View source for Tripartite Convention

{{Short description|1899 treaty ending the Second Samoan Civil War}}
{{Infobox treaty
| name = 
| long_name = Convention between the United States, the German Empire, and Great Britain Governments in Respect to Samoa
| image = German, British, American warships in Apia harbour, Samoa 1899.jpg
| image_width = <!-- 200px -->
| image_alt = <!-- alt-text here for accessibility; see [[MOS:ACCESS]] -->
| caption = German, British, and American warships in [[Apia]] harbour, 1899
| type = 
| context = 
| date_drafted = 
| date_signed = {{Start date|1899|12|02|df=y}}
| location_signed = [[Washington, D.C.]]
| date_sealed = 
| date_effective = 16 February 1900
| condition_effective = 
| date_expiration = <!-- {{End date|YYYY|MM|DD}} OR: -->
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| mediators = <!-- format this as a bullet list -->
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| original_signatories = <!-- format this as a bullet list -->
| signatories = * {{flag|German Empire|empire}}
* {{flagcountry|United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland}}
* {{flag|United States|1896}}
| parties = <!-- format this as a bullet list -->
| ratifiers = <!-- format this as a bullet list -->
| depositor = <!-- OR: -->
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| citations = {{USStat|31|1878}}; [[United States Treaty Series|TS]] 314; 1 [[Treaties and Other International Agreements of the United States of America 1776–1949|Bevans]] 276
| language = <!-- OR: -->
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| wikisource = <!-- OR: -->
| wikisource1 = <!-- Up to 5 wikisourceN variables may be specified -->
| footnotes = '''Abrogated''' the Treaty of Friendship and Commerce Between the United States and the Government of the Samoan Islands of 17 February 1878 ({{USStat|20|704}}; [[United States Treaty Series|TS]] 312; 1 [[Treaties and Other International Agreements of the United States of America 1776–1949|Bevans]] [https://books.google.com/books?id=MUU6AQAAIAAJ&pg=PA437 437]). '''Abrogated''' the [[Treaty of Berlin (1889)|Treaty of Berlin]] of 14 June 1889 ({{USStat|26|1497}}; [[United States Treaty Series|TS]] 313; 1 [[Treaties and Other International Agreements of the United States of America 1776–1949|Bevans]] 116).
}}
The '''Tripartite Convention of 1899''' concluded the [[Second Samoan Civil War]], resulting in the formal partition of the [[Samoan archipelago]] into a [[German Samoa|German colony]] and a [[American Samoa|United States territory]].

Forerunners to the Tripartite Convention of 1899 were the Washington Conference of 1887, the [[Treaty of Berlin (1889)|Treaty of Berlin of 1889]], and the Anglo-German Agreement on Samoa of 1899.

==Politics prior to the convention==
{{See also|Samoan crisis|Samoan Civil War}}

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 [[Samoa]]. 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 strife 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 in Washington in June 1887. After the surfacing of serious disagreements among the parties, the conference adjourned without results. Fighting in and around the Samoan islands by nationals of the three powers, along with their factional local allies, led to a conflict that was only tempered by the [[1889 Apia cyclone|Apia hurricane of 1889]], a disaster that wrecked warships on the verge of hostilities.

===Treaty of Berlin of 1889===
{{Main article|Treaty of Berlin (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.<ref>{{harvnb|Gray|1980|p=86}}</ref> He invited U.S. and British representatives to Berlin in April 1889.<ref>{{harvnb|Ryden|1975|p=455}}; in deference to the American delegation who had few German or French speakers (French was then the language of international diplomacy), Count Bismarck agreed to conduct the proceedings in English</ref> 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.  Thus, in the Treaty of Berlin of 1889, a joint protectorate or [[Condominium (international law)|condominium]] was declared, a form of international colonial control: there would be a European/American chief justice, a municipal council for Apia, and a "free right of the natives to elect their Chief or King".  This was therefore the first treaty that professed to recognize, at least at some level, a Samoan independent government.<ref>{{harvnb|Gilson|1970|p=396}}</ref>

No sooner was this 'native' royal figurehead appointed (and, after disturbances, restored), than the other chiefs rebelled, and [[Second Samoan Civil War|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 respective interests, frequently overruling the officials of the condominium.

