An 1888 treaty established an Anglo-US-German tripartite protectorate of Samoa, and when King Malietoa Laupepa died in 1898, a contest over the succession ensued. The German candidate, Mataafa, was strongly opposed by the Americans and the British, and civil war began. Salisbury rejected a German suggestion that they ask the US to withdraw from Samoa. Meanwhile, Chamberlain, smarting from the dismissal of his alliance proposal with Germany, refused the suggestion that Britain withdraw from Samoa in return for compensation elsewhere, remarking dismissively to Eckardstein "Last year we offered you everything. Now it is too late." Official and public German opinion was incensed by Britain's bullishness, and Chamberlain worked hard to improve Anglo-German relations by facilitating a visit to Britain by Kaiser Wilhelm II. Salisbury's decision to attend to his sick wife allowed Chamberlain to assume control of British policy in July 1899. In November, an agreement was made with the Germans about Samoa in which Britain agreed to withdraw in return for Tonga and the Solomon Islands, and the ending of German claims to British territory in West Africa.