How did Liberia and Ethiopia manage to remain "independent"

>>3150862
Liberia, murican protection
Ethiopia, by only fighting italians

Liberia is basically what happens when Americans move to Africa and set up a little America with them as the empowered citizens and the natives as 2nd class schmucks. It was basically a colony of the states.

Dunno about Liberia but Ethiopian clay is like Afghan clay, worthless and easy to defend. Puppeting was cheaper.

>>3150886
I've seen the use of the word "clay" as a stand in for what I think is the word land here on /his/ and only here. Am I correct in that it means the same thing as land in this instance? Been tryin to use good old context clues but I just wanna make sure.
Also where are you from?

>>3150877
It never was actually owned by America.

>>3151049

I know, I meant colony in the non-political sense. Their capital city is even named after one of the USA's presidents.

>>3150981
You're correct, clay means land. But other history-related communities use it as well. Polandball comics come to mind. Though I'm not sure if it originated online or offline.

Well, Ethiopia was about to be Italian but WWII happened.

Liberia survived because of America's implicit protection. I'm not sure if a formal protectorate was ever declared. But since its origins are in the United States, the colonizers just decided to leave it alone. Its a small patch of land with a low population and few resources compared to the rest of the continent up for grabs. The United States also showed its willingness to fight over colonies in the Spanish-American war of 1899. So why bother, if at best you'll provoke hostilities with the United States, and at worst have to go to full blown war against them?

As for Ethiopia, it was conquered by Italy in 1936. I'm not sure what the historical basis is for people ignoring this fact. The Italians did try once before (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Italo-Ethiopian_War) but failed due other European powers supporting Ethiopian independence, or more like European powers trying to weaken Italy and prevent it from linking up its Horn of Africa colonies. Then WWI happened, and everyone was busy for a while. Ethiopia then joined the League of Nations, which kept it somewhat safe for a while longer. But eventually it WAS conquered, if not exactly colonized by Italians.

>>3150886
Also for being a long running Christian kingdom. That was where Europeans thought Prestor John was for the longest time, remember.

>>3150862
Can someone tell my why didn't Liberia tried to expand?

At least something like the Great Trek. Imagine, a huge Liberia, controll all of West Africa, protected by the USA and stopping european imperialism.

>>3151288
Probably because the Americo-Liberians were a tiny minority who lacked the capacity to exercise authority over more land. Liberia was a strange minority-majority Rhodesia like and the dominant group only lost power in the 80s.

>>3151305
Feels bad man. They should have assimilated everybody there. Such a shame all the shit that happened in Liberia.

>>3151319
Why would people want to assimilate into a system with them at rock bottom?

>>3151351
>haha fucking africans I'm going to rule all of you
>*collapses into civil war*
>*develops nothing*

Pretty bad. They should have done some sort of selective assimilation.

When Italy invade Ethiopia the first time, I'm pretty sure the Russians sent the Ethiopians like 30,000 Berdan rifles and lots of ammunition; someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Liberia had American protection.

Ethiopia was christian.

Not everywhere in Africa was profitable. One of the main reasons for colonization was to deny territory to European rivals out of fear of 1 country forming a global empire. These 2 countries were already "claimed", in a diplomatic sense, and it benefited no one to rock the boat by invading.

Of course that didn't stop the Italians later.

>>3150862
Liberia was pretty much an American colony.

Liberia was set up by the US so slaves could go back to Africa.

Ethiopia is full of mountains and had no value at the time, so nobody even bothered.