Republic of Liberia

Liberia, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country located in West Africa, bordered by Guinea to the north, and Ivory Coast to the east. It covers an area of 183,109 km² (70,699 sq mi), and has a total population of 9.6 million people. English is the official language of the country, though there are more than thirty spoken languages in the country alone. Krio is the primary language spoken in the northern half of the country, though English remains the most-spoken language in the nation. As it is located close to the equator, Liberia is hot and humid nation, with tropical rainforests covering most of its land.

Along with Ethiopia in the east, Liberia was one of the only two sub-Saharan nation without any roots in the European colonization of Africa during the mid-1800s. Its population is largely descendant from freed black slaves through the abolitionist movements in the United States and the United Kingdom. Beginning in 1820, the colony of Liberia and neighboring Sierre Leone were established to accomadate African-Americans and British African slaves returning to Africa. In 1847, Liberia became a republic, and was the second black African nation nation to be established, Haiti being the first. In 1884, Liberia fought a successful, if bloody war with Britian to gain Sierre Leone.

Since those times, Liberia has grown to possess the second-largest economy in West Africa after Nigeria, and the highest standard of living in the region. Liberia has maintained strong economic and political ties with the United States, and repaired to some extent, its relations with the United Kingdom. Acting as the peacekeeper in the region, Liberia has routinuely deployed troops in neighboring countries to enforce peace and order, though it has recieved critism from Europe and North America for expelling dictorial rulers, rulers who have given Liberia no reason to harm their close diplomatic ties.