==Negotiations and Ratification of the Tripartite Convention of 1899==
[[File:Samoa Cram Map 1896.jpg|thumb|260px|right|The [[Samoa Islands|Samoan Archipelago]] (1900–1914)]]

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."<ref>{{harvnb|Gray|1980|p=100}}</ref>  In April 1899, the British government agreed to the formation of a joint commission of Germany, the US and the UK on the matter.  The Joint Commission on Samoa was given authority to supersede local authorities and settle matters. Their arrival in May effectively ended hostilities on the islands.  By July the Commission had decided that the islands must be partitioned, as continued joint rule was unfeasible.  The American commissioner [[Bartlett Tripp]] endorsed the view of President McKinley and others that the United States should retain [[Tutuila]] and its harbor of [[Pago Pago]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=van Dijk |first=Kees |title=Pacific Strife |date=2015 |publisher=[[Amsterdam University Press]] |isbn=978-90-8964-420-6 |series=Global Asia |location=Amsterdam |pages=405–6 |jstor=j.ctt15nmjw8 |oclc=890267024 |jstor-access=free}}</ref>  Given partitioning of Samoa by then the prevailing understanding, the United States expressed no objections to Britain and Germany coming to a preliminary agreement.  The United Kingdom was by then embroiled in the [[Second Boer War]] and therefore viewed as in a weakened bargaining position;<ref>{{harvnb|Coates|1970|p=230}}</ref> however, the German desire to rapidly conclude negotiations and bring the western Samoan islands into their colonial empire had a balancing effect that was clearly evidenced in the agreement as signed.

[[File:Hurrah!_Samoa_ist_unser!_1899.jpg|thumb|right|Postcard celebrating the transfer to German control]]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.<ref>{{harvnb|Gilson|1970|p=432}}</ref>  A settlement was reached at London by 9 November and signed on 14 November 1899.<ref>The United States Department of State was informed on 9 November 1899 through the U.S. embassy at Berlin that foreign minister Count [[Bernhard von Bülow]] expressed the hope to the U.S. chargé d{{okina}}affaires that the Anglo-German "agreement would meet with the satisfaction of the United States," since according to the agreement, "... not only Tutuila would become the property of the United States, but also the smaller islands" of the Manua group ({{harvnb|Ryden|1975|p=571}}).</ref>  It was therefore this Anglo-German agreement on Samoa, in tandem with the informal understanding with the United States, that effectively determined the practical partitioning of Samoa.  As far as the three powers were concerned, it only remained to negotiate a tripartite convention in order to secure the formal approval of the United States of the whole arrangement.<ref name="Ryden">{{harvnb|Ryden|1975|p=572}}</ref>  The Tripartite Convention of 1899 was duly constituted and documents were signed at Washington on 2 December 1899 by U.S. Secretary of State [[John Hay]], German ambassador to the United States Baron [[Theodor von Holleben]], and British ambassador to the United States Sir [[Julian Pauncefote]].  Ratifications  were exchanged quickly, on 16 February 1900.<ref name="Ryden, p. 574">{{harvnb|Ryden|1975|p=574}}</ref>

== Positions resulting from the Tripartite Convention of 1899 ==

=== United States ===
President [[William McKinley]] signed an executive order on 19 February 1900, stating: "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 Davis Long|John D. Long]], 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 Atoll|Rose Island]], an uninhabited coral atoll, and the island of [[Aunuʻu]] were included. The cession of deeds of the islands of the [[Manuʻa|Manua Group]] ([[Taʻū]] and [[Ofu-Olosega]]) did not take place until 1904, although the respective chiefs had previously accepted the sovereignty of the United States.<ref>{{harvnb|Ryden|1975|pp=575–576}}</ref> The term "[[American Samoa]]" entered into conscious usage in 1905 with a first assembly, or ''fono'', of the Samoan chiefs on all ceded islands within the naval station.<ref>{{harvnb|Gray|1980|p=160}}</ref><ref>Beginning with the American-Samoan Friendship treaty of 1878, and continuing through the Washington Conference of 1887, the Berlin Conference (in 1889), and to the Tripartite Convention of 1899, the United States had a consistent ambition and position (not always expressed publicly): to acquire the coaling station at Pago Pago Bay. It was the probability of building a canal in Central America (eventually to be controlled by the U.S. and realized as the [[Panama Canal]]) that defined this American perspective.</ref><ref>[[Swains Island]], a privately-owned atoll in the [[Tokelau]] group, became officially part of American Samoa by annexation on 4 March 1925.</ref>

