The Samoan Islands are an archipelago covering 3,030 km2 (1,170 sq mi) in the central South Pacific, forming part of Polynesia and the wider region of Oceania.

The oldest date so far from prehistoric remains in the Samoan Islands has been calculated from archaeology in Samoa to a likely true age of c. 1050 BCE from a Lapita site at Mulifanua wharf on Upolu island.In 1768, the eastern islands are visited by French explorer Bougainville, who names them the Navigator Islands, a name used by missionaries until about 1845 and in official European dispatches until about 1870.