Episode 2 of 5
Declaration as King
- When
- 31 December 1898
- Where
- Samoa
Tanumafili I was declared King of Samoa on 31 December 1898, following an earlier declaration by William Lea Chambers in 1898.
When his father died in 1898, Tanumafili was declared "King of Samoa" (Tafaʻifa) by William Lea Chambers and recognised by Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. After British and American forces defeated Mata'afa Iosefo, Tanumafili I was declared King of Samoa on 31 December 1898. Most Samoans, including leading orator bodies, attested to the invalidity of his claims.
Sources
- Malietoa Tanumafili I Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-22
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.