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At the Tripartite Convention of 1899, in Washington, D.C., the three parties ratified and signed an agreement partitioning the Samoan Islands into two parts. The islands of Western Samoa went to Germany and the islands of Eastern Samoa went to the United States. The British ceded their rights to Western Samoa, in exchange for Tonga and some German territories in the Solomon Islands and in West Africa. The government of German Samoa, beginning in 1900, was administered by German New Guinea.

After World War I and the Treaty of Versailles, German Samoa or Western Samoa became a territory of New Zealand. The Eastern Islands became known as American Samoa. Today, American Samoa and Western Samoa are a re-unified, self-governing republic.