The western African nation of Liberia was established in 1847. Home to roughly 3.5 million people, the nation is Africa's oldest republic. In the early 1800s, freed slaves and the descendants of slaves from the United States settled in Liberia. Although the Americo-Liberians made up just 5 percent of Liberia's population, they dominated the nation's government and economy--eventually leading to many years of ethnic conflict and civil war. By the twenty-first century, these troubles had turned Liberia into one of the world's poorest and most violent countries.