History of Liberia

The history of Liberia is the history of the modern state of Liberia , the previous US colonization of this area and the pre-colonial history of the peoples on the territory of the present state.

Liberia around 1830

Prehistory and early history

A systematic nationwide study of the prehistory and early history of Liberia was not started until the 1970s. This research campaign, which lasted barely ten years, provided important statements and evidence for the settlement history of the country.

The earliest settlement of today's territory of Liberia began in the late Neolithic coming from the north. The immigrating groups initially used the savanna-like landscape in the Nimba region as a hunting ground. An advance to the coast of the Atlantic took place along the rivers, these offered the people food and orientation. Characteristic stone chips and tool remains of these first settlers, who led the lives of hunters , were found preferentially on gravel surfaces on the banks of the larger rivers .

“ Because of the necessary mobility, hunters and gatherers lived in groups of 50 to 100 people; several such groups formed a unit through the common language and common ancestors, which was referred to as the “tribe”. ... Because of the necessary mobility, possession or property was limited to an absolute minimum, to what could be carried on the back. Property relationships therefore played no differentiating role in the life of this society and its social structure. The group's life was usually organized by older men or women skilled in hunting or gathering. ... In addition, they had ritual functions through which the community could come into contact with ancestors and gods. Larger disputes were settled through community intervention in order to get every employable member for the survival of the group. "

Travel accounts by ancient authors known as Periplus report on the expeditions of Sataspes and Hannos . They are now considered to be credible evidence of the first scheduled exploratory trips along the African coasts to the Gulf of Guinea and complement the research trips into the interior of the continent that had already been commissioned by the Egyptian pharaohs .

Origin of the indigenous peoples of Liberia

Location and extent of West African empires

Map of Mauritania and the Guinea Coast (1561)

The settlement history of Liberia is part of the West African migration process. The current population of Liberia is made up of the following ethnic groups:

• The "indigenous people": Gola and Kumba
• Peoples who from the 6th millennium BC Arrived: Kpelle , Loma, Gbande (Gbandi), Mende, Man - the beginning of this migration is seen as the beginning of the Sahara (see: History of the Sahara )
• Peoples who arrived at about the same time as the first Europeans from neighboring areas to the east of today's Liberia: Kru (Tajuasohn), Dei, Grebo, Bassa, Mamba
• Muslim peoples as immigrants who arrived from neighboring areas in the north: Mandingo, Vai

The empires on the Niger that arose in West Africa had been involved in fierce battles among one another since the 13th century, which triggered frequent flows of refugees, with the tropical rainforest areas adjacent to the south also serving as a retreat. As the fighting increased, groups of these refugees apparently remained behind in the rainforest and separated themselves from their previous tribal communities and their enemies, while preserving remnants of their language, rites and customs.

The culture and religion of this population was already based on the existence of a supreme being. In this worldview, the spirits of the ancestors were in direct contact with the almighty gods, which is why the ancestor cult and magical customs for conjuring up spirits took a central place in culture.

The social structure in the northern, savanna-like areas and in the highlands was based on agriculture. Knowledge of the production and processing of iron already existed before the arrival of the Europeans. Gold and iron were used as raw materials for jewelry and cult objects as well as weapons and tools, but iron was also used as a commodity and currency. Even before the arrival of the Europeans, there were trade routes and a continuous circulation of goods with the neighboring Niger cultures to the north.

Within society, the respective peoples had developed a hierarchical system with a leader as the political head. The polygamy was a legitimate right of the "kings" and was later practiced by subordinate leaders (Krieger, village chiefs). The medicine man, also a magician and magical healer, had the greatest respect. The society also had a population group that had received a special social status as "slaves". The respective individuals had a duty of service and obedience imposed in their social environment.

Contact with the European explorers and traders

In 1461 the first Portuguese ships anchored on the coast of Liberia. Without being able to penetrate into the hinterland, the Europeans were interested in a lively bartering with the coastal inhabitants. The first commodities to be shipped to Europe were ivory , exotic animals and plants. The coastal area of present-day Liberia was named Pepper Coast after the present there and the Europeans as a substitute for the expensive pepper from India coveted Guinea pepper . Meanwhile the Portuguese had discovered the sea route to India and the Spice Islands of the Moluccas ; the African pepper lost some of its value, but was still in demand by competing European trading companies. The first Portuguese missionaries arrived on the coast at the beginning of the 16th century, but their work remained fruitless, as many fell ill and died after a short time from malaria or yellow fever - the contemporary name for malaria .

Detail of a colorful Portuguese map of Africa from 1502.

The Dutch began to be active in West Africa from 1590, one of the first descriptions of the interior of Sierra Leone and Liberia is the travelogue of a daring Dutch merchant from 1630, which was used in the geographer Olfert Dapper 's description of Africa from 1668. With the Spaniards, Portuguese and Dutch, the first German adventurers came to this part of Africa: Wilhelm Johann Müller published his travelogue in Nuremberg in 1675: "The landscape of Fetu located on the Guinean Gold-Cust". At that time, the Gold Coast - today's neighboring Ghana  - attracted countless European adventurers. Along the coast, numerous bases arose in suitable places , which developed into bases for the soon-to-be-started slave trade. The foundation of the bases was not aimed at the colonization of larger areas of land, but served as safe havens and supply bases. The seafarers brought a number of new crops to Africa, for example the Portuguese from their Asian bases oranges , lemons and lime trees , ginger , new rice varieties and sugar cane . They imported corn , tobacco , pineapples , sweet potatoes , tomatoes and many other plants from America in order to test new cultivation locations. In this way, the Africans profited considerably from the incipient globalization.

Sugar cane and the Atlantic slave trade

After the experimental introduction of sugar cane by Christopher Columbus on the island of Hispaniola , the island world of the Caribbean developed into the main growing region for sugar cane in the 16th century.

Since the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean were not able to cope with this colonial enslavement and died by the thousands due to diseases and riots, the imminent collapse of this flourishing sugar industry threatened. Then the Atlantic slave trade developed , in which all European states operating in West African waters took part.

Percentage of exports in the Atlantic slave trade
region	17th century	18th century
Senegambia	4.70	5.13
Sierra Leone	0.39	3.62
Pepper coast	0.05	2.35
Gold coast	6.69	14.31
Bay of Benin	17.02	20.17
Biafra Bay	9.63	14.97
West Central Africa	60.59	38.41
Southeast Africa	0.93	1.05

Tensions and rivalries between the African peoples were cleverly exploited to get the slave trade going. Africans procured the supplies in order to profit from the trade themselves. The coastal area of ​​Liberia was also included in the slave trade, namely the Mandingo were sent by the Spaniards as slave hunters into the hinterland until the beginning of the 19th century. Trade Town, east of Monrovia, was one of the flourishing trading centers .

In the entire 17th century, the share of the pepper coast (Liberia) was only 0.05 percent of the trade volume, which corresponded to a number of about 800 slaves shipped. In the first quarter of the 18th century the slave trade increased, 4,200 slaves were shipped, in the second quarter 14,300 slaves were shipped, in the third quarter, the heyday of the slave trade, there were even 105,100 slaves, in the last quarter of the 18th century the slaves fell Number already clearly to 19,500 slaves.

see also: Atlantic slave trade , Bartolomé de Las Casas - Chronzeug für the conditions on Hispaniola

Consequences of the revolutions in France and Haiti

General Louverture, son of a slave from Benin

The events of the French Revolution of 1789 continued in the colonial areas of France. The events known as the Haitian Revolution were probably the turning point in the previously flourishing European-American slave trade.

There were frequent slave revolts even before 1790, but they were always put down. The uprising of African slaves in Haiti, led by François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture , son of an African kidnapped from what is now Benin , was successful, however. The armed fighting dragged on during Napoleon's reign and ended on January 1, 1804 with the proclamation of Saint Domingues' independence from France; this made Haiti the first free Latin American state.

The British had also profited from the slave trade in neighboring Jamaica on a large scale, and they also operated coffee, tobacco and cotton plantations in North America and thus brought about the expansion of the slave trade. From 1600 to 1800 the English arranged for nearly 1.7 million people to be imported into their West Indian possessions as slaves. They could have restored order by intervening in the fighting in Haiti, but the British government abstained from this option.

The USA in the struggle with the barbarian states

Since 1795, the ships of the United States' merchant fleet in the Mediterranean have been plagued by pirate raids from the Berber states on what is now the Libyan , Tunisian and Algerian coasts. The hijacked ships were plundered or withheld as a pledge for ransom, and the ship's crews were threatened with slavery in the North African hinterland. These events sparked the first naval war since independence, which the US Navy, which had just been commissioned, had to fight far from home. After diplomatic negotiations by Thomas Jefferson were unsuccessful, the use of the Navy in the American-Tripolitan War and in the Second Barbarian War that followed a few years later succeeded in capturing most of the ships of the North African pirates and slave traders. The humiliation and shock of the initially horrific ransom demands had sensitized the American public to a great extent, and rigorous action by the Navy against pirates and slave ships was legitimized by these events off the West African coast in the decades that followed.

