President Arthur Barclay

The 'father' of Liberia's Open Door Policy

Why was the Administration of President Arthur Barclay so important?

The origin of Liberia’s Open Door Policy: modeled on the US example

The 1906 Loan and the appointment of foreign supervisors

The 1912 Loan: More foreigners appointed

External and internal threats to Americo-Liberian rule

Americo-Liberian – tribal relations

President Arthur Barclay (1904-1912)
Concluding note

President Arthur Barclay had steered the country through a difficult period during which its continued existence was at more than one occasion endangered. Subsequently, the outbreak of the First World War, the British blockade of Liberia, and the resulting drop of the country’s trade, greatly affected Liberia’s history and its dealing with foreign loans and investments. But then we are entering the Administrations of Presidents Daniel Howard (1912-1920) and Charles Dunbar King (1920-1930).

It was President Daniel Howard who signed a Loan Agreement in 1917 with the Bank of British West Africa. Nearly ten years later President King concluded perhaps the most humiliating loan in Liberia’s history which earned Liberia, together with the preponderance of the rubber giant Firestone, the nick-name ‘Firestone Colony’.

President Arthur Barclay

Source: Fred P.M. van der Kraaij, ‘The Open Door Policy of Liberia – An Economic History of Modern Liberia’ (Bremen, 1983; pp. 12 -46).

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