The coastal strip of today’s Liberia was discovered by the Portuguese in the middle of the 15th century and later known in Europe as the »Pepper Coast«. However, European trading offices could not establish themselves due to the resistance of the coastal population. Starting in 1822, the American Colonization Society (ACS) settled freed slaves on the coast and established an American colony, and later other settlements that merged in the mid-1840s. The Amerikoliberians (around 1865 about 18,000) colonized the country against the fierce resistance of the autochthonous population (Afroliberians) and on July 26, 1847 proclaimed the Republic of Liberia, whose borders were defined in an agreement with Great Britain in 1903. Political power remained in the hands of the American Liberians and the True Whig Party, originally representing the poorer settlers. Liberia thus became a de facto one-party state. Foreign companies, mostly British and German before 1914, after 1918 BC. a. the American rubber-planting Firestone Company, which signed a lease for 4,000 km2 in 1926, ruled the economy. Attempts by President W. V. S. Tubman (term of office: 1944-71) to eliminate the rivalry between Afro- and American-Liberians and to integrate the numerous ethnic groups into the state continued under his equally authoritarian successor William R. Tolbert (* 1913, † 1980; term of office: 1971–80) unsuccessful. The dual economic structure and political neglect caused lasting damage to small-scale agriculture. A planned increase in the price of rice led to a revolt against the government (“rice unrest”) in April 1979, which resulted in the death of more than 100 people.

Under the leadership of S. Doe, the military carried out a coup on April 12, 1980 and killed Tolbert. As chairman of a “people’s redemption council” and president, Doe was the first Afroliberian to take power. After martial law was imposed on April 24, 1980, the constitution was repealed and the existing parties were banned. Doe had leading representatives of the overthrown government system through military tribunals. indict and convict of “high treason”. On the basis of the constitution approved by referendum in 1984, controversial elections took place in autumn 1985, which are generally considered to be falsified and in which, as expected, Doe and his National Democratic Party of Liberia (NDPL), which was founded after parties were approved (1984), were victorious. After a failed coup attempt by General Thomas Quiwonkpa in 1985, the US-backed Doe regime murdered hundreds of people in Nimba County and Monrovia.

On December 24, 1989, after another massacre in Nimba County, a bloody civil war began that lasted until mid-2003, with a phase of relative stability from 1997 to 1999. The National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) marched from the Republic of Ivory Coast CG Taylor a. In the summer of 1990, the rebels controlled large parts of the country under the leadership of former members of the army. As a result of the fighting, the advance of the NPFL and the massacres perpetrated by both sides, a strong movement of refugees began in the neighboring states as well as within the country. The states united in the West African Economic Community sent a peacekeeping force in August 1990. After Does’s assassination in September 1990, on November 23, 1990 Amos Sawyer sworn in as interim president, whose government, however, remained without influence. The civil war continued with undiminished severity. The NPFL advancing on Monrovia in autumn 1992 now fought against the military reaction force (ECOMOG) of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) as well as against the United Liberation Movement (ULIMO), supported by supporters of Does, which later split up into the opposing troops of the ULIMO -K under Alhaji Kromah and the ULIMO-J under Roosevelt Johnson who, however, was deposed as commander in March 1996. This ultimately led to fighting within the ULIMO-J. In addition, there were other, often ethnically based, rebel groups. a. received from teenagers.

The ongoing civil war had an increasingly destabilizing effect on the entire region and also spread to neighboring states. The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone received crucial support from Taylor’s NPFL in the civil war there. Numerous ceasefire and peace agreements, many of which were mediated by the UN, remained largely ineffective. In September 1995 a transitional government that included all major warring parties was formed (since September 1996 under Ruth Perry ). Representatives of West African states agreed with the leading rebel groups in August 1996 after fierce fighting over Monrovia in April on a peace plan, a ceasefire and the disarming of the hostile troops. After seven years of civil war in which around 200,000 civilians died and an estimated 750,000 Liberians fled to neighboring countries, presidential and parliamentary elections finally took place in July 1997, Taylor and the National Patriotic Party (NPP; NPP; emerged from the NPFL) won. Despite the announcement of democratic reforms, Taylor ruled largely dictatorially.

The civil war, which broke out again at the beginning of 2000, could only be ended briefly in September 2002 when the government troops defeated the rebels operating from the Guinea region and later the Republic of Ivory Coast. Renewed fighting in July 2003 led to various rebel groups, v. a. LURD and MODEL were able to conquer large parts of the country and the capital Monrovia. According to prozipcodes, the ECOWAS states then sent a reaction force supported by US units. President Taylor, who was forced to resign, handed over his office to Moses Blah (* 1947, † 2013) on August 11, 2003 and went into exile in Nigeria, which had offered him a “safe haven”. In contrast, UN Secretary General Annan had demanded that Taylor should answer for the human rights crimes he committed. In March 2006 Taylor was extradited to Liberia and transferred to the Special Court for Sierra Leone ( War Crimes Tribunal ); the procedure was moved to The Hague (Netherlands). A peace agreement signed on August 18, 2003 to end the civil war included the end of the fighting and new elections. The new president was Gyude Bryant (* 1949, † 2014) on October 14, 2003who formed a transitional government. A UN force (around 15,000 men) was stationed in October 2003 to monitor the peace process. Nonetheless, there were repeated violent clashes. Former World Bank employee Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf won the presidential elections of October / November 2005 (took office January 16, 2006); She was the first elected president in Africa.

Liberia History