Beginning of the fight against the Atlantic slave trade

Various reasons are given which led to a change of attitude in French and British society and also in the United States to the abandonment of the slave trade and finally to the military fight against the slave traders. Three points are given as the main reasons for this: humanism had questioned the moral justification of slavery in society, and the European churches of all denominations opposed slavery in the same way. Ultimately, however, the economic aspect was decisive: by refraining from slavery, the British and French no longer tainted their colonial goods with this stigma of origin; at the same time, they could damage their Portuguese and Spanish competitors enormously economically by preventing the supply of work slaves. In the United States there was an additional aspect to the fear of slave revolts, since, as in Haiti, the southern states were already outnumbered, many citizens of the American southern states agreed to the repatriation of slaves to Africa.

First attempts to curb the slave trade in West Africa began in Great Britain in the second half of the 18th century. The case of the escaped slave James Somerset in 1771 brought the highest court confirmation that the institution of slavery was neither morally nor politically justifiable and could never be allowed by law.

Liberated slaves were settled for the first time under the protection of the British fortress on Bunce Island (Sierra Leone).
The first American emigrants also landed here.

The British philanthropic organization The Black Poor Society around Granville Sharp began helping black Africans, neglected in Great Britain, to return to their homeland. In 1787, shortly after the American Revolutionary War, The Black Poor Society acquired a piece of land on the Sierra Leone coast to use to settle former slaves who had fought on the British side during the American Revolutionary War of 1776. As early as 1787 a group of 380 free British blacks was settled on the peninsula, which was protected by a British fortress. When the majority of them fell ill with malaria and yellow fever within a very short period of time , the experiment to establish a colony as a base for the British merchant navy was initially abandoned. With the later capital Freetown , a permanent base to fight the slave trade was created.

Before the legal abolition of the slave trade by Denmark (1802) and Great Britain (1807), the European bases in West Africa were almost exclusively engaged in the slave trade; Gold, ivory, leather and hides were only occasionally shipped as goods. This led to bottlenecks in the manufacturers of luxury goods and handicrafts in various European countries. The British advancing inland on the Gambia River and the Niger recognized the real opportunities of trade in Africa, because as an industrialized nation they needed reliable raw material sources and sales markets. With Libreville , in today's Gabon , the French created another base in the fight against the Atlantic slave trade. It was the French government official Victor Schœlcher who, after a business trip to the French Caribbean colonies, was able to enforce the relevant bill in 1833.

American Colonization Society

The US Congress passed in 1816 a charter for the American Colonization Society (American Colonization Society) that the "feedback" from the slavery of freed Black devoted to Africa. The first President of the American Colonization Society was the future US President James Monroe of Virginia .

Fiasco on Sherbro Island

The privateer Paul Cuffee brought the first 38 freedmen to Sierra Leone in 1816.

Agents of the ACS Governors of Liberia
Eli Ayres	1822
Frederick James	1822
Eliah Johnson	1822
Jehudi Ashmun	1822
Lott Carey	1828
Richard Randall	1828
William Mechlin	1829
John B. Pinneg	1834
Ezekiel Skinner	1835
AD Williams	1836
Thomas Buchanan	1839
Joseph J. Roberts	1841

After the events in Haiti, Paul Cuffee (1759-1817), a Quaker and successful ship owner, turned to the British government with a request to bring a first group of 38 freed slaves to the west coast of Africa at their own expense. The request was complied with and in 1815 he sailed with the first people willing to return to Sierra Leone; only eight had been able to pay for the passage themselves. On February 3, 1816, Cuffee landed on the coast at Bunce Island and handed the emigrants over to the British Governor . They were settled on Sherbro Island off the coast of Sierra Leone .

Paul Cuffee had reached a large audience with his commitment and helped organizations like the American Colonization Society to gain greater popularity. Spurred on by these events, the ACS sent its senior staff Samuel John Mills and Ebenezer Burgess to London in 1818 to ask for approval for further transports, which was also granted. The two immediately traveled to Sierra Leone and investigated the situation on site. They met the British John Kizzle on Sherbro Island, who offered them all support. Samuel J. Mills died on the way home, but Ebenezer Burgess was able to convince the ACS leadership and government officials that the repatriation to Sierra Leone could begin. After a meeting in the Congress on March 3, 1819, the departure of a first contingent was discussed.

In February 1820 Reverend Samuel Bacon and the first 88 emigrants sailed on the ship Elisabeth for Sierra Leone. As assistants to the ACS, Samuel A. Crozer, a doctor, and John B. Banksohn also traveled to Sherbro Island, where the first Campelar settlement was to be built.

No sooner had the first settlers arrived on Sherbro Island than the problems began. The majority of the emigrants immediately fell ill with mala fever . Bacon, the head of the team, took part in the first meetings on the coast with the indigenous people, but he and 20 emigrants died in the makeshift camp. At the beginning of 1821, the first ACS supply ship arrived, bringing more employees, supplies and building materials. Two employees of this second team died of malaria after a short time, a third remained missing. The ship Alligator , commanded by Captain Robert F. Stockton , arrived with other migrants. Stockton immediately recognized the seriousness of the situation and began looking for alternative settlement locations. One such was found at Cape Mesurado , where the local tribal king Peter was extorted with gifts and military threats for the building of a settlement. On December 15, 1821, Stockton bought a strip of land south of the British colony of Sierra Leone as the highest-ranking agent of the American Colonization Society in order to realize the statutory goals. The first settlement was established there in 1822; it was initially called Christopolis , but two years later it was renamed Monrovia .

Jehudi Ashmun

One of the "founding fathers" of Liberia was Jehudi Ashmun (1794–1828), a young teacher who, as a child, dreamed of going to Africa as a missionary . In order to receive further donations and advertising for the American Colonization Society, Ashmun decided in July 1820 to publish a magazine, The African Intelligencer , and turned this proposal to the board of the ACS. The magazine appeared, but the first edition fell far short of expectations.

For Ashmun, this involuntary failure triggered his move to Africa in 1822, where he worked for almost six years as a construction worker, at times also as "Governor of Liberia" and as a manager of the ACS until his untimely death in 1828. In 1825 and 1826 he annexed and bought tribal land along the coast and major rivers in the country. Ashmun took over the office of the energetic and often illegal methods Robert Stockton in Monrovia .

Ashmun's wife died on December 15, 1822 in Monrovia, a severe blow of fate for him. Three years later, his relationship with the ACS was apparently so strained that he accepted a resignation and left for the Cape Verde Islands in frustration . There he met Reverend RR Gurley, an ACS inspector, in July 1824. Gurley saw the reasons for Ashmun's frustration and was able to persuade him to return to Monrovia; he was also enthusiastic about Ashmun's previous successes. He promised Ashmun even greater support from the ACS. Until 1826, Ashmun was able to enjoy the previously missed fruits of his labor. Ashmun was injured in an attack on the slave base Trade Point ; he returned to the United States in 1828 and died on August 25, 1828 in New Haven (Connecticut) .

Liberia in the 19th century

Liberia's population development (1820 to 1843)

Map of the region from 1830 with names Liberia and Monrovia

First years of the colony

On December 11, 1821, Captain Stockton had negotiated a contract with King Peter and five other chiefs for the transfer of ownership of the coastal strip at Cape Mesurado and thus prepared the foundation of Liberia.

John S. Hill, a friend of King Peter, helped the settlers. Already at the beginning of January 1822 everyone noticed a deterioration in the mood among the locals and King Peter sent an envoy who ultimately asked the settlers to leave the area again. On Hill's advice, the settlers initially settled on Perseverance Island in the Mesurado estuary and set up camp, as there was direct contact from there to the sea. In mid-February 1822, within sight of the camp, a ship captured by the slave hunters and now sailing under British command with 30 freed slaves on board ran aground on its way to Sierra Leone. When the settlers rushed to the aid of the stranded, King Peter foamed with anger: according to African custom he felt himself to be the new owner of the shipwreck and the cargo. The settlers were now openly threatened by the locals. Hostilities increased every day. It was decided on August 18, 1822 to fortify the settlement that was still under construction on Cape Mesurado. A Martello tower , a massive watchtower with a picket fence, was erected immediately and all settlers capable of military service were assigned to guard duty. In early November 1822, the locals began to encircle the camp. Soon some children were missing. They had been kidnapped at the edge of the forest, but came back unharmed after a few months as a gesture of reconciliation. The first bloody attack took place on November 11, 1822, and a gunner was killed in the process. On December 1, a female settler, Mathilda Newport, rescued the settlers by firing a warning shot in time. However, several settlers were also killed in the fighting at dusk; many were wounded and could not work for days. By chance the British warship Prince Regent, located near the coast, became aware of the fighting. On the morning of December 2, it ran into the bay and fired a few warning shots into the air, then the commander of the citizen militia was given “loan” twelve marines to guard. The British guarded the camp until the arrival of the American warship Cyane in March 1823, thus temporarily averting the danger of attacks on the settlers, but almost all rescuers paid for this mission with their lives, they died of malaria in Monrovia.

