Republic of Liberia
This article is about the specific polity Republic of Liberia and therefore only includes events related to its territory and not to its possessions or colonies. If you are interested in the possession, this is the link to the article about the nation which includes all possessions as well as all the different incarnations of the nation.
If you are looking for the page with the statistics about this polity you can find it here:All Statistics
Is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean to its south and southwest. Liberia emerged from the union of several private colonies founded by the American Colonization Society (ACS). The ACS was an organization that encouraged and supported the migration African-Americans to Africa. The Republic of Liberia declared independence in 1847, being one of the few countries in Africa that remained indepedent since then.
Establishment
July 1847: Liberia's Declaration of Independence was drafted by Hilary Teague, a member of the American Colonization Society from the United States, and was ratified on July 16, 1847.
Chronology
Interactive Chronologies with maps are available in the section Changes Navigation
Were two related civil wars in Liberia.
1.1.Second Liberian Civil War
The second Liberian civil war began in 1999 when an armed group called Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) invaded the northern part of Liberia with the support of the neighboring Guinean government.
April 1999: The Second Liberian Civil War began when a rebel group backed by the government of neighbouring Guinea, the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), emerged in northern Liberia.
April 2003: In early 2003, a new rebel group, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), emerged in the south of Liberia.
July 2003: Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) besiege the Liberian capital, Monrovia.
August 2003: By June-July 2003, the forces of Liberian president Charles Taylor controlled only a third of the country.
August 2003: The Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed by the warring parties marking the political end of the Second Liberian Civil War.
March 1857: Maryland in Liberia was a colony founded by free African Americans. In 1857, it was annexed by the Republic of Liberia, a country established by freed American slaves.
January 1875: Between 1858 and 1874 several research trips by Liberian authorities in the interior of the country took place.
January 1883: The western coastal area bordering Sierra Leone between the Mano River and the Sherbo River was annexed by a violent act in 1882 from the British colony of Sierra Leone.
January 1892: 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 stages. The first cession took place in 1891.
January 1893: At the Berlin Congress of 1885 it was decided that around 30 percent of the Liberian national territory was to be annexed by France in two stages. The second cession took place in 1892.
August 1896: The boundaries of Sierra Leone were demarcated with French Guinea and Liberia.
Selected Sources
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, S. 493.
