Colonialism in global conflict: Liberia’s entry and participation in World War One

ABSTRACT

On 10 April 1918, Germany assaulted Monrovia in retaliation for Liberia’s entry into World War One. While the Liberian government could not and did not resist the attack, it remained committed to the principles that it professed during the war: political autonomy, for itself and other small nations, and resistance against German and wider imperial aggression. Liberia, therefore, saw itself as an active, if minimal, participant in World War One and refused to exit the conflict when Germany attacked its capital that morning. Unlike much previous scholarship, this article argues that Liberia, as an independent nation, choose to cut off relations and later go to war with Germany, and, at least nominally, supported the Allies throughout the war. More specifically, Liberia entered World War One on the side of the Allies for three main reasons: a frustration with German aggression; a desperate financial situation overwhelming the government; and finally, a desire to establish better security within and on its borders. In making these arguments, this article considers Liberia’s relationship and colonial situation with the United States, its long and complicated history with Germany, its decision to cut off relations and enter World War One, and finally its role in the conflict and its conclusion.

KEYWORDS:

• Liberia – twentieth century
• African Theatre – World War One
• Liberia & US relations
• Liberia & German relations
• Kru – 1915-1916 rebellion
• Liberia – financial situation – early-twentieth century

Notes

1. ‘Liberians Hit by Shells,’ The Sunday Oregonian, Portland, 14 April 1918. 4; ‘German Submarine Shells Monrovia,’ The Columbus Enquirer-Sun, Columbus, Georgia, 13 April 1918, 1; ‘Liberian Navy Blown Up: U-Boat Fires on Monrovia,’ The Duluth News Tribune, 14 June 1918, 1; and ‘Three Children Killed by German U-Boats,’ Colorado Springs, 16 April 1918, 6.

2. Moyd argues in two of her works that this is how many monographs treat the First World War in Africa. Moyd, “Centering a Sideshow,’ 111–30; and Moyd, Violent Intermediaries.

3. The Liberian government’s active decision, as a somewhat colonized state, to go to war on its own accord and minimal participation as a result makes it a unique case from the many stories and histories related to European and colonial soldiers on the Western and African fronts. Numerous monographs and articles successfully analyse and consider the intricacies of the colonial relationships that defined and played across World War One’s theatres. A number of these are as follows: Andrew and Kanya-Forstner, France Overseas, 308–323; Cooper, “The British Empire invades Namibia”; Anderson, “The Battle for Tanga,” 294–322; Samson, World War One in Africa; Lunn, Memoirs of the Maelstrom; Fogarty, Race and War in France; Zimmerman, “Living Beyond Boundaries”; and Grundlingh, “Black Men in a White Man’s War,”55–81.

4. Moyd’s works are a good jumping off point for the discussions and arguments presented in this article, and I utilize some of her thinking within the piece on how black and African populations are treated and considered by white, or, in part of Liberia’s case, Americo-Liberian, colonizers. Moyd, “Centering a Sideshow,” 111–113; and Moyd, Violent Intermediaries.

5. Strachan, The First World War in Africa, 3. Other successful and useful works on the military history of Africa in the war include the following well-done articles and monographs: Anderson, The Forgotten Front; Grove, ‘The First Shots of the Great War”; and relevant parts of Fisher, Germany’s Aims in the First World War; and Paice, World War One.

6. Strachan, “The First World War as a Global War,” 3–14.

7. Samson, World War One in Africa, 2012, 2–4; and Strachan, The First World War in Africa, 1–3.

8. Mower, “The Republic of Liberia,” 276; Akingbade, “The Role of the Military,” 191; Duignan and Gann, The United States and Africa, 201; Schmokel, “The German Factor in Liberia’s Foreign Relations,” 27–42.

9. Starr, “Liberia after the World War,” 113–130; Gershoni, “Historical Examination of Liberia’s Economic Policies”; Sullivan, “The Kru Coast Revolt of 1915–1916”.

10. Liberia in the War, Philadelphia Inquirer, 1917; and Haskin, ‘Forgotten Liberia,’ The Lexington Herald, 21 May 1917, page 10.

11. Gus Liebenow, Liberia, 50–59.

12. Dubois, “Liberia and Rubber,” in Writings by W. E. B. Du Bois in Periodicals, 2, 1910 – 1934, edt. Herbert Aptheker, (Millwood, NY: Kraus-Thomson Organization Limited, 1982), 272–273.