More settlers and supply ships arrived and the construction of the Christopolis settlement showed its first successes. On February 20, 1824, the settlers received a letter from General Harper from the ACS. He informed the settlers that it had been decided to rename the settlement Monrovia and to name the area of ​​the colony with the name Liberia .

Since the bay of Monrovia was called almost daily by war and merchant ships from all over the world to replenish drinking water and supplies, the people around King Peter realized that they had to make peace with the settlers in Monrovia. The time of the lucrative slave trade came to an end. Until 1842, more land on the coast was purchased by the ACS and other companies. About 50 settlements as well as farms and mission stations in the hinterland were established by 1900. The fact that all horses and donkeys imported to Liberia died after just a few weeks, as they fell victim to the tropical climate and diseases such as sleeping sickness transmitted by the tsetse fly , proved to have serious consequences . Also because of the malaria and the tropical climate, about 5 to 15 percent of the emigrants left the area of ​​Liberia every year to work as seafarers or to find their happiness in other parts of the world. Joseph Jenkins Roberts became the first black governor for the company's land in 1842 . He enlarged the property and in 1845 saw to it that this territory was given a constitution based on that of the USA.

More colonies emerge

Map of Liberia, in red: the American-Liberian coastal region (around 1900)

Harper, capital of the Colonie Maryland on Cape Palmas

The previous state territory of Liberia initially only included the region known today as Mesurado County and a few stretches of coast up to Sherbro Island. At the instigation of several US states, further colony foundations were prepared and carried out along the West African coast.

• The colony of New Georgia was founded in 1824 . Since 1834 James Battan served as "Super Intendent" and chief administrative officer of the colony. The population was made up almost entirely of slaves freed by the US Navy. The place Congo Town - today a district of Monrovia in Montserrado County , was the capital of New Georgia. On April 1, 1839, the colony was united with Liberia.
• Bassa Cove Colony was prepared by a Quaker society from Pennsylvania and New York. In December 1832 it was officially established at Port Cresson in what is now County Grand Bassa. Its first governor was Edward Y. Hankinson, followed by Rufus Spalding and Israel W. Searle. Edward Y. Hankinson, re-elected in 1834, remained governor until the colony was dissolved in 1839. The settlers of Bassa Cove lived in constant threat from the native people of the country. In June 1835 the colony was badly devastated in a raid, leaving many dead and many injured. On April 1, 1839, Bassa Cove was accepted into the Commonwealth of Liberia.
• The establishment of the Edina colony in 1832 was prepared by another company from Pennsylvania and New York. The city of Edina came into being with the express consent of the influential Bassa King King Kadasie, who sought contact with the settlers and became known as Bob Gray . The sole governor of this colony was William L. Weaver. Already in 1837 the connection to the neighboring colony Bassa Cove was completed.
• The Mississippi in Africa colony was founded in 1835 by the Mississippi and Louisiana State Colonization Societies. This colony was in what is now County Sinoe and Greenville was the capital. The first governor was Josiah FC Finley, who died in office in 1838. His successor Thomas Buchanan joined the Commonwealth of Liberia in 1839.
• The Maryland Colony in Liberia was officially founded on February 12, 1834 in what is now County Maryland on Cape Palmas at the instigation of the Maryland State Colonization Society . It was the most developed colony and also gained state independence on May 29, 1854. On March 18, 1857 the independence was given up and the only president of this republic, Boston Jenkins Drayton completed the accession to the state of Liberia. This union was preceded by a civil war known as Kru-War , which the colonists would not have survived without the military support of the Liberians according to their own assessment.

As early as 1829, based on the ACS model, the " Indiana Colonization Society " was established. It too had the goal of creating a new home for the Afro-Americans. In this case, however, the Indiana Territory in the center of the North American continent was chosen because it was expected that the expensive repatriation to Africa would only be possible for a limited period of time and for a limited number of people. For this reason, today's US state of Indiana maintains particularly close relationships with Liberia.

Commonwealth of Liberia

In 1838 Liberia and Bassa Cove united to form the Commonwealth of Liberia . This territory now included the eight cities of Monrovia, New Georgia, Caldwell, Millsburg, Marshall, Bexley, Bassa Cove and Edina. According to statistics, there were already 2247 colonists in Liberia at that time. There were 20 churches and 10 schools, and the first four newspapers also appeared. This change resulted in the creation of a central administration based in Monrovia. Thomas Buchanan, a close relative of the 15th President of the United States, James Buchanan , was appointed governor, and the later first Liberian President Joseph Jenkins Roberts was appointed lieutenant governor. To support the reconstruction work, Buchanan received further economic aid and a larger delivery of weapons.

On the way to independence

Joseph Jenkins Roberts, Governor and first President of Liberia. Daguerreotype , taken between 1840 and 1850

Since the arrival of the first settlers with Paul Cuffee, there have been close ties to the neighboring port in Freetown. They saw themselves as allies in an often hostile environment and were dependent on each other. In the 1840s the relationship deteriorated. The main reason given by the two American colonies (Maryland and Commonwealth of Liberia) in 1842 was the customs duty of 6 percent on the value of goods. The French and British trading partners were annoyed and rejected this step as unlawful, since only sovereign states are allowed to levy taxes and customs duties under applicable international trade law. In response to some incidents in the port of Monrovia as a result of this idiosyncratic move, US diplomatic relations with Britain and France have been strained. The US government, however, had no interest in straining its relations because of the colony that was insignificant to it. Therefore, the granting of state independence was approved without major reservations. On July 26, 1847, Liberia's first congress declared the country's independence. Joseph Jenkins Roberts , the previous governor, was elected first president. Political power remained in the hands of the freed slaves who had immigrated from the USA, at the expense of the indigenous people, who later established a kind of “black” apartheid . It seems paradoxical that now Britain (1848) became the first state to affirm Liberia's diplomatic recognition.

The main problems of the new state were the development of the economy and the integration of the different population groups. Here, former plantation workers from the southern states of the USA, house servants, coachmen or skilled workers met each other; very few immigrants had an academic education, and accordingly the specialist knowledge of doctors, engineers, teachers and many other relevant professional groups was lacking.

A preprinted banknote (1862)

The income of the State of Liberia in 1857 was US $ 47,556, while expenditure was US $ 47,048. The trade in copra and palm oil , coffee , fruits and rice formed the basis of the self-generated income. As a subsidy, Liberia received 100 dollars from the USA for every slave freed; Young people up to the age of 16 were paid 50 dollars. In business dealings, especially with the natives, barter remained the dominant form of reward. Liberia's financial economy was based on gold reserves and stocks of goods that the state had deposited in a warehouse. The citizens who immigrated from the USA were only partially able to make a living and there was a relatively high level of unemployment in the capital Monrovia.

Internal colonization

The Cape Palmas Mission Station

At the time of the founding of the state, only the coastal part of Liberia was under the full control of the government. There was little contact with the peoples in the interior of the country, and so the people living there were not or only occasionally involved in the economic development of Liberia. It was missionaries and explorers who penetrated these remote regions of the country from 1840 and prepared the later inland colonization. These included the Ameriko-Liberians James L. Sims , George L. Seymour and Benjamin JK Anderson , who made several research trips inland between 1858 and 1874.

One of the basic principles of the American Colonization Society's land grab was not to remove the existing settlements and structures. Rather, the new settlements and farms were built in places that had been chosen with the bought approval of the respective "kings".

The Grebo people living in the east of Liberia were not prepared to tolerate foreign settlements and farms in their traditional territory. There were constant conflicts and armed clashes, also instigated by third parties. In 1856 these battles intensified into the Kru War. Parts of the Grebo and the Kru rose together to prevent the Liberians from advancing further. Stephen Allen Benson's entire presidency was marked by ongoing turmoil and conflict with the tribes inland. As early as 1857, the then independent Republic of Maryland decided to unite with Liberia because it could no longer withstand the growing pressure. Liberia's government was unable to maintain an armed force to secure the country; one always relied on the arms aid and support from the Americans and British. Therefore, the as yet undefeated tribal chiefs, also to demonstrate their own power, dared an uprising in the coastal region in 1864 and another uprising in Maryland County from 1875 to 1876. A Grebo raid on the provincial capital Harper took place in 1893. Tremendous foreign policy problems were also caused by the tradition, which the Kru continued to cultivate, of viewing ships stranded on the coast as their prey and of looting these shipwrecks and their crews.

