Q 01/05

What are Samoa's two main islands?

A) Tutuila and Manu'a

B) Savai'i and Upolu

C) Manono and Apolima

D) Upolu and Tutuila

Answer · why

B) Savai'i and Upolu

Together they hold 99 percent of the land; Manono and Apolima are the two smaller inhabited islands and Tutuila belongs to American Samoa.

Q 02/05

What is the capital of Samoa?

A) Pago Pago

B) Apia

C) Salelologa

D) Mulifanua

Answer · why

B) Apia

It sits on Upolu, home to nearly three-quarters of the population; Pago Pago is the capital of American Samoa.

Q 03/05

Which people discovered and settled the Samoan Islands about 3,500 years ago?

A) The Maori

B) The Lapita

C) The Melanesians of Fiji

D) The Tongans

Answer · why

B) The Lapita

Their earliest remains were found at Mulifanua on Upolu; their pottery trail runs across the western Pacific.

Q 04/05

Early European explorers called the Samoan archipelago what, in tribute to local seafaring skill?

A) The Friendly Islands

B) The Navigator Islands

C) The Sandwich Islands

D) The Society Islands

Answer · why

B) The Navigator Islands

Bougainville coined it in 1768; the Dutchman Jacob Roggeveen had been the first outsider to sight the islands in 1722.

Q 05/05

A storm on 15 March 1889 ended a stand-off in Apia harbour between which three navies?

A) France, Britain and Spain

B) Germany, Britain and the United States

C) Germany, Japan and the United States

D) Britain, France and Germany

Answer · why

B) Germany, Britain and the United States

The hurricane wrecked or damaged the fleets and postponed the carve-up; the Tripartite Convention followed in 1899.