ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the political economy of land grabs in Liberia as a root cause of conflicts. It is outlined and analysed why and how the American Colonization Society (ACS) in close collaboration with the US Government (USG) colonised the land on the west coast of Africa in 1822, and turned it into a republic in 1847. The chapter provides an analysis of how the major US-based firm, Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, owned by Harvey Firestone, in 1926 succeeded in leasing one million acres of land in Liberia for the establishment of one of the largest rubber plantations in the world. The ACS was established in 1816, predominantly by white slave-owners who feared for their lives as the slave rebellions intensified in the Americas. The real objective of the ACS was to get rid of the rebellious slaves, by sending them ‘back to Africa’.
