The three thousand who accepted resettlement had a hard time establishing themselves because they had to contend with the existing population who resented being alienated from their land.
In 1847 the country declared itself as an independent republic. It wasn't until 1862 that the USA formerly recognised this. The new settlers saw themselves as part of a mission to bring civilisation and Christianity to Africa and so imposed a type of forced labour on the existing population.
In the late 19th century the country lost large chunks of its territory to the British and French.
In 1930 after a hundred years of the virtual enslavement of the indigenous people of Liberia, the USA and Britain broke off diplomatic relations, prompted by the scandal over the sale of such labour to the Spanish territories.
Labour recruitment methods were being condemned even up to 1960 by the International Labour Organisation. The settlers were unable to form an economic base as a result of which they were heavily reliant on foreign capital.
The True Whig Party monopolised Liberian powers from early on and it held this grip until a coup in 1980.
From 1944 to 1977 during William Tubman's Presidency, massive foreign investment occurred. Liberia acquired the name "Fire Stone Republic" due to Tubman's eagerness to hand out concessions to foreign companies.
The huge influx of foreign money caused the economy to become distorted and exacerbated social inequalities a consequence of which was increasing hostility between the descendants of the settlers and the original inhabitants. This alarmed Tubman and he was forced to concede the original inhabitants would have to be granted an amount of political and economic involvement in the country. One of his concessions was to enfranchise them. 97 per cent of the population had been denied the franchise until 1963.
Tubman was succeeded by William Tolbert in 1971. Tolbert continued with the majority of Tubman's policies and diplomatic relations were established with communist countries such as the People's Republic of China. Tolbert created harsh laws to deal with opposition to his regime prompting complaints form the USA about violations to human rights.
In 1979 there were demonstrations against the increase in the price of rice. Some demonstrators were shot.
A coup was staged in April 1980 when Tolbert was overthrown by Master Sergeant Samuel Doe. In the coup Tolbert was assassinated along with many other ministers. Their bodies were dumped in a common grave. Many high ranking government ministers who survived were tried, beaten up and finally shot on the beach at Monrovia. The coup gave the indigenous inhabitants real political power for the first time, but this was condemned by other African countries, allies and trading partners. A flight of capital from the country occurred after the coup.
Samuel Doe who promoted himself to General and Commander in Chief managed to survive several coup attempts. He finally fell in 1990 when Prince Johnson and Charles Taylor launched a rebellion although neither could agree on who would take charge.