MAPS OF HISTORY · HISTORY OF · Liberia

ONE LAND · 3 ATLASES

Liberia, on the map of history

What was Liberia before it was Liberia? Below, every era of this land in the Maps of History collection — who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed — each line linked to the dated map that shows it. Modern borders stand in as an honest approximation; every atlas says so on the map itself.

Liberia · The Great War, 1914–1918

OPEN WWI ON THE LIVING MAP →

Liberia · The Cold War, 1945–1991

OPEN THE COLD WAR ON THE LIVING MAP →

Liberia · The Decolonization of Africa, 1945–1994

Founded from 1822 by the American Colonization Society as a settlement for freed Black Americans and declared a republic in 1847, Liberia was — with Ethiopia — one of only two African states never colonized, which is why it sits in parchment on this map from the start. Yet its Americo-Liberian elite ruled the indigenous majority for over a century, an ambiguity inside the story of African freedom, until Samuel Doe’s bloody 1980 coup ended the old order. A founding member of the OAU — and a reminder that formal sovereignty and internal liberty are not the same thing.

OPEN THE DECOLONIZATION OF AFRICA ON THE LIVING MAP →