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Government & LawIndustrial Age

Liberia declares independence

1847

Black settlers from the United States declare Liberia a republic, the first independent republic in modern Africa.

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The story

On July 26, 1847, Liberia declared its independence. The settlers were free Black Americans and formerly enslaved people who had begun arriving in 1822 under the American Colonization Society, a mostly white organization that supported sending free Black people to Africa. Many Black Americans opposed the scheme, but some chose to leave rather than live under racial discrimination. The first president was Joseph Jenkins Roberts, born free in Virginia.

The new republic copied American institutions and flags, and its capital Monrovia was named after US President James Monroe. The settlers, called Americo-Liberians, were a small share of the population and ruled over indigenous peoples such as the Kpelle, Bassa and Kru, who were excluded from full political participation for about a century. Liberia kept its independence during the later scramble for Africa, with support from the United States and its own diplomacy. Settler rule ended with a military coup in 1980, and civil wars followed from 1989.

Why it mattered

Liberia became one of only two African states, with Ethiopia, to stay independent through the colonial scramble.
Its settler-indigenous divide fed the 1980 coup and the civil wars that began in 1989.
It became a symbol for Black emigration and for the Pan-African idea.

Sources

Joseph Jenkins Roberts Britannica
Liberia Proclaims Its Independence EBSCO Research Starters
Flag of Liberia Flags of the World

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At a glance

When: July 26, 1847
Where: Monrovia, on the coast of West Africa
Key people: Joseph Jenkins Roberts (first president)
American Colonization Society (founding organization)

1822year settlers first arrived to found Monrovia

307earlier events it rests on

0later events that depend on it

Couldn't have happened without

African Methodist Episcopal Church founded1816

HelpedFree Black institutions in America produced leaders and emigrants who saw Africa as a homeland.

Britain bans the slave trade1807

ImportantThe campaign against the slave trade created the resettlement settlements for recaptured and freed Africans.

Led to

Nothing on this timeline builds on it directly yet.

More from Industrial Age

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