13. Duignan, United States and Africa, 83–85; and Dubois, “Liberia and Rubber,” 272–274.

14. Duignan, The United States and Africa, 118–119.

15. Davis, “The Liberian Struggle for Authority on the Kru Coast,” 228–224, 236, 241, 246–248; and Sullivan, “The Kru Coast Revolt of 1915–1916.”

16. Gershoni, “The Drawing of Liberian Boundaries in the Nineteenth Century,’ 299.

17. President Chester Arthur wrote to the US Congress informing them that the US Government had ‘endeavored to aid Liberia in its differences with Great Britain touching the northwestern boundary of that country.’ Duignan, The United States and Africa, 121.

18. Duignan, The United States and Africa, 124.

19. Gershoni, “The Drawing of Liberian Boundaries,” 300.

20. The Berlin Conference and succeeding Treaty of Berlin, which Liberia participated in, required the signatory nations with domains on the African continent display authority over the local populations within their territory. The Treaty would have ostensibly protected the nation if the Liberian government could effectively subdue rebellions within their interior and therefore had to act as a colonizer towards its local African populations to maintain their sovereignty. ‘The Treaty of Berlin (1885).’ General Act of the Conference of Berlin, 26 February 1885. Found on The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed. (Accessed online 13 November 2016); and Gershoni, “The Drawing of Liberian Boundaries,” 302.

21. “The Treaty of Berlin (1885).” General Act of the Conference of Berlin, 26 February 1885. Found on The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed. (Accessed online 13 November 2016); and Liebenow, Liberia: The Quest for Democracy, 54.

22. Gershoni, “The Drawing of Liberian Boundaries,” 124–125; and Duignan, The United States and Africa, 121–125.

23. Duignan, The United States and Africa, 121–125.

24. Liebenow, Liberia: The Quest for Democracy, 54–55.

25. Akingbade, “The Role of the Military,” 139–140.

26. Duignan, The United States and Africa, 195.

27. The loan of 1912 was $1,700,000 granted by international bankers to pay off ‘bad debts’ and an ‘International Financial Control’ receivership committee was set up with one American, one British, one French and one German receiver. This is described in Starr and Mower’s articles as well as an article by W. E. B. Dubois, called ‘Liberia, the League and the United States,’ that he published in Foreign Affairs in 1933, and a newspaper article in the Philadelphia Inquirer. W. E. B. Dubois, ‘Liberia, the League and the United States,’ in Writings by W. E. B. Dubois in Periodicals, Vol 2, 1910 – 1934, edt. Herbert Aptheker (Millwood, NY: Kraus-Thomson Organization, 1982), 322–323; “Liberia in the War,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 1917; Mower, “Republic of Liberia,” 275–276; and Starr, “Liberia after the World War,” 114–115.

28. These African-American officers were soldiers selected by the War Department and appointed to positions of commander by the Liberian Government so as to ‘organize, train, and discipline’ the Liberian Frontier Force. The captain of these forces, Major Charles Young, was later appointed at Military Advisor to the Liberian Government. Akingbade, “The Role of the Military,” 167–169.

29. Schmokel, “The German Factor in Liberia’s Foreign Relations,” 27. The German Federal Foreign office website also discusses this early relationship: ‘Liberia,’ Federal Foreign Office, March 2017, http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/EN/Aussenpolitik/Laender/Laenderinfos/01-Nodes/Liberia_node.html.

30. In a newspaper article in the 26 August 1917 Philadelphia Inquirer called, ‘Liberia in the War,’ the writer somewhat hyperbolically describes Germany as having forced itself into financial control over Liberia since the 1890s, remarked that in 1909, 70 per cent of the Republic’s total commerce was with Germany, and pointed out that more than 60 businesses in Liberia were on the Allies’ Black List (a list of persons or firms in a neutral country which a belligerent power forbids trade with.) Other sources also emphasize Liberian’s close financial relationship with Germany, especially in terms of trading and with the 1912 loan, of which Germany had a seat on the receivership committee; ‘Liberia in the War,’ Philadelphia Inquirer, 26 August 1917, 1; Davis, “The Liberian Struggle for Authority on the Kru Coast, 241; Starr, “Liberia after the World War,” 113–114; Gershoni, “Historical Examination of Liberia’s Economic Policies,” 24; and Schmokel, “The German Factor in Liberia’s Foreign Relations,” 28–29.

