Sovereignty without Power
Liberia in the Age of Empires, 1822–1980

Reinterprets Liberia's economic history during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to investigate the challenges and opportunities of sovereignty during the age of empires.

Leigh A. Gardner (Author)

9781009181099, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 13 February 2025

364 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.526 kg

'… a formidable, in-depth work that makes many contributions to our understanding of Liberia's political and economic history between 1820 and 1980, with implications for other nations' post-colonial trajectories.' Etienne Le Rossignol, LSE Review of Books

What did independence mean during the age of empires? How did independent governments balance different interests when they made policies about trade, money and access to foreign capital? Sovereignty without Power tells the story of Liberia, one of the few African countries to maintain independence through the colonial period. Established in 1822 as a colony for freed slaves from the United States, Liberia's history illustrates how the government's efforts to exercise its economic sovereignty and engage with the global economy shaped Liberia's economic and political development over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Drawing together a wide range of archival sources, Leigh A. Gardner presents the first quantitative estimates of Liberian's economic performance and uses these to compare it to its colonized neighbors and other independent countries. Liberia's history anticipated challenges still faced by developing countries today, and offers a new perspective on the role of power and power relationships in shaping Africa's economic history.

List of figures
Preface
1. Reconstructing the fragments: Liberia's economic history, 1847-1980
Part I. Foundations: 2. Before the dragons came
3. Black Americans in West Africa
Part II. The Art of Survival: 4. Trade, globalization and sovereignty
5. From paper to gold
6. The costs of foreign capital
7. Financial controls and forced labor
Part III. Sovereignty for Sale?: 8. An African marshall plan
9. Concessions and growth
10. Selling the flag
11. Sovereignty beyond the age of empires
Appendix 1: Data on Liberia's economic history
Appendix 2: Constructing Liberian GDP statistics
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Economic history [KCZ], Central government policies [JPQB], African history [HBJH]