The Samoan Islands lie in the central South Pacific. The islands were first settled by Polynesians about 1000 BCE. 

The first European to encounter the islands was the Dutch navigator Jacob Roggeveen who sighted Samoa in 1722. 

In 1878 the United States signed a treaty for the establishment of a naval station in Pago Pago Harbor. An 1899 agreement between colonial powers divided Samoa into spheres of influence: Germany gained control of the western islands, and the United States took the eastern islands. 

The Treaty of Cession of Tutuila was signed on April 17th 1900, in the Gagamoe area in Pago Pago.  

The treaty, also known as the Deed of Cession of Tutuila, was a treaty between several chiefs of the island of Tutuila and the United States whereby the chiefs swore allegiance to and ceded the island of Tutuila to, the United States, which now forms part of American Samoa.  The first American flag was raised later that same day on Sogelau Hill in Fagatogo. 

By 1904 the eastern islands had all been ceded to the United States, although the U.S. Congress did not formally accept the deeds of cession until February 20th 1929.