ABSTRACT
Liberia is the fifth smallest country in Africa with a population of about one-million persons, an area of 43,000 square miles, and a density of 23 persons a square mile. Some of its economic, political and social features are not shared by other African countries because Liberia was never a colony of a European power. It became an independent republic in 1847 at the initiative of a small colony of several thousand free Negroes from the United States (Americo Liberians) who claimed sovereignty over a hinterland of some twenty tribal groups. For the most part, tribal persons were little affected by European commerce and culture until well into the twentieth century.
