It's said that the civil war has deep roots back to the relationship between Americo-Liberians and the indigenous but I don't quite understand how this is relevant to the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) invading Liberia.
Since the introduction of Americo-Liberians to Liberia beginning in the early 1800's, they had maintained a firm grip on the politics and military of the country. They were Christianized, spoke a different language than many of the inland indigenous groups and waged several wars against the inland Liberians to maintain control of the country. They also instituted a system of quasi-racial segregation against indigenous Liberians, with themselves on top, and native Africans below. Because Americo-Liberians ran most of the trade, and capitalism in the country, they dominated the economic policies as well. One such method they used to oppress native Liberians was the use of aone party state under the Americo-Liberian dominated True Whig Party, which was near impossible to get into unless you were a member of the Masonic Order of Liberia, which in turn banned the entry of indigenous Africans.
In addition to severely limited political chance, outside of the Liberian Capitol of Monrovia, schooling, infrastructure and governmental assistance was increasingly shoddy and it was not until World War II that great numbers of inland, indigenous Liberians moved to the coast for work and education. Americo-Liberians dominated the country with a firm hand from 1817 to 1980 when Samuel Doe, an indigenous Liberian, led a coup against Americo-Liberian President William R. Tolbert Jr and executed most of his staff and governmental officers. From 1980 to 1985, Doe led the country under a Military junta and in 1985 held^^likely ^^fraudulent Presidential elections which led to his being declared President. Doe's highly corrupt government tied with crackdowns on indigenous groups led to Charles Taylor rallying support in neighboring Cote d'Ivoire and invading to end the Doe Regime. Therefore, the century long stranglehold that Americo-Liberians held on Liberian economic, political and military life, plus their oppression of the native Liberians, led to the coup by Indigenous born Samuel Doe which in turn led to counter-revolution by Charles Taylor.