First Battle of Vailele

Overview

The Second Battle of Vailele was fought during the Second Samoan Civil War in 1899. British, American and Samoan forces loyal to Prince Tanu were defeated by a superior force of Samoan rebels loyal to Mata'afa Iosefo. Fighting occurred at the former German plantation of Vailele, Samoa and was a major engagement in the small colonial conflict.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The First Battle of Vailele involved an ambush at the German plantation of Vailele in which sixteen German marines were killed by forces loyal to Mata'afa Iosefo. The overview supplied describes an event dated to December 1888 and associated with the First Samoan Civil War, which conflicts with the structured facts attributing this entry to the Second Samoan Civil War of 1898–1899. Given these contradictions in the source material, no reliable significance assessment can be constructed beyond what the overview directly states: the engagement resulted in the death of sixteen German marines at the hands of Mata'afa's forces during fighting in Samoa.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (3)