levels of violent anti-colonial resistance in Samoa as it did in Southwest Africa, Cameroon, or East Africa.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Fitzpatrick |first=Matthew P. |date=2023 |title='Renegade' Resistance and Colonial Rule in German Samoa |journal=The Journal of Pacific History |volume=58 |issue=4 |pages=325–347 |language=en |doi=10.1080/00223344.2023.2212591 |issn=0022-3344|doi-access=free }}</ref> However, there were anti-colonial resistance movements in Samoa, such as the elite-led ''Oloa'' and ''Mau a Pule'' movements, and youth movements against German colonial rule.<ref name=":1" />