31. Davis, “The Liberian Struggle for Authority on the Kru Coast,” 244

32. President Sirleaf described her ancestry in a commonly cited speech given 16 April 2005 to the All Liberian National Conference Cholo Brooks, ‘GNN Personality of The Week: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as She Turns 78 Years Tomorrow Saturday.’ Global News Network, 28 October 2016. [Accessed 13 December 2016] http://gnnliberia.com/2016/10/28/gnn-personality-week-ellen-johnson-sirleaf-turns-78-years-tomorrow-saturday/.

33. Richard C. Bundy, Bundy to Secretary of State, Telegram, 1 December 1915; National Archives, Microfilm Collection 613, Roll 12.

34. Duignan, The United States and Africa, 120–121.

35. The Liberians acquired the Goronommah mainly for the purpose of enforcing export labour taxes on the Kru going to Spanish and German colonies. A German blockade runner, attempting to avoid paying these taxes, heading to their Kamerun colony was caught by this vessel and impounded. This led to an intense diplomatic response from Germany and a cruiser off Liberia’s coast. Davis, “Liberia Struggle for Authority,” 244, Muhammad, “Slavery in Liberia,” 120–121.

36. Duignan, The United States and Africa, 199; ‘Another 2,000,000 in War Against Germany,’ San Jose Mercury Herald, 3 September 1917, 3.

37. Starr, “Liberia After the World War,” 113–114; and Sullivan, “The Kru Coast Revolt,” 58–59.

38. Starr, “Liberia After the World War,” 113–114; Mower, “The Republic of Liberia,” 276; and Schmokel, “The German Facotr in Liberia’s Foreign Relations,” 32–33.

39. Neutrality Proclamations 1914–1918, 32–33, 52–56.

40. de Fontenoy, “Liberia, Founded on the African Coast by American Negroes, Stands in Danger of Being Divided Between France and England Because of Its Pro-German Activites,” The Evening Sun. Date Unknown (Around 1914). National Archives, Microfilm Collection 613, Roll 3.

41. Richard C. Bundy et al. (Various Correspondence and Letters) 1915–1916, National Archives, Microfilm Collection 613, Roll 3,4, 11; John L. Morris, Acting Secretary of War, (Various Letters and Correspondence) 1915–1917, Liberian Government Archives II, 1911–1968, Liberia Collections Project, Indiana University Archives Online, (Accessed 11 January 2017).

42. Strachan, The First World War Africa, 1–5.

43. Daniel Howard, Declaration of Neutrality, 10 August 1914 in Neutrality Proclamations 1914–1918 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1919) 33–34.

44. Woodrow Wilson, Declaration of Neutrality, 4 August 1914 in Neutrality Proclamations 1914–1918 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1919) 52–56.

45. Richard C. Bundy, Bundy to Secretary of State, Telegram, 1 December 1915; Richard C. Bundy, Bundy to Secretary of the Navy, Telegram, 5 February 1916; National Archives, Microfilm Collection 613, Roll 12; and Davis, “Liberian Struggle for Authority,” 252–255.

46. Davis, “Liberian Struggle for Authority,” 252–253.

47. Ibid., 254–5.

48. Liberia’s Frontier Force used the Chester to land at the besieged coastal city of Greenville on the 14 December and seemed to suppressed the rebellion a few days later, as most Kru fled into the interior after a series of defeats. The Frontier Force and local Greenville government also captured 67 Kru leaders, and their executions were undertaken so quickly that many of the men were dead before news of President Howard’s commuting of the sentences to life imprisonment arrived. Ibid.

49. Davis, “Liberian Struggle for Authority,” 252–255. A newspaper article from the Sierra Leone, Weekly News, from August of 1917, suggests also that Britain will have to exercise more control over Liberia to eliminate corruption in regard to its treatment of the interior African populations; ‘The Future of Liberia,’ Weekly News, Freetown, Sierra Leone, 18 August 1917, 8.

50. John Lunn, Memories of the Maelstrom, 43; Bundy, Bundy to Secretary of State, Monrovia, Liberia, 13 March 1918. National Archives, Microfilm Collection 613, Roll 5.

