ABSTRACT
The history of Liberia as a state begins with the arrival in 1821 of the first boatload of American Negro settlers, and the establishment in the following year, on Cape Mesurado, of their first permanent settlement, which they named Monrovia after the American President James Monroe. The history of the dealings between the Liberian Government and Garvey's Harlem-based Universal Negro Improvement Association indicates the stage which relations between American Negro and Americo-Liberian had reached. Nevertheless, there was upward mobility from the tribal section of the population; intermarriages had taken place intermittently throughout the republic's history. Soon after the war broke out it became apparent that Liberia was of strategic importance, both because of her geographical situation and because of her rubber crop. But Liberia no longer depends so heavily on rubber. Iron ore, said to be of the highest grade in the world, is becoming at least as important in the national economy.
