Most Americans know little to nothing about Liberia or the African continent. If Americans knows anything about Liberia they would probably recall a brief passage in their grade school textbooks that explained how Liberia is an African country founded by former American slaves. A more recent memory involving Liberia could be the 2014 Ebola crisis. The actual relationship between Liberia and the United States is more complicated than these two events. The United States serves in the critical role of the former colonial power of Liberia and continues to be instrumental in the ultimate success or failure of Liberia in post-colonial Africa. Liberia's three neighboring countries: Côte d'Ivoire, Sierra Leone, and Guinea all have unique relationships with their former colonial powers that shape their internal and external affairs. This research paper investigates these relationships and attempts to identify elements of these relationships that can be included in, or excluded from the US relationship with Liberia.

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