Freed slaves from the United States founded Liberia on the west coast of Africa in 1820 with the support of the American Colonization Society, an anti-slavery organization. Calling themselves Americo-Liberians, 86 people established a settlement they called Monrovia after then U.S. president James Monroe.

Thousands of freed slaves from America soon arrived culminating in a declaration of independence on July 16, 1847, of the Republic of Liberia, "land of the free." Joseph J. Roberts, born in Virginia, became its first president.

The creation of Liberia would sow the seeds of a destructive ethnic divide. The Americo-Liberians often clashed with the indigenous peoples of the region. While the Americo-Liberians accounted for only five per cent of the population, they held the majority of important government jobs in the country.

The True Whig Party (TWP), lead by Americo-Liberians, would dominate the country's politics for 133 years after independence. During that time, each successive leader would institute increasingly repressive policies that would silence critics and opposition parties. By the 1970s, the majority of the population was living in squalor, lacking access to safe water and electricity.

In 1980, Samuel K. Doe, an indigenous army sergeant, staged a coup and killed President William R. Tolbert and his cabinet. Doe established his own government and constitution. Fearing a counter-coup, Doe began favouring his own people, the Krahns, and placed them in key positions, deepening ethnic rifts in the country.

Doe declared himself the winner of the 1985 election. His corrupt government shut down newspapers, banned political activity and used the army to terrorize the population.

Next door, in C�te d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Doe's former deputy minister of commerce began co-ordinating a rebellion. Charles Taylor, an American-educated Baptist lay preacher, had been sent away for allegedly transferring millions in government funds to his own account. Taylor's father was Americo-Liberian and his mother of Gola ancestry. When Taylor and his force of 100 men re-entered the country on Christmas Eve 1989, they were joined by thousands of people from different tribes. A brutal seven-year civil war began.

Another rebel faction captured Doe in 1990 and tortured him to death. Fighting between rebel groups and the army escalated, people fled their villages as the rebels started recruiting boys as young as eight. Many were forced into fighting and became involved in the rape and murder of people of all ages.

The war intensifies as several factions join the fighting

Different groups joined the war. Taylor's forces, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), fought the Liberian army, a splinter group of the army, ECOMOG soldiers (a peacekeeping contingent of West African soldiers), and another faction allied with Doe. The different groups carved up the country.

In 1995, at a conference organized by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the United Nations and the U.S., Taylor agreed to a ceasefire. He agreed to set up a Council of State until elections could be held – but demanded that he be its chair.

The council became a puppet of Taylor's. He fired one of its members, sparking an uprising in Monrovia in 1996 that spread. ECOMOG stepped in with another ceasefire agreement and launched a disarmament program. It was declared a success in January 1997. Later that year, Liberia held an election and Taylor won.

By this time, Liberia was a mess. The fighting left 200,000 dead, at least 850,000 displaced from their homes and another 700,000 had become refugees in neighbouring countries. That's out of a prewar population of 2.5 million to three million. Child soldiers roamed the countryside, numb from years of violence.

A second insurrection

The 1997 elections did not result in peace for Liberia. Taylor had little opposition and a new civil war began in 1999 when a rebel group, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), surfaced in the north of the country. At the same time, Ghana, Nigeria and other nations accused Taylor of supporting rebels in Sierra Leone, while Taylor charged neighbouring Guinea with supporting Liberian rebels in the north.

Then, in early 2003, a second group, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), emerged in the south. By the summer of 2003, Taylor's government controlled only a third of the country. LURD laid siege to Monrovia, the capital. The U.S. sent troops and posted a force of 3,000 marines offshore while Nigeria sent in peacekeepers. Taylor resigned on Aug. 11, 2003, as part of a peace agreement, and was flown into exile in Nigeria.

Vice-President Moses Blah replaced Taylor to lead a transitional government. But it had no real authority. Rebel groups continued to control three-quarters of the country.

But, eventually, the peace began to take hold. United Nations peacekeepers replaced Nigerian troops in October 2003 and began the work of disarming the various factions. At the same time, Charles Gyude Bryant became the chairman of the Transitional National Government of Liberia.

In January 2004, Liberian refugees began returning home. The next month, the international community pledged $500 million US towards reconstruction and humanitarian assistance. While the money will help rebuild the devastated country, little can be done for the child soldiers, mostly boys. Aid organizations report that many are reluctant to return home, fearing retaliation and rejection by their families.

One key member of Bryant's transitional team was Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. She was imprisoned twice by Samuel Doe while he was president in the 1980s. She once backed Taylor's rebellion but fell out of favour with him and found herself facing charges of treason. She placed a distant second to Taylor in the 1997 election.

Johnson-Sirleaf left the interim government so she could contest the presidential election that was held in November 2005. She won that vote, beating former soccer star George Weah, becoming Africa's first female head of state. She faces the challenge of rebuilding the entire infrastructure of a country torn apart by 14 years of civil war.

In March 2006, Johnson-Sirleaf asked Nigeria to surrender Taylor to a United Nations war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone. Nigeria reluctantly agreed. Taylor disappeared from his home, but was soon arrested, trying to cross the border to Cameroon. He was flown to Liberia, and immediately sent on to Sierra Leone.