First national bankruptcy

In 1870, the threat of national bankruptcy had turned into a general national crisis. The main reasons were: Much of the state's revenue was devoured by mismanagement and bureaucracy, commercial transactions often still had the character of barter, and the financial donations from the USA that had previously been made had declined sharply due to the civil war. It was still hoped that the successful wholesaler Edward J. Roye would be able to reform the financial system as the new president, but the measures taken did not improve the situation. The settlement of foreign debts and the payment of the excessive civil service could no longer be financed in the short term. President Roye, although not involved in this fatal development, was held responsible for all the country's problems and imprisoned; in a failed attempt to escape, he died a few days later.

First loss of territory

Loss of territory between 1890 and 1910

While the US was always ready to support the Liberians in their early conflicts in the 19th century, it abstained from intervening directly in territorial disputes with France and England. Both countries had vigorously developed their colonial claims in West Africa since the 1870s. Liberia was now in danger of becoming the prey of these states or at least having to give up parts of the state territory.

The western coastal area bordering Sierra Leone between the Mano River and the Sherbo River was annexed by an act of violence by the British colony of Sierra Leone in 1882. To this end, the British governor, Sir Arthur Havelock , appeared with four warships off the coast of Monrovia. The "Havelock-Blyden Treaty" dictated by Great Britain was prepared in order to give this border shift validity under constitutional law. Meanwhile France, Germany and Spain have signaled their support to the Liberian government and offered to protect Liberia's borders; To this end, Liberia should consent to a protectorate . However, thanks to the influence of the USA at the Berlin Congress of 1885, Liberian independence was preserved. However, the price was high: around 30 percent of the previous national territory was now annexed by France in two steps. This triggered another state crisis in Liberia. Up until now, it had been hoped that the US, as Liberia's guarantor power, would do more for the country, and secretly it was even hoped that the US would accept the accession negotiations offered by several Liberian presidents.

Economic system and social and political structures

Population structure

The population structure of Liberia around 1850 can be broken down into the following groups:

• The largest group in terms of numbers was the indigenous population in the interior of the country, who practiced traditional subsistence agriculture and found their ethnic-cultural identity in centuries-old traditions and traditional religions .
• A second indigenous group, relatively large in terms of population, were the ethnic groups who had converted to Islam and who had immigrated to the western and northern areas of Liberia since the 12th century. They connected their cultural and religious roots with the northern neighboring countries along the Niger .
• The third group of the indigenous population was made up of the peoples who settled along the coast. Their contact with the European (slave) traders and seafarers influenced these peoples, especially the Kru, for more than four centuries, and they benefited most from the slave trade.
• The fourth, numerically small group, were the freed slaves " repatriated " from North America who were resettled in Liberia with the support of the ACS and other organizations. They are referred to as the Americo-Africans and had a social background that was shaped by Christianity as well as western morals and values.
• The fifth group included the Africans who were brought to Liberia as a result of liberation campaigns. They are called Congos according to their origin and come mainly from Central Africa.
• The sixth group consisted of refugees and emigrants from the Caribbean, South America and neighboring African countries (Sierra Leone, Cape Verde), they are generally summarized as West Indian Negroes .
• The seventh group consisted of the North American and European missionaries, advisers, traders, technicians, other immigrants, and scientists.

Infrastructure

Regular ship connections from / to Liberia (around 1900)
Operating company	Country
Woermann shipping company	Germany
Elder Dempster & Co.	Great Britain
African Steamship Co.	Great Britain
British African Steam Navigation Co.	Great Britain
Spanish Trans Atlantic Co.	Spain
Fraissinet and Co.	France
Belgian Maritime Co. of Congo	Belgium

In the early days of the founding, the Liberian republic only had very little income from plantations, the sale of wood and raw materials and customs income. Due to the precarious financial situation, the development and expansion of the infrastructure outside the capital and the coastal region was not possible.

The structure of the state authorities and administrations was kept to a minimum. In the first few decades the government had only a vague knowledge of the topography of the interior; Expeditions to map the country, prospecting mineral resources and resources, ethnographic research and censuses were not carried out until very late in the 19th century, which is also the reason for the loss of a third of the national territory.

The Christian churches (Methodists, Baptists, Anglicans and Catholics) took over the construction of schools and hospitals and the proselytizing of the population.

The first modern communication medium in Liberia was the newspaper. The Liberian Herald was published in 1829 , The Liberian Star was founded in 1830, The Amulett in 1832 and The African Luminary in 1839 . It was not until 1880 that the press landscape began to be revitalized with the establishment of the Liberian Observer . Overall, however, the spread of the press was limited to the coastal region. A modern lighthouse, which was a gift from the Republic of France, was used to secure the coastal waters around Cape Palmas. A cannon cutter came from the British to serve as a coast guard boat.

Foreign investors

Foreign companies in Liberia (around 1910)
Operating company	Country	Branch
Woermann Factories & Trading Co	Germany	Palm oil, groceries
JW Werl	Germany	Groceries
CF Wilhelm Jantzen	Germany	Groceries
Victor & Huber	Germany	Groceries
Lib. Americ. Produce Co.	United States	Road construction
English-Lib. Rubber Co.	Great Britain	rubber
Lib.Trading Co.	Great Britain	Tropical wood
Lib. Developm. Co.	Great Britain	Mining (gold)
Wooden & Co	Great Britain	Groceries

Liberia's presidents were interested in economic cooperation with the European states, and several trips to Europe served this purpose.

The Hanseatic department and trading house Woermann was one of the first entrepreneurs to work in Liberia . This company was committed to trading with Australia and Southeast Asia and realized that some of the products, such as palm oil , could also be obtained from Liberia. In return, trading in textiles, spirits and consumer goods made an additional profit. The port of Monrovia could also be used as a hub for trade to South America and Inner Africa. At the turn of the century, a steamship from the Woermann shipping company arrived in Monrovia almost every day. The successes of woermannschen Faktorei in Monrovia encouraged more German and British trading houses, to be based in Liberia; the trade in palm oil, tropical timber and colonial goods became one of the country's main sources of income. From 1870 Liberia began to build its own merchant fleet. At the same time, some British adventurers coming from Sierra Leone came across gold and diamonds on the rivers in the west of the country.

Liberia in the 20th century

President Garretson W. Gibson was the first President of Liberia in the 20th century. His term of office was associated with the first granting of civil rights to the indigenous population of Liberia, but also serious unrest in the American-Liberian ruling class.

From 1878 to 1980 the True Whig Party alone wielded power, which was ruled by the American-Liberian elite.

Liberia's "Open Door Policy"

West Africa in the late 19th / early 20th century: Liberia's colonial territories France's colonial territories in Great Britain




In 1887 a British planter began a trial of rubber plantation with government permission. Since it would take years before this plantation would go over to rubber production, in 1889 three British entrepreneurs applied for their own concession for a rubber trading company which, as is common in Southeast Asia, would cultivate wild rubber trees in the rainforest. As part of the open door policy , both projects were approved and led to the establishment of the first coastal rubber companies.

The English-Liberian Rubber Company , founded in 1904, was regarded as the most important producer ; it created a nationwide syndicate of collecting stations (Boporo, on Mount Barclay, Kakatown, Sikombe, Putu and in Woffeke) which regularly supplied natural rubber with paid workers from the rainforest areas. The company, which is run with state participation, paid a contractually fixed share of the Liberian state budget and thus became a model for future business ventures in Liberia.

Since a direct annexation of Liberia by the British government had failed, also due to resistance from France and Germany, the British mining entrepreneurs who were particularly interested in Liberia's mineral resources tried a more subtle strategy. Liberia's national budget was still heavily burdened by high foreign debts; this debt burden should now be exploited for economic policy purposes.

In 1904, West African Gold Concessions, Ltd. applied for a concession for Liberian territory to systematically examine the country's rivers for gold. With the approval of President Arthur Barclay , this project was implemented and provided initial information on the distribution of deposits in the Liberian gold deposits. Colonel Powney , the major shareholder in this project, registered the mining company Liberian Development Chartered Company in the commercial register in 1906 and began planning the preparation of mining facilities and infrastructure in Maryland and Montserado Counties. To this end, he founded the Liberian Development Company as a third company , which was later also used in construction and in the construction of rubber plantations.

All ventures were agreed with the Liberian government in such a way that they favored British entrepreneurs with a most- favored -nation clause , while the construction work to be carried out by the British for this in the country - for example the construction of roads, rail lines and ports - was saddled to Liberia as an investment in infrastructure . Even the state's sovereignty was undermined, Liberia had to accept that the British were allowed to set up their own police and protection force for the mine area.

The country was systematically driven into national bankruptcy, as the corresponding follow-up loans from British banks had to be accepted on normally unreasonable conditions. They turned to the American government for help in order to escape the British stranglehold. A letter signed by all of Liberia's political leaders was initially not replied to from Washington because American interests at the time were concentrated in Central America ( Cuba ) and the Pacific ( Hawaii , Philippines and China ).

