section_path: Aftermath/African colonies listed by colonising power/Independent states
section_name: Independent states
paragraph_text: Independent states
  
  Liberia was founded, colonized, established, and controlled by the American Colonization Society, a private organisation established in order to relocate freed African American and Caribbean slaves from the United States and the Caribbean islands in 1822. Liberia declared its independence from the American Colonization Society on July 26, 1847. Liberia is Africa's oldest republic and the second-oldest black republic in the world (after Haiti). Liberia maintained its independence during the period as it was viewed by European powers as either a territory, colony or protectorate of the United States.
  
  The same powers assumed Ethiopia to be a protectorate of Italy although the country had never accepted this, and its independence from Italy was recognized after the Battle of Adwa which resulted in the Treaty of Addis Ababa in 1896. With the exception of Italian occupation between 1936 and 1941 by Benito Mussolini 's military forces, Ethiopia is Africa's oldest independent nation.