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Liberia
Declared independence on 26 July 1847, ending the American Colonization Society's authority over the Commonwealth of Liberia; recognised by Britain in 1848 and by the United States only in 1862.
- Independence
- July 26, 1847
- Before
- Commonwealth of Liberia
- Metropole
- Independent
- Leader
- Joseph Jenkins Roberts
- Transition
- Sovereign Anomaly
- Movement
- Americo-Liberian settler leadership of the Commonwealth of Liberia (independence accepted by the American Colonization Society)
“The people of the Republic of Liberia then, are of right, and in fact, a free sovereign and Independent State, possessed of all the rights and powers and functions of government.”
— Liberian Declaration of Independence (drafted by Hilary Teage), July 26, 1847
The American Colonization Society, 1816–1822
Liberia began as a project of the American Colonization Society (ACS), founded in December 1816 to resettle free Black Americans and formerly enslaved people in West Africa. After a failed first attempt on Sherbro Island in 1820, settlers established a foothold at Cape Mesurado in 1822; the settlement was named Monrovia in 1824 after US President James Monroe. The land had been obtained from local rulers under heavy pressure, and relations with the Dei, Bassa, Kru and other indigenous peoples were often hostile.
From Commonwealth to Republic, 1839–1847
In 1839 most of the settlements were joined as the Commonwealth of Liberia, and in 1841 Joseph Jenkins Roberts became its first governor of African descent. Britain refused to recognise the authority of a private American society, and British traders from Sierra Leone challenged the Commonwealth's right to levy customs duties. After settlers voted for independence in a referendum on October 27, 1846, a convention in Monrovia adopted a Declaration of Independence and a constitution modelled on that of the United States on July 26, 1847. Roberts was elected the republic's first president.
A Black Republic in the Scramble for Africa
Liberia's sovereignty was unusual in the age of the Scramble for Africa. Britain recognised the republic in 1848 and France in 1852, but the United States withheld recognition until 1862. Liberia survived partly through its ties to Washington, yet under British and French pressure it lost its claims to extensive territory, annexed to Sierra Leone and to the French Ivory Coast, in the late nineteenth century. Power remained concentrated in the Americo-Liberian minority; indigenous Liberians had no birthright citizenship until 1904 and were excluded from political participation well into the twentieth century.
Chronology
- December 1816 — American Colonization Society founded in Washington, D.C.
- 1822 — Settlers establish a lasting foothold at Cape Mesurado (later Monrovia)
- 1839 — Settlements united as the Commonwealth of Liberia
- 1841 — J. J. Roberts becomes the first governor of African descent
- July 26, 1847 — Declaration of Independence and constitution adopted; Republic of Liberia proclaimed
- 1848 — United Kingdom recognises Liberia; France follows in 1852
- 1862 — United States recognises Liberia under President Lincoln
Aftermath
The Americo-Liberian elite, governing through the True Whig Party continuously from 1878, held power until Master Sergeant Samuel Doe's coup of April 12, 1980; Doe was the first head of state of indigenous descent. Two civil wars followed (1989–1997 and 1999–2003). Liberia was a founding member of the United Nations in 1945 and later a leading voice in the moderate Monrovia Group of African states.
Legacy
Liberia's survival as an independent Black republic made it a symbol for Pan-Africanists, and its motto, 'The love of liberty brought us here', expressed the settlers' founding story. Yet Americo-Liberian dominance over the indigenous majority fed the tensions behind the 1980 coup and the civil wars that followed. Reconciling settler and indigenous histories remains a central national question.