Editing German Samoa (section)

===Occupation===
[[File:Occupation of German-Samoa 1914.jpg|thumb|The [[Union Jack]] being hoisted at a building in Apia, 30 August 1914]]
{{Main|Occupation of German Samoa}}

Other than native Samoan police, Germany had no armed forces stationed in the islands.<ref name=":1" /> The small gunboat [[SMS Geier|SMS ''Geier'']] and the unarmed survey ship ''Planet'' were assigned to the so-called "Australian Station" (encompassing all German South Seas protectorates, not the [[British dominion]] Australia), but ''Geier'' never reached Samoa.<ref>At the outbreak of World War I, the gunboat was in transit from [[German East Africa]] to [[German New Guinea]] and met the light cruiser [[SMS Emden (1908)|SMS ''Emden'']].  ''Geier'' initially stayed on station in the German Caroline Islands, but the 20-year-old 'orphan' ship had no military value as a naval combatant and was short on coal and provisions. She proceeded in October 1914 to Honolulu in the United States Territory of Hawaii. Shadowed by the Japanese, she was interned. With United States entry into the war in April 1917, ''Geier'' was confiscated, renamed USS ''Schurz'' and operated by the United States Navy until 1918, when she sank after a collision mishap off the North Carolina coast.[http://freepages.military.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cacunithistories/USS_St_Louis.html] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722054644/http://freepages.military.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cacunithistories/USS_St_Louis.html|date=2011-07-22}}</ref>

British-born [[Herbert Morley (explorer)|Herbert Morley]], who was in business in Samoa in 1914, sent a letter dated 27 July 1914, where he tells of six German warships docking off Samoa. The letter was publicized in the ''[[Keighley News]]'' on 17 November 1914.<ref>{{Cite web|title=This week in WW1. 17th November — 23rd November 1914|url=http://www.wilsdenparishcouncil.gov.uk/wilsden-harecroft-2/this-week-in-ww1-2/164-17th-november-23rd-november-1914|access-date=2021-01-12|website=www.wilsdenparishcouncil.gov.uk|archive-date=2021-01-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210116080827/http://www.wilsdenparishcouncil.gov.uk/wilsden-harecroft-2/this-week-in-ww1-2/164-17th-november-23rd-november-1914|url-status=dead}} ''[[Keighley News]]'', 21 November 1914 (Keighley News Archives, accessed via Bradford libraries website).</ref>

At the behest of the United Kingdom the colony was invaded unopposed on the morning of 29 August 1914 by troops of the [[Samoa Expeditionary Force]].  Vice Admiral Count [[Maximilian von Spee]] of the [[East Asia Squadron]] gained knowledge of the occupation and hastened to Samoa with the armored cruisers [[SMS Scharnhorst|SMS ''Scharnhorst'']] and [[SMS Gneisenau|SMS ''Gneisenau'']], arriving off Apia on 14 September 1914. He determined however that a landing would only be of temporary advantage in an Allied dominated sea and the cruisers departed.<ref>The ships inflicted some [[Bombardment of Papeete|damage]] at Papeete, Tahiti and then rejoined the squadron en route to South America</ref>  New Zealand occupied the German colony through to 1920, then governed the islands until independence in 1962 as a [[League of Nations]] Class C Mandate<ref>date of ratification by the League of Nations was 10 January 1920; Class C mandates were designed for populations considered incapable of self-government</ref> at first and then as a [[United Nations Trust Territories|United Nations Trust Territory]] after 1946.