Liberia in World War I

Under pressure from the American and British governments, Liberia entered the First World War on the Allied side in 1917 . On May 5, 1917, diplomatic relations with the German Reich were broken off . Completely unexpectedly, a German submarine appeared off Monrovia on August 4, 1917 and fired some shells into the city. An open threat that Liberian President Daniel E. Howard did not take too seriously. According to the German army report, another German submarine appeared in the coastal waters off Monrovia in June 1918 and destroyed a French radio station and a Liberian military vehicle with on-board weapons. On the other hand, the blockade of the sea routes around France and England caused much greater economic damage, since Liberian cargo ships were now also affected.

The Pan-African Dream

After 1920 Liberia's American-Liberian elite was startled by the social utopias of Marcus Garvey , who, in view of the increasing racism in Liberia, Nigeria and South Africa, was campaigning for support for the repatriation of all African-Americans from the USA and who was already planning to set up the headquarters of his organization Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) relocated to Monrovia. From 1920 to 1922 UNIA activists promoted these goals at events and in newspaper articles and applied to the Liberian government to set up a UNIA model settlement near Monrovia. At the same time, Garvey founded the Black Star Line, financed by donations, and bought a passenger steamer to be able to carry out monthly transports of emigrants to Liberia and South Africa. The Liberian government was deeply alarmed by these plans, as it was secretly feared that the immigrants would overturn the existing political order in Liberia after just a few months, so the government refused to approve all UNIA projects and at the same time betrayed the " Founding Fathers “Liberia's specific goals.

National bankruptcy

In 1926 the US companies Firestone and Goodrich were given part of the state territory for rubber plantations for 99 years. The American industrial magnate Harvey Samuel Firestone founded the largest rubber plantation in the world in Liberia, near the towns of Harbel and Cavalla .

In order to meet the enormous demand for labor, the country's inhabitants were forced into labor. Plantation owners began to destroy villages and agricultural areas in order to force the inhabitants, who had become homeless and jobless, to the plantations. Firestone also influenced the financial market in Liberia; after the Great Depression, the Bank of Monrovia, the most financially strong financial institution in the Republic of Liberia, ousted the previously influential Bank of British West Africa , which also marked the end of the era of equal treatment for the British currency.

The Fernando Po scandal , in which the Liberian government surrendered its own citizens to slavery-like conditions, caused enormous foreign policy damage - evidence of the unscrupulous business practices of the Liberian upper class around President Charles DB King , who did not shy away from massive electoral fraud. After the international condemnation by the League of Nations , King's government resigned, followed by Edwin Barclay, the lawyer entrusted with uncovering the scandal, as the next president.

Liberia in World War II

President Edwin Barclay (right) and United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt , January 1943

In the 1930s, Liberia's military consisted of around 900 soldiers, members of the Liberian Frontier Force and a small garrison in the capital Monrovia, which was mainly occupied with military parades and police duties. In order to counteract the strong German economic interests ( rubber ), the US government signed a friendship, trade and shipping agreement with Liberia in 1938. As a result, the American airline PanAm took up scheduled flights from New York via Miami , Puerto Rico and Brazil in 1941 .

After the USA entered World War II , an additional defense agreement was concluded and from 1942 up to 5,000 American combat and support troops, mainly African-Americans , were stationed in Liberia. As a precautionary measure, these units received comprehensive tropical medical care, but 951 people infected with malaria were registered in the first four weeks .

On September 29, 1941, Liberia declared war on the Axis Powers , although the country could not play an active role in World War II. In 1942, Robertsfield International Airport was built with what was then the longest runway in Africa. Construction of the Monrovia free port began at the same time, but was not completed until 1947. The US dollar was also introduced as legal tender in 1942. In January 1943, Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first US president to visit the country.

From the German point of view, Liberia provided access to Africa's raw material sources. As early as 1937, the German international espionage and the NSDAP had a branch for West Africa in Monrovia, which was held by a Woermann employee, Hölscher . By order of the Liberian government, all Germans, mostly employees of the Woermann factories, had to leave the country or were interned.

Tubman era

Until 1965 Liberia consisted of 5 counties and 3 provinces with 10 districts.

The ore mill of the Liberia Mining Company (LMC) in the Bomi Hills, 1965

In 1944, William S. Tubman was elected President of Liberia. During his 27-year presidency, he developed into one of the most influential African presidents at the UN, the OAU and in the Western states. Tubman owes its success to Liberia's economic development: in 1950 rubber accounted for almost 90 percent of Liberia's total export volume, until the 1950s the undeveloped inland was only used as a supplier of labor and was administered as a "reserve". The "economic miracle" began under Tubman when rich ore and diamond deposits were discovered. The American company Lamco (Liberian American-Swedish Minerals Company) set up an iron ore smelter in the port of Buchanan and built a railway line up to the Nimba Mountains, where the ore was broken. In terms of foreign policy, Tubman was a reliable partner for the Africans in the process of decolonization, of which he wanted to be the leader (Monrovia Group). Together with the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie , Tubman made vigorous efforts in the early 1960s to outlaw the South African apartheid state internationally, which earned him great respect from many Africans. Internally he developed a system of surveillance and control, he used his PRO (Public Relations Officers) to be able to eliminate any political opponent in good time. Politically, he often ruled with a hard hand. Women's suffrage was introduced in 1946 , but the right to vote was generally linked to property ownership and taxability. Tubman rejected all advances by the Soviet Union ; he saw himself as a loyal friend and ally of the USA, which counter-financed his economic success with other projects ( Mount Coffee Dam and Buchanan Oreport). Liberia was also one of the first African states to maintain diplomatic relations with Israel . In the early 1960s, around 100 Israeli scientists and technicians worked in Liberia, providing scientific and technical support, for example in the construction of the Ducor Hotel and in the higher education of African students at the University of Liberia. In terms of foreign policy, Liberia came into conflict with the French colonial areas of Guinea and Ivory Coast due to the massive economic aid from the Americans. These states feared an increasing Americanization of society and boycotted economic offers - for example the connection of East Guinea to the Freeport Monrovia via a railway line.

For its part, the US uses Liberia as an important air and naval base. During the Cold War , the most powerful broadcasting station for Voice of America in Africa was built. The navigation facilities in the country controlled aircraft and ships in the Atlantic Ocean. In addition, the US secret service, the CIA , operated the largest eavesdropping post for West Africa in Liberia.

Tolbert era

President Tolbert and US President Jimmy Carter in Monrovia , 1978

In 1971 William R. Tolbert Jr. became Liberian President. Like his predecessor Tubman, he tried to socially integrate the African population in the hinterland. Tolbert also stepped up efforts to rapprochement with the United States, for example he used the visit of the charismatic Afro-American civil rights activist Jesse Jackson in late autumn 1972 and his state visit to President Richard Nixon the following year. However, the increase in the price of rice in 1979 sparked demonstrations and riots. Tubman's successor has come under massive pressure from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to modernize the already heavily indebted Liberian economy. Their experts had already disenchanted Liberia's “ economic miracle ” as “development without growth”. The Liberian National Bank was founded in 1974 and served as a clearinghouse to enable payment transactions in Liberian currency and settlement in US dollars.

First military coup in 1980

On April 12, 1980, Sergeant Major Samuel K. Doe took power after a military coup . President Tolbert and prominent members of his government, including Attorney General JAA Pierre , were murdered. The constitution was suspended, a state of emergency was imposed and political parties were banned. Doe was the first president who was not a member of the Ameriko-Liberians. The USA initially did not recognize the new regime. With the overthrow of President William R. Tolbert and the replacement of the previous one-party rule of the True Whig Party, the country was ruled for the first time by a member of one of the indigenous peoples of Liberia.

The previous close relationship with the United States was called into question by the coup. However, the US has been using important air and naval bases in Liberia since World War II. Also radio facilities for the Voice of America in Africa. The navigation facilities in the country controlled aircraft and ships in the Atlantic Ocean. In addition, the US secret service CIA in Liberia maintained the largest eavesdropping post for West Africa. Under US President Ronald Reagan , a rapprochement with the Doe regime was therefore carried out for strategic reasons, despite the prevailing violence and corruption by the new rulers. Liberia also received financial aid from the USA when Libyan and Soviet citizens had to leave the country in 1980/81.

The government reached an agreement with the IMF a little later, after a democratization process had been announced. Although this ended the American-Liberian domination, Doe copied their system of patronage . Immediately after the overthrow an ethnic allocation of leadership functions had not yet taken place, but in a relatively short time Doe preferred to bring members of his own ethnic group ( Krahn ) and the Mandigo into leadership positions. B. the Gio and Mano in Nimba County , were largely excluded. For example, on October 15, 1985, elections were held in which opposition parties were not admitted while the leader of the opposition was in prison. Doe won the election with 50.9% of the vote. Although the election fraud was evident, the then American Undersecretary for Africa, Chester Crocker, found that Liberia had a democratically elected government and "open discourse among all citizens".

