Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
True Whig
The True Whig, also known as Liberian Whig Party, was Liberia's only legal political party for over 100 years, from 1878 to the coup d'etat of 1980.
Initially, its ideology was heavily influenced by that of the United States Whig Party.
It presided over a society where only settlers and their descendants were citizens able to vote, and so represented them, often working in tandem with the Masonic Order. The party endorsed systems of forced labour and even sold human labour to other colonial powers . Despite this, the west saw them as a stabilising, unthreatening force and so invested heavily in the nation under William Tubman's leadership (1944–1971). The party collapsed after Tubman's successor, William Tolbert, was killed in an April 1980 coup by forces opposed to his clampdown on the political opposition and tolerance of corruption.
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