There are two countries in Africa considered by some scholars to never have been colonized: Ethiopia and Liberia. The truth, however, is that brief periods of varying levels of foreign control during their early histories have left the question of whether Liberia and Ethiopia truly remained fully independent a subject of debate.

Key Takeaways Ethiopia and Liberia are widely believed to be the only two African countries to have never been colonized.

Their location, economic viability, and unity helped Ethiopia and Liberia avoid colonization.

Ethiopia was officially recognized as an independent state in 1896, after decisively defeating invading Italian forces at the Battle of Adwa. During its brief military occupation during World War II, Italy never established colonial control over Ethiopia.

Despite being founded by the United States in 1821 as a place to send its free Black residents, Liberia was never colonized after gaining its full independence in 1847.

Between 1890 and 1914, the so-called “scramble for Africa” resulted in the rapid colonization of most of the African continent by European powers. By 1914, around 90% of Africa was under European control. However, because of their locations, economies, and political status, Ethiopia and Liberia avoided colonization.

What Does Colonization Mean?

The process of colonization is the discovery, conquest, and settlement of one political body over another. It is an ancient art, practiced by the Bronze and Iron Age Assyrian, Persian, Greek, and Roman empires, not to mention the post-colonial empires of the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.

But the most extensive, most studied, and arguably the most damaging of the colonial actions is what scholars refer to as the Western Colonization, the efforts of the maritime European nations of Portugal, Spain, the Dutch Republic, France, England, and eventually Germany, Italy, and Belgium, to conquer the rest of the world. That began in the late 15th century, and by World War II, two-fifths of the world's land area and one-third of its population were in colonies; another third of the world's territory had been colonized but were now independent nations. And, many of those independent nations were made up primarily of the descendants of the colonizers, so the effects of Western colonization were never truly reversed.

Never Colonized?

There are a handful of countries that were not subsumed by the juggernaut of Western colonization, including Turkey, Iran, China, and Japan. In addition, the countries with longer histories or higher levels of development before 1500 tend to have been colonized later, or not at all. Characteristics that drove whether or not a country was colonized by the West appear to be how difficult it is to reach them, the relative navigation distance from northwestern Europe, and the lack of a safe overland passage to landlocked countries. In Africa, those countries arguably included Liberia and Ethiopia.

Considering it essential to the success of their economies, the imperialistic European nations avoided the outright colonization of Liberia and Ethiopia—the only two African countries they considered viable players in the trade-based world economy. However, in return for their apparent “independence,” Liberia and Ethiopia were forced to give up territory, agree to differing degrees of European economic control, and become participants in European spheres of influence.