=== German Empire ===
The Samoan islands of [[Upolu]] and [[Savaii]] and the small islands of [[Apolima]] and [[Manono Island|Manono]], west of 171 degrees west longitude, were declared a protectorate of the [[German Empire]], and became known as [[German Samoa]], with a flag raising on 1 March 1900, and appointment of [[Wilhelm Solf]] 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."<ref name="Ryden, p. 574" />

=== United Kingdom<ref>Referred to as, 'Britain' or 'Great Britain', when mentioned in [[direct quote]]s</ref> ===
By surrendering all rights in Samoa, the United Kingdom "obtained extensive compensation from Germany elsewhere",<ref>{{harvnb|Ryden|1975|p=571}}</ref> in effect, 
* "transfer of all of the German rights in the [[Tonga]] 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 [[Solomon Islands|Solomon]] group so as to give to Great Britain all the German islands to the east and southeast of the island of [[Bougainville Island|Bougainville]];"
* "the division of the so-called neutral zone in [[Togoland|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"
** "[[Togoland|Togo]] and"
** "the [[Gold Coast (British colony)|Gold Coast]];"
* "the renouncing by Germany of her rights of extraterritoriality in [[Zanzibar]]."<ref name="Ryden" />

These treaty arrangements of the Tripartite Convention of 1899 stayed in place until the outbreak of [[World War I]] in 1914.

==Footnotes==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography and references==
* {{Cite book |last=Coates |first=Austin |author-link=Austin Coates |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wUBBJWJkIWgC |title=Western Pacific islands |date=1970 |publisher=[[H.M.S.O.]] |isbn=978-0-11-880428-8 |series=The Corona library |location=London}}
* {{Cite book |last=Gilson |first=Richard Phillip |title=Samoa 1830 to 1900: the politics of a multi-cultural community |date=1970 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-550301-2 |location=Melbourne, New York}}
* {{Cite book |last=Gray |first=J. A. C. |title=Amerika Samoa: A History of American Samoa and Its United States Naval Administration |date=1980 |publisher=[[Arno Press]] |isbn=978-0-405-13038-0 |series=Navies and men |location=New York}}
* {{Cite book |last=Ryden |first=George Herbert |title=The foreign policy of the United States in relation to Samoa |date=1975 |publisher=[[Octagon Books]] |isbn=978-0-374-97000-0 |location=New York}} (Reprinted by special arrangement with Yale University Press. Originally published at New Haven: Yale University Press. 1928.)
* {{Cite thesis |last=Towsend |first=Mary Evelyn |title=Origins of Modern German Colonialism, 1871–1885 |date=1921 |degree=PhD |publisher=[[Columbia University]] |url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/Origins_of_modern_German_colonialism%2C_1871-1885_%28IA_cu31924021061597%29.pdf |place=New York}}

==See also==
* [[Treaty of Cession of Tutuila]]
* [[Treaty of Cession of Manu'a]]
* [[Samoan unification]]

==External links==
* [http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/samoa-1899.htm Annexation of Samoa]
* [http://www.zum.de/whkmla/region/pacific/samoa183099.html WHKMLA: Samoa, 1830-1899]
* [https://archive.org/details/historyofsamoa00wats History of Samoa - R.M. Watson]

{{Samoa topics}}
{{US growth}}

[[Category:History of the Samoan Islands]]
[[Category:Boundary treaties]]
[[Category:1899 in Samoa]]
[[Category:1899 in American Samoa]]
[[Category:1899 in the German colonial empire]]
[[Category:German Samoa]]
[[Category:History of American Samoa]]
[[Category:Treaties of the German Empire]]
[[Category:Treaties of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Treaties of the United States]]
[[Category:Treaties concluded in 1899]]
[[Category:Treaties entered into force in 1900]]
[[Category:1899 establishments in Oceania]]
[[Category:1914 disestablishments in Oceania]]
[[Category:British colonisation of Oceania]]
[[Category:German colonisation in Oceania]]
[[Category:History of United States expansionism]]
[[Category:American Samoa–Samoa border]]
[[Category:Germany–United States relations]]
[[Category:Germany–United Kingdom relations]]
[[Category:December 1899]]