51. Strachan, The First World War, 224–227.

52. Ibid., 225–227.

53. Woodrow Wilson, War Message to Congress, quote in Strachan, The First World War, 227.

54. Within both of the two major source collections I used for this article as well as the writings of contemporaries Dubois and Starr, there is never any explicit or clear mention of Liberia acting under US orders to go to war, nor any attempt by the United States to force Liberia into the conflict. The source material, almost exclusively documentation between Liberia and the United States, allows for the creation of new perspective and arguments, as well as gives an interesting view into the unique colonial relationship between the United States and Liberia. Richard Bundy (Various Letters and Correspondence), National Archives, Microfilm Collection 613, Roll 4, 5; John L. Morris, Acting Secretary of War (Various Letters and Correspondence) 1916–1918, Liberian Government Archives II, 1911–1968, Liberia Collections Project, Indiana University Archives Online, (Accessed 11 January 2017); Starr, “Liberia After the World War”; Dubois, ‘Liberia and Rubber,’ ‘Liberia, the League and the United States,’.

55. I found several contemporary US newspapers discussing Liberia’s entry into World War One, but none printed any discussion of the United States making the request for Liberia to enter the war. Haskin, ‘Forgotten Liberia,’ The Lexington Herald, May 21 1917 Monday; ‘Liberia Offers Her Cooperation to the United States,’ Times-Leader, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, May 21 1917; Dubois, in the above-mentioned article, “Liberia, the League and the United States,” also makes no explicit mention of a US request though it states that ‘one inducement was a loan promised…by the United States Government.’ Dubois, “Liberia, the League and the United States,” 322–324.

56. Starr, “Liberia after the World War,” 114–116; and Dubois, “Liberia, the League and the United States,” 323.

57. Richard Bundy et al, Monrovia, 1915–1918, National Archives, Microfilm Collection 613, Roll 4, 5.

58. American Reform Program, Instructions to Liberia. National Archives, Microfilm Collection 613, Roll 4.

59. W. H. Parks, W. H. Parks to Daniel Howard, Monrovia, 21 April 1917; British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to Acting Consul-General, 27 April 1917. Both found in ‘Declaration of War on Germany by Liberia’ (Government Papers, The National Archives, Kew, 1917). Accessed [13 November 2016]. http://www.archivesdirect.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Details/FO_458_45.

60. Declarations of War and Severances of Diplomatic Relations, 1914–1918, Washington Government Printing Office, 1919 (Accessed 12 November 2016, Google Books).

61. C. D. B. King, ‘Severing of Diplomatic Relations Between Liberia and Germany,’ 5 May 1917, The American Journal of International Law, 11. 4, Supplement: Official Documents (Oct., 1917), 164–165.

62. Ibid.

63. Liberian Legislature, ‘Joint Resolution Declaring the Existence of a State of War with Germany, 4 August, 1917,’ Declarations of War and Severances of Diplomatic Relations, 1914–1918, Washington Government Printing Office, 1919 (Accessed 12 November 2016, Google Books).

64. Erez Manela’s argument on the ‘Wilsonian Moment’ applies here, as Wilson’s support of self-determinism and the rights of small countries, while not intended for non-European populations, was embraced and used by Liberia in its official declaration of war and its reasoning for participating in the conflict. Manela, The Wilsonian Moment.

65. Bundy, Bundy to Secretary of State, Monrovia, 13 March 1918. National Archives, Microfilm Collection 613, Roll 5.

66. Starr, Liberia after the World War, 114.

67. Bundy, Bundy to Secretary of State, Monrovia, February 7; 9; 2 March 1918; National Archives, 613 Roll 12.

68. ‘Liberia in the War,’ Philadelphia Inquirer, 1917.

69. See note 1 above.

70. Richard Bundy, Bundy to British-Consulate General, Monrovia, 26 April 1918; National Archives, Roll 12.

71. Strachan, The First World War, 325–327, 332,333.

72. ‘Treaty of Versailles (1919).’ Documenting Democracy. Museum of Australian Democracy [Accessed 13 December 2016] http://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/scan-sid-11.html.

73. Strachan, The First World War, 156–158, 262–265, 281.

74. Mitman and Erickson, “Latex and Blood: Science, Markets, and American Empire,”, 52–53, 57–60; Muhammad, “Slavery in Liberia,” 120–123; and Mackenzie, “Liberia and the League of Nations,” 374–378.