There was already another attempted coup in November 1985. In retaliation, the army massacred Nimba County. On January 6, 1986, Samuel Doe was sworn in as President and Head of Government under a new constitution. In the following period, corruption and nepotism paralyzed the economy and trade. The US Congress suspended military aid to Liberia due to ongoing violations by the regime.

Liberia in the civil war

The First Liberian Civil War (1989–1996)

→ Main article : Liberian Civil War

In December 1989 the civil war broke out in Liberia. The National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) under Charles Taylor invaded Liberia from the Ivory Coast . The US did not respond to Samuel Doe's calls for intervention and only evacuated its own citizens from Liberia. In the following period, the West African reaction force ECOMOG, led by the armed forces of Nigeria, prevented Taylor from taking power. At the urging of Nigeria, ECOMOG consciously sought to keep Taylor out of power and thereby gave up its actually neutral position in this conflict.

In May 1990 the NPFL captured the cities in the hinterland. The attack on Monrovia followed in July. However, the rebel movement split; Prince Yormie Johnson founds the Independent National Front of Liberia (INPFL). On July 31, 200 people were killed by government soldiers on a Lutheran mission, and President Samuel Doe was murdered by INPFL on September 9, 1990. In November, a Provisional Government was formed under Amos Sawyer , a law professor at the University of Liberia. The followers of Does, mainly Krahn and Mandigo, founded the United Liberian Movement for Democracy in Liberia (ULIMO) and began the fight against the NPFL. The UN embargoed Liberia and food shortages developed.

By 1993 there were more than 150,000 victims of the civil war. About a million refugees were in the country or in neighboring countries, which was more than a third of the population of Liberia.

In March 1994, power was taken over by a council of state formed by the Sawyer group, the NPFL and the ULIMO. The State Council agreed on a new government in which the NPFL was not involved. Fighting between groups and with ECOWAS troops continued.

In August 1995, a first peace agreement was concluded in Abuja ( Nigeria ). Charles Taylor and his NPLF in Monrovia were now the deciding factor. In December a ceasefire was agreed between the seven rebel groups. In addition, the Council of State was expanded; Charles Taylor became a member. A new government was formed.

Second civil war

In April 1996 the civil war broke out again. There was particularly fierce fighting in the capital Monrovia and there were again major difficulties in the food and water supply. In August 1996, a new peace agreement was concluded, as was the first time in Abuja (Nigeria).

Phases of Democratization

Nigerian ECOMOG soldier in Liberia 1997

Ruth Perry became Chair of the State Council in September, making it the first woman in Africa to be President. Observers noted that Nigeria represented its own interests in the civil war through ECOWAS. Some European companies have also been accused of having supplied weapons in exchange for tropical wood and diamonds.

In January 1997 ECOMOG carried out disarmament and demobilization measures . 18% of the NPLF soldiers were children: 69% between 15 and 17 years old, 27% between 12 and 14 years old. On July 19, Charles Taylor won the election with 75.33% of the vote. The NPP (National Patriotic Party) won 49 out of 64 seats in the House of Representatives. Charles Taylor was sworn in as the new President of Liberia on August 2nd. A few days later, the 1986 constitution (changed in some points) was reinstated. A year later, on July 18, 1998, a three-week conference began with the aim of developing a plan for Liberia by 2024. Participants were Liberians living abroad, groups from Liberia and foreign partners.

On September 19, 1998, fighting broke out again between government soldiers from the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) and Roosevelt Johnson's fighters from the United Liberian Movement for Democracy in Liberia-Johnson (ULIMO-J) in Monrovia. Johnson sought refuge in the US embassy. Thereupon Taylor's soldiers besieged the embassy building. The majority of the state army consisted of former fighters from the NPFL. A total of 52 people died that day. Six days later, Johnson was flown to Sierra Leone from the United States.

The Catholic organization Justice and Peace (Justitia et Pax) advocated an independent investigation into the fighting in Monrovia in October and the organization Doctors Without Borders ( Medecins sans Frontières ) announced the closure of its main hospital in Monrovia, in agreement with the Ministry of Health.

Murders, violence and lawlessness in Monrovia increased in the months that followed. Archbishop Michael Francis of Monrovia lamented widespread injustice, murder and arbitrary arrests. On December 10, the former leader asked a rebel faction Prince Yormie Johnson ECOWAS to mediate between him and Charles Taylor. Meanwhile, the government denied that child soldiers would be trained in a barracks near Monrovia.

On January 15, 1999, Nigerian ECOWAS troops began their withdrawal from Liberia. A little later, refugees from Sierra Leone, which was also rioting, arrived in Liberia. In March, two Liberian human rights organizations stood on trial over allegations that four parts of the country were keeping children as slaves. On April 9, the government denied ECOMOG allegations that Liberia was supporting rebels in Sierra Leone. In January 1999 there had been similar accusations from Great Britain and the USA. At the African conference on child soldiers on April 22nd, Liberia was accused of recruiting child soldiers and using them in Sierra Leone. This accusation has been rejected by the Liberian government. The Catholic bishops called for a dialogue to solve the national problems. The UN welcomed the government's decision to destroy the weapons of the former rebel movements stored in the ECOMOG base. On June 9, Taylor announced July 26th as the date for the final withdrawal of ECOMOG.

In August, rebels briefly occupied some towns and villages in the north of the country and took hostages. The hostages (73 Liberians and 6 European aid workers) were released after a day or two. There were strong fears about the refugees from Sierra Leone in the north of the country who came between the lines of the rebels and government forces. The government has since announced that it is back in control. Liberia described reports from Guinea as nonsense that Liberian soldiers attacked three villages in southern Guinea and killed 28 people. On October 5th, the borders with Sierra Leone were reopened. The completion of the country's general disarmament was celebrated on October 18 with the symbolic destruction of weapons.

On November 19, General Kpenkpah Konah was appointed Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. In December, 1,600 refugees returned to Liberia from Ivory Coast. On February 11, 2000, the border with Guinea was reopened. In March it was publicly questioned whether the debt ($ 27 million) of former Taylor rebels should be counted as the state's external debt.

A little later, the police shut down the independent radio station Star Radio , which was operated by the Swiss NGO Fondation Hirondelle. A government communiqué justified this by pointing out that provocateurs were abusing the country's freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Even Radio Veritas was closed the same day. On March 21, all independent radio stations agreed to boycott all government events until further notice. The newspapers appeared with black front pages in protest over the weekend. Radio Veritas was re-licensed on March 22nd after talks.

With the issue of new banknotes on March 29, the Central Bank of Liberia ended two systems that had been in parallel for ten years.

Taylor's fall

In August 2003, the ongoing turmoil of the civil war led to the intervention of an African peacekeeping force. President Charles Taylor was forced to resign and went into exile in Nigeria. He was succeeded on August 11 by Vice President Moses Zeh Blah . After attempting to escape, Charles Taylor was arrested and transferred to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, where numerous witnesses accused himself and himself of cannibalism.

See also

• History of africa
• List of attacks on the President of Liberia

literature

• Monday B. Akpan: Le Libéria et l 'Ethiopie, 1880–1914: la survie de deux États africains . In: UNESCO (ed.): Histoire générale de l'Afrique . 1987, ISBN 978-92-3201713-0 , chap. 11 , p. 273-306 .
• Dirk van dem Boom: Civil War in Liberia. Chronology - protagonists forecast . In: Studies in Political Science. Dept. B, research reports and dissertations . tape 80 . Self-published, Münster a. Hamburg 1993, ISBN 3-89473-623-2 , p. 95 .
• Daniel Elwood Dunn, Svend E. Holsoe: Historical dictionary of Liberia . In: African historical dictionaries . tape 83 . Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, NJ 2001, ISBN 0-8108-1767-5 , pp. 436 .
• Alan Huffman: Mississippi in Africa . Gotham Books, New York 2004, ISBN 1-59240-044-2 , pp. 328 .
• Lester S. Hyman: United States policy towards Liberia, 1822 to 2003 . Africana Homestead Legacy Publ., Cherry Hill, NJ 2003, ISBN 0-9653308-8-5 , pp. 281 .
• Winston James: The struggles of John Brown Russwurm. The life and writings of a pan-Africanist pioneer, 1799-1851 . University Press, New York 2010, ISBN 0-8147-4289-0 , pp. 305 .
• Robert Kappel: Economy, Classes and State in Liberia. Development of social contradictions in peripheral capitalism during the 19th and 20th centuries . Haag & Herchen, Frankfurt am Main 1982, ISBN 3-88129-537-2 , pp. 369 .
• George Klay Kieh: The first Liberian civil war (1989-1996). The crises of underdevelopment . In: Society and politics in Africa . tape 17 . Lang, New York 2008, ISBN 978-0-8204-8839-4 , pp. 211 .
• Harold D. Nelson: Liberia, a country study . In: United States / Dep. of the Army (Ed.): Foreign Aerea Studies . tape 550 . US Government Print. Office, Washington DC 1985, pp. 350 .
• Jack Rummel: African-American social leaders and activists. A to Z of African Americans . Facts on File, New York 2003, ISBN 0-8160-4840-1 , pp. 246 .
• Heinrich Schröder: Responsibility under international law in connection with failed and failing states . In: International Law and Foreign Policy . tape 77 . Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden 2007, ISBN 978-3-8329-2586-4 , p. 278 .
• The State of Maryland .. (Ed.): Constitution and Laws of Maryland in Liberia . John D. Toy, Baltimore 1847, p. 212 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
• John Charles Yoder: Popular political culture, civil society, and state crisis in Liberia . In: African studies . tape 72 . Mellen, Lewiston NY 2003, ISBN 0-7734-6617-7 , pp. 382 .

