Liberia was born in the middle of XIX century from the union of two American private colonies of freed black slaves. The first one, Monrovia, was proclaimed independent Republic in 1847 with the name of Liberia; the second one was joined to Liberia in 1857. The black-American predominance on that autochtonous was clear immediately. The Constitution was worded on American model, English was adopted as official language, Protestantism was imposed as religion of state; the native population was substantially excluded from the political and public life.

During 1800’s and in the first years of 1900’s Liberia became an economic dependence on the United States that mainly exploited the wide plantations of caucciù. After the second world war the panorama didn't suffer substantial changes, and Liberia became one of the principals "fiscal heavens" of the world, granting the use of her own fleets flag merchant deprive.

From 1980 a long series of bloody conflicts had beginning that brought into attacks, detentions and executions. These domestic conflicts can be trace back to two specific reality. First of all the conflit between Americo-Liberian and native, resolved with the 1980 Coup d'état that it repealed the Constitution and submitted the political management to a Popular Council. This was characterized by the bid of the American ancestries families to get back the political and economical predominance. The involvement of Charles Taylor, Americo-liberian’ stock, was a decisive factor for the conflict; he intervened in fight with his group of armed rebels. The second realty, fertile ground for intestine struggles, was the conflict among the native ethnic groups: the Kran, to which S. Doe, head of the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL), belonged, and the tribes of the north Gio and Mano.

The situation seemed to besettle in August 1996, when a peace treaty was signed in Nigeria (this accord was probably determined by matters of profit tied to gold and diamond deposits of the country rather than a really wish of peace). The presidential elections called in July 1997 saw the victory of C. Taylor and of his National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL). The wide consent (75%) was determined by a popular wish to release himself from the merciless cruelty of Doe’s regime. This victory was interpreted as the restoration of the Americo-Liberian power and it produced great expectations. After two years from the election, in 1999, the president’s incapability (and of the members of its family that sat in the government) to reconcile the country and to start it in the promised economic renewal, was evident.

The last chapter is closed in August 2003 with the exile of the dictator and ex gentleman of the war Charles Taylor and with Accra Accord stipulated between rebellious factions (Lurd and Model) and government.

International pressures, an arrest warrant of the Special Court for War Crimes of Sierra Leone and one month of siege of the Lurd around Monrovia has forced president Taylor to resign his presidency and to accept an offer of asylum from Nigeria.

Gyude Bryant (a business man neutral to the feuds of the last decade) has been named to guide the new ad-interim executive. In 2005 democratic elections are provide.