Anthony W. Gardiner

Anthony W. Gardiner

Anthony William Gardiner (born February 3, 1820 in Virginia , † February 12, 1885 ) was the ninth President of Liberia from 1878 to 1883 .

Political career

Gardiner was born in the US state of Virginia and grew up there in Southampton . In 1831 his family emigrated to Liberia, which had been founded a few years earlier, with the help of the American Colonization Society . Gardiner received a legal education and in 1847 was a delegate to the convention that drafted the constitution of the Republic of Liberia. He became the country's first attorney general and was a member of parliament from 1855 to 1871.

In 1871, after the fall of President Edward J. Roye, he was vice president and twice re-elected. During the incapacity of the sick President Joseph J. Roberts , he held de facto the presidency in 1875 and 1876.

president

Two years after leaving office, he won the presidential election and took office on January 7, 1878. At the same time, his party, the True Whig Party , won an overwhelming victory. Gardiner was the third president of the party, and until the overthrow and assassination of William Tolbert in 1980, the party provided all presidents. Gardiner was re-elected twice for two years each. He advocated the expansion of trade and investment by foreign companies, as well as an improvement in the education system. He also tried to achieve a better relationship with the tribes in the hinterland, who had little contact with the Liberian state.

His term of office was overshadowed by the expansion of colonial possessions by European powers during the " Race for Africa ", which began increasingly in the early 1880s. The Gallinas Territory between the Sewa and Mano rivers was claimed by Great Britain . In addition, Liberia was confronted with gunboat policy by the British and the German Empire during Gardiner's tenure . The British made clear their territorial claims with the deployment of a fleet in front of Monrovia, and a German battleship forced the Liberian government to pay compensation for the looting of a stranded German ship on a stretch of coast inhabited by the Kru with the cannonade of a village and its appearance in front of Monrovia . The helpless and sick president resigned and on January 20, 1883 handed over the business to his vice-president Alfred F. Russell . Two months later, the disputed Gallinas Territory was formally annexed by the British and assigned to their colony of Sierra Leone .

Web links

• Kurzbiografie (English)