Web links

Commons : History of Liberia  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• On the judicial processing of the civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone In: Telepolis
• Newspaper article about the Firestone concession in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Remarks

1. ↑ Prehistory and early history : Research into the prehistory and early history of Liberia was perceived as threatening by the country's educated elite, because the results could have undermined their claim to power. Under pressure from the USA, Liberia was systematically toured in the 1970s by a team of renowned US scientists: archaeologists, anthropologists, ethnologists and linguists from the University of Boston, under the direction of Africa expert W. Creithon Gabel .
2. ↑ Sugar cane plantation economy : Since the beginning of the 15th century, the Portuguese had been growing sugar cane with great profit in the Algarve , later also in the Azores , the Canaries , the Cape Verde Islands and Madeira . In 1460 the island of Madeira was briefly the largest producer of Has become sugar in the western world.
3. ↑ France's role : France's interest in the Caribbean sugar cane business was so great that in 1763 it gave up its territorial claims in Canada in order to obtain ownership rights to the islands of Guadeloupe , Martinique and St. Lucia from the British .
4. ↑ Saint-Domingue : Around 1789, around 600,000 people lived in the French colony of Saint-Domingue . The black slaves and their descendants already made up 90 percent of the island's population. Opposite them were only about 40,000 whites; they were the plantation owners, traders, bureaucrats, and the military.
5. ↑ British attitude : The American War of Independence had already led to the loss of the New England states in 1783 and Great Britain had also been at war with France since May 18, 1803.
6. ↑ Napoleon : In the French Revolution of 1789, the abolition of slavery in France had already been decided, but Napoleon reversed this decision because his wife Josephine, as the daughter of a plantation family on the island of Guadeloupe, could change his mind on this point.
7. ↑ Paul Cuffee : Another group of emigrants was to follow in 1816, but Cuffee died in 1817 after returning from Africa, and his project was not continued by the heirs. Cuffee, who was involved in shipbuilding projects, apparently planned to build a naval base or shipyard on the coast; He would have recruited the emigrants according to their technical aptitude.
8. ↑ Brigg Cyane : They were followed by the Brigg Cyane , a small and manoeuvrable warship of the US Navy, which was supposed to protect the settlement in Sierra Leone militarily and to raise the first slave ships off the coast.
9. ↑ Monrovia : Monrovia means: "Way of James Monroe" - the name arose out of political calculation , because the then US President James Monroe was to be courted with this gesture.
10. ↑ The African Intelligencer : The first thirty-two page issue contained flaming articles on the slave trade, information on African geography, a description of the Elizabeth (the ship that carried the first group of colonists to Liberia), and the ACS bylaws. Ashmun got approval to publish this issue, but it turned out to be an economic failure, annoyed with the loaned funds and the lack of public interest in the magazine, even senior ACS executives canceled their subscriptions after the first issue.
11. ↑ Ashmun's methods : Ashmun also often used violence and unfair means in his leadership work. He bought land from local kings for a ridiculous price of 500 bales of tobacco, three barrels of rum, five containers of gunpowder, five umbrellas, five iron rods and ten pairs of shoes. Later one puzzled over the naivety of the natives, while they only adhered to the usual tribal law, according to which the soil, water and air are not owned by the people at all.
12. ↑ Land purchase : The territory comprised the coastal strip at Cape Mesurado to the mouth of the Saint Paul, this river inland to a certain landmark and from there to another position on the coast, essentially the present-day urban area of ​​Monrovia with the suburbs of Paynesville and Congo Town.
13. ↑ Alias ​​names : The names mentioned here were used by the emigrants as aliases, as the real names of the respective people have not been passed down.
14. ↑ British guards : After the end of the coalition wars in Europe, the British government had enough warships available to control the sea routes to India, Canada and the Caribbean almost completely. The British press reported weekly battles with pirates and slave traders. Most of the warships cruised in the Caribbean, the Mediterranean and off the West African coast.
15. ↑ Diplomatic recognition of Liberia (1849) : The governments of Brazil, Haiti, Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Austria, Sardinia and the Free Hanseatic Cities of Lübeck, Hamburg and Bremen in Germany confirmed Liberia's independence and the establishment of diplomatic relations as early as 1849. France followed this example only in 1852, the USA as motherland finally in 1862.
16. ↑ Unemployment : Correspondingly, there are already clear indications and doubts in contemporary reports about Liberia that this newly founded state was founded on a solid economic foundation. The high death rate among immigrants, the constant financial problems and the integration of further freed African slaves made matters worse. Due to the radical provisions of the constitution, there was also no incentive for Europeans to (temporarily) take over the vacant positions in business and administration.
17. ↑ Relationship to the indigenous peoples : One of the main characteristics of the American-Liberian "upper class" was the all-embracing contempt and discrimination of the indigenous population. It was determined by a climate of hostility that persisted into the recent past. Typical behavior patterns: nudity is frowned upon; Americo-Liberians like to appear in tails and top hats at public events; the settler families avoid "mixed marriages"; there are significant differences in wages between the settlers and the rural population.
18. ↑ Ship looting : On March 8, 1881, the German corvette SMS Victoria , with the approval of the Liberian government, forced the residents of the village of Nana Kru to pay compensation for the looting of the stranded German steamer Carlos . The commander of the Victoria also threatened to bombard the capital Monrovia in the event of further incidents.
19. ↑ National bankruptcy : A later evaluation of business and customs documents showed that large amounts of goods were imported for which the country itself could have paid. For example, rice from Asia, stockfish from Norway and even table salt were imported in large quantities. A lot of money also had to be paid for arming the citizens' militia and for compensation from foreign shipping companies .
20. ↑ Financial situation : An example clarifies the situation: The government of Great Britain gave Liberia two older steamships around 1860 so that the country could develop its own share in international trade. But since there was no coal in Liberia to operate the steam boiler, this development aid was unsuccessful. A ship reached Cape Verde, then the coal supply was exhausted and the merchandise carried was confiscated to pay the port fees. The second ship sank in Monrovia's coastal waters, because the necessary maintenance work could not be paid for, and the hull rusted through.
21. ↑ Gold rush : Gold has been found in the rivers of West Africa for centuries. These gold deposits have been in Sierra Leone and Guinea since the end of the 19th century by the "West African Gold Concessions Ltd." developed and exploited. With targeted announcements, the company had triggered a kind of gold rush in Liberia's wealthy upper class , but had to backtrack, which triggered the first investor bankruptcy in 1901, which deprived many state officials and Liberian speculators of their hoped for profits. There was tumult and ongoing unrest in the capital Monrovia, as the government was also blamed for the fiasco .
22. ↑ Rubber plantations : On a world scale, Liberia only achieved a middle ranking in the 1930s, because in addition to Firestone, other American and British companies had also become active in the tropical growing countries. Brazil's rubber plantations at that time comprised approximately 3 million acres, Firestone had 1 million acres in Liberia, Goodyear Tire and Rubber had 5,000 acres in Indonesia , and the US Rubber Company had 134,000 acres in Malaysia and Indonesia. During the Second World War , the USA temporarily lost its Southeast Asian plantations to the war opponent Japan .
