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Liberia is a West African country. Located on the
Atlantic coast, just at the entrance to the Gulf of
Guinea, it covers an area of 111 370 km2. It
is bordered by Sierra Leone to the northwest, Guinea to
the north, and the Ivory Coast, and is bathed by the
Atlantic Ocean to the south. The main cities are
Monrovia, the capital, with 557 500 inhabitants (2004),
Harbel (17 900 inhab.), Gbarnga (14 500 inhab.),
Buchanan (27 500 inhab.) And Yekepa (23 300 inhab.).
The climate is equatorial in the Southeast and humid
tropical in the rest of the territory.
Economy
Political and social instability has negatively
influenced the economy of this country, which was once
flourishing. The agricultural sector presents itself as
the main activity due to the fact that half of the
territory is potentially arable, although currently only
5% of the land is cultivated, producing rice, barley,
coffee, cocoa and sugar cane. On the other hand,
benefiting from a typically tropical climate, Liberia
has in its forests one of the greatest sources of
wealth, either through the timber trade or, mainly,
through the production of rubber. However, the forested
area has decreased by 13.2% since 1981-83. The fishing
activity, above all in the high seas, has some
relevance, the same can be said about the industries
related to mining and processing industries, of which
the pharmaceutical industry stands out, ceramics,
cement, shoes and furniture. However, what appears to be
economically profitable is mostly in the hands of
foreign companies, and, in any case, there has been a
decrease in foreign investment, caused by the unstable
situation in Liberia. Liberia's main trading partners
are Belgium, South Korea, Singapore and Ukraine.
Environmental indicator: no data (1999).
Population
The population was, in 2006, 3 042 004 inhabitants,
which corresponded to a density of 28.9 inhab./km2. The
birth and death rates are, respectively, 44.77% and
23.1%. Average life expectancy is 39.65 years. Neither
the value of the Human Development Index (HDI) nor the
value of the Gender-adjusted Development Index (IDG)
have been attributed (2001). It is estimated that, in
2025, the population will be 5,994,000
inhabitants. Among the 22 ethnic groups in the country,
the main ones are the Kpelle (19%), the Bassa (14%), the
Grebo (9%), the Gio (8%), the Kru (7%) and the Mano (
7%). Traditional beliefs are followed by 63% of the
population, while Christians, especially Protestants
(14%), correspond to 21%. The official language is
English.
History
Liberia's origin is closely linked to the end of slavery
in the United States of America. Although the Portuguese
navigator Pedro de Sintra owed the discovery of this
territory in 1461, it was at the beginning of the 19th
century that its structuring began definitively. It all
started with the agreement established between the
members of the American Colonization Society (ACS) and
the chiefs of the local tribes in 1821, after those who
had considered the appropriate territory to receive the
freed American slaves, which began to reach from 1822.
Almost at the same time, Jehudi Ashmun also arrived, a
white American who was responsible for forming the first
government, drafting the first laws and starting foreign
trade. In 1839 the first governor, Thomas Buchanan, was
appointed. The territory, at the time, it already
included the cities of Greenville and Harper, located
along the St. John River. After Buchanan's death in
1841, he was succeeded by Jenkins Roberts, a free black
man born in the American state of Virginia, who was
responsible, first for the enlargement of the territory,
both in the direction of the Ivory Coast (then French
colony) and in the direction of Sierra Leone (then an
English colony), and then by the declaration of the
independence of Liberia in 1847 (making it the first
republic in West Africa with a constitution completely
identical to that of the United States of America).
The 20th century did not start in the best way for
Liberia. Despite the economic and political efforts
aimed at strengthening the country, both externally and
internally, this has not been achieved, especially with
regard to the control of land in the interior. It was
not surprising, therefore, that in 1919 Liberia was
forced to restore to France a region of approximately
3200 km2inland, near the border with Côte
d'Ivoire. This situation of permanent instability,
especially economic, was only overcome during the Second
World War, when the country assumed a leading role with
the Allies when it became its sole supplier of
rubber. This led to the signing of several cooperation
programs, namely with the USA, programs that focused,
for example, on the construction of vast communication
structures - roads, railways and an international
airport. This framework of stability remained until
1980, the year in which a military coup d'état led by
Samuel Doe, who was to become head of state and
president of the Popular Salvation Council (PRC), took
place. The PRC then promised a new constitution (which
happened in 1986) and a return to civil law. After the
1985 elections, considered fraudulent by observers,
Samuel Doe became the first president of the Second
Republic, a position from which he was deposed in 1990
with the start of a civil war between the Krahn and Gio
peoples, on the one hand, and the Mano people, on the
other. Despite the intervention of a multinational force
from West Africa in cooperation with the United Nations,
civil war remains in the daily lives of Liberians, with
Charles Taylor and Roosevelt Johnson as the main
protagonists.
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