History

History of Liberia

The True Whig Party dominated all sectors of Liberia from independence until April 12, 1980 when indigenous Liberian Master Sergeant Samuel Doe, from the Krahn ethnic group, seized power in a coup d'état. Doe's forces executed President Tolbert and several officials of his government, mostly of Americo-Liberian descent. As a result, 133 years of Americo-Liberian political domination ended with the formation of the People's Redemption Council (PRC).

Doe quickly developed good relations with the United States and encouraged the US Government to send economic and military aid. In turn he developed hostile policies against Communist nations and other nations that were hostile to the US, fully engaging in the Cold War during the 1980's.

Doe attempted to legitimize his regime with a new constitution in 1984 and elections in 1985, but opposition to his rule only increased. In 1985, a coup against Doe was crushed. Doe then initiated crackdowns against rival tribes such as the Gios and Mano, where most of the coup plotters came from and where opposition to Doe was already widespread.

Civil war

On December 24, 1989, one of his former allies, Charles Taylor, crossed the border from Côte d'Ivoire and initiated a rebellion which became the Liberian Civil War. This rebellion was successful in ending Doe's regime in September 1990, but by then the rebels had already begun to fracture into warring factions based on political and tribal differences.

The United Nations estimates that 150,000 people died during the conflict with 850,000 refugees fleeing to neighboring countries. The years of fighting, coupled with the flight of most businesses, disrupted formal economic activity.

Seven years of civil strife came to an end in 1996 with the holding of free and open presidential and legislative elections. After his election in 1997, President Charles Taylor held strong executive power with little political opposition.

A new civil war began in 1999 when a rebel group backed by the government of neighboring Guinea, the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), emerged in northern Liberia. In early 2003, a second rebel group, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia, emerged in the south, and by the summer of 2003, Taylor's government controlled only a third of the country. The capital Monrovia was besieged by LURD, and that group's shelling of the city resulted in the deaths of many civilians. Thousands of people were displaced from their homes as a result of the conflict.

The United States of America sent a small number of troops to bolster security around their embassy in Monrovia, which had come under attack. The U.S. also stationed a Marine Expeditionary Unit with 2300 Marines offshore while Nigeria sent in peacekeepers as part of a Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) force. President Taylor resigned on August 11, 2003 as part of a peace agreement and was flown into exile in Nigeria. Vice-President Moses Blah replaced Taylor prior to the installation of a transitional government on October 14, 2003.

Return to democracy

Elections in 2005 marked the end of the political transition following Liberia's second civil war. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, former World Bank employee and finance minister, won the presidential contest and became the first democratically-elected female Head of State in the history of the African Continent in January 2006.

On March 26, 2006, Nigeria agreed to hand Taylor to Sierra Leone for trial on charges of crimes against humanity, ending the former warlord's more than two years of asylum.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "History of Liberia".