23. ↑ Freeport : The structures that were erected by the US pioneer units in Monrovia and in the coastal region also include the Tubman Bridge , Somalia Drive , United Nations Drive , several hospitals and power stations.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Leonhard Harding: Political Systems of African Societies: Concentration Processes, Consolidation and “Modernization” in the 19th Century . In: Africa. History and Society in the 19th and 20th Centuries . Promedia, Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-85371-161-8 , p. 11-19 .
2. ^ The interior of Africa / The voyage of Hanno. In: The mapping of the earth. Retrieved October 31, 2010 .  (English)
3. ^ Administrator: Liberia from 1200–1600 ( Memento of February 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) In: Liberian Forum. (Online portal), August 18, 2006. Retrieved January 17, 2011.
4. ↑ W. Creithon Fork et al .: Liberia . In: PL Shinnie (ed.): Nyame Akuma. A newsletter of African archeology . No. 4 , April 1974, p. 14–16 (English, rice.edu [PDF; 2.4 MB ; accessed on October 29, 2010]).
5. ↑ Amos J. Beyan: Transatlantic trade and the coastal area of pre-Liberia ( Memento of 7 February 2011 at the Internet Archive ) In: Liberian Forum. (Online portal), August 14, 2006. Retrieved January 17, 2011.
6. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n} FPM van den Kraaij: The open door policy of Liberia. A economic history of modern Liberia . In: Übersee-Museum (Ed.): Publications of the Übersee-Museum Bremen . tape 17/1 . Self-published, Bremen 1983, ISBN 3-88299-040-6 , p. 460 ( liberiapastandpresent.org [PDF; 33.0 MB ]).
7. ↑ Olfert Dapper: Complicated and real description of Africa, and the kingdoms and landscapes belonging to it, as Egypt, Barbaria, Libya, Bisedulgerid, the land of the Negros, Guinea, Ethiopia, Abyssina and the African islands ... Amsterdam, Meurs 1668 to 1670; ADDITIONAL: Description of the islands in Africa… Madagascar, Lorentz Island…. Amsterdam, Meurs 1671.
8. ↑ James Fairhead, Tim Geysbeek, Svend E. Holsoe, Melissa Leach: African-American exploration in West Africa: four nineteenth-century diaries . Indiana University Press, Bloomington (IN) 2003, ISBN 0-253-21450-5 , Introduction, pp. 2 .
9. ↑ Ancient African healing art. European travelogues from the 16th to 19th centuries . In: Heinrich Loth (Ed.): Reclams Universal Library . tape  1062 . Philipp Reclam jun., Leipzig 1986, DNB  870090801 , p. 248 .
10. ^ ^{A b} Volume of Transatlantic Slave Trade by Region of Embarkation. In: African American Heritage & Ethography. Retrieved November 9, 2010 . 
11. ^ Equiano, the Black Atlantic, and the Making of the Liberal Subject (part one). In: Portal: American Civilization. Retrieved November 10, 2010 . 
12. ^ Leaflet - The Day of Algiers (August 2, 1816). The British consul Lord Exmouth brought a ransom of 382,500 US dollars for the Americans and was allowed to redeem 1,085 Christians from the slavery and captivity of the Berbers. (No longer available online.) In: British Naval Museum, Image Archive. Archived from the original on February 22, 2014 ; Retrieved November 10, 2010 . 
13. ^ Petrus Agricola: The race for Africa . In: Africa. History and Society in the 19th and 20th Centuries . Promedia, Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-85371-161-8 , The partition of West Africa, p. 123 .
14. ^ The Royal Navy and the Battle to End Slavery. In: BBC - online portal "British History in-depth". Retrieved November 15, 2010 .  (English)
15. ^ Mylène Rémy: Gabon in color . Travel today. Jeune Afrique, Paris 1977, ISBN 2-85258-070-5 , The slave trade, p. 66-70 (French).
16. ↑ Frederick Starr: Liberia. Description, history, problems . Chicago 1913, Liberian Officials, pp. 275 .
17. ↑ Biography of Paul Cuffee. In: Encyclopedia of World Biography. Retrieved November 12, 2010 . 
18. ↑ ^{a b c} Frederick Starr: Liberia. Description, history, problems . History 1821–1828, pp. 52-70 .
19. ^ Antonio McDaniel: Swing low, sweet chariot. The mortality cost of colonizing Liberia in the nineteenth century . Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago 1995, ISBN 0-226-55724-3 , pp. 191 .
20. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Liberia. In: online portal www.worldstatesmen.org. Retrieved November 12, 2010 .  (English topic portal: the present and former states of the world)
21. ↑ ^{a b c d} Frederick Starr: Liberia. Description, history, problems . Leading events in liberian history, p. 251-255 .
22. ^ Indiana Emigrants to Liberia. (PDF; 544 kB) In: The Indiana Historian. A Magazine Exploring Indiana History (Indiana government website). Retrieved December 10, 2010 . 
23. ^ Map of Liberia, West Africa. In: World Digital Library . 1830, accessed June 3, 2013 . 
24. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Robin Dunn-Marros et al: The Liberians: An Introduction to their History and Culture . In: Donald A. Ranard (Ed.): Culture Profile . tape 19 . Washington 2005, p. 74 .
25. ^ Wilson Jeremiah Moses: Liberian dreams. Back-to-Africa narratives from the 1850s . Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park PA 1998, ISBN 0-271-01710-4 , pp. 234 .
26. ↑ Chas. W. Thomas: Adventures and observations on the west coast of Africa, and its islands . Derby & Jackson, New York 1860, Conditions of Existence, pp. 133–141 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
27. ↑ James Fairhead, Tim Geysbeek, Svend E. Holsoe, Melissa Leach: African-American exploration in West Africa: four nineteenth-century diaries . Indiana University Press, Bloomington (IN) 2003, ISBN 0-253-21450-5 , Introduction, pp. 493 .
28. ^ Emmanuel O. Oritsejafor: National Integration in Liberia . In: The Journale of Pan African Studies . tape 3/1 , 2009, ISSN  1942-6569 , pp. 96–120 ( jpanafrican.com [PDF; 271 kB ]).
29. ↑ Frederick Starr: Liberia. Description, history, problems . History, S. 92 .
30. ^ Ian Brownlie: African boundaries; a legal and diplomatic encyclopaedia . London 1979, ISBN 0-903983-87-7 , Guinea – Liberia, Ivory Coast – Liberia, Liberia – Sierra Leone, pp. 304-309, 358-370, 379-405 .
31. ↑ Frederick Starr: Liberia. Description, history, problems . The human population, p. 20-28 .
32. ↑ Frederick Starr: Liberia. Description, history, problems . Chicago, Description, p. 49 .
33. ^ Camp Ramrod. Liberia - United States mapping project. (No longer available online.) In: Website of the US Veterans of the Ethiopia-US Mapping Mission . Archived from the original on September 22, 2010 ; Retrieved November 15, 2010 . 
34. ↑ Frederick Starr: Liberia. Description, history, problems . Education, S. 31 .
35. ↑ Frederick Starr: Liberia. Description, history, problems . Periodicals of Liberia, S. 30-31 .
36. ↑ Frederick Starr: Liberia. Description, history, problems . Chicago, Description, p. 49-51 .
37. ^ Woermann line. (No longer available online.) In: JADU website about the colonial history of Germany. Archived from the original on November 18, 2010 ; Retrieved November 17, 2010 . 
38. ↑ New submarine successes in the Azores ... Army report of June 9, 1918 . Retrieved March 30, 2015 . 
39. ^ The Marcus Garvey Papers . In: UCLA International Institute (Ed.): African Series . Vol. VIII, Introduction ( ucla.edu ).
40. ^ Raymond Leslie Buell: The Liberian Paradox . In: The Virginia Quarterly Review . 1931, ISSN  2154-6932 ( vqronline.org ).
41. ^ William R. Stanley: Air Transport in Liberia . In: The Journal of Transport History . tape 21 . Manchester University Press, 1996, ISSN  0022-5266 , pp. 191-208 , doi : 10.7227 / TJTH.21.2.4 .
42. ↑ A view of a Liberian airport where a Pan American flight is about to depart. (1942). In: LIFE Images. Retrieved December 5, 2010 . 
43. ↑ TABLB 46. Attack rates for malaria among US Army personnel, Liberia, 1942-46. (PDF; 32 kB) In: US Army, The Army Medical Department (Portal). Retrieved December 4, 2010 . 
44. ^ David McBride: Missions for science: US technology and medicine in America's African world . (Reprint of the first edition from 1949). Rutgers University Press, New Bruswick 2002, ISBN 0-8135-3067-9 , pp. 200 .
45. ^ Christian Roll: Straße des Glücks . Self-published, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-8311-3196-1 , Verbotene Liebe, p. 28-31 .
46. ↑ Bernd Huffschmid: Ore from the jungle. German steelworks secure their supply . In: The time . No. 19/1966.
47. ^ Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 438
48. ^ Hans J. Massaquoi: Liberia. End of the Tubman era . In: Ebony . No. 10 , 1971, p. 46–57 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
49. ^ Report on a trip by the Israeli finance minister Levi Eshkol to Liberia. In: The Jerusalem Post. August 1, 1960.
50. ^ Virginia Thompson, Richard Adloff: French West Africa . Stanford University Press, Stanford (CA) 1969, Liberia, pp. 235-238 .
51. ^ Emil Maria Claassen, Pascal Salin: The Impact of stabilization and structural adjustment policies on the rural sector . Rome 1991, ISBN 92-5102894-X , Liberia's dual agricultural economy and the urgend need for currency reform, p. 133–147 ( limited preview in Google Book search).