Is it the case that as Israel was founded to be a homeland for historically abused Jews, Liberia was founded to be a homeland for historically abused blacks/ex-slaves?
Are the ideas behind them completely different, were they populated completely differently, are they different in the methods used to exist/run?
If my motive behind the question is useful, I am curious as to what explains the difference in the "success" of the two countries since I assume they have similar reasons for being founded. I know that Liberia historically has a strong connection to the US as does Israel so I would think that Liberia could have received a large amount of US support as well.
According to Vice "News," the ex-American slaves went back and "enslaved the native population," however looking it up this doesn't seem to be a lot of evidence to this?
According to Vice "News," the ex-American slaves went back and "enslaved the native population," however looking it up this doesn't seem to be a lot of evidence to this?
"Enslaved" is an exaggeration, but the Americo-Liberians (the name given the the ex-slaves and their descendants who went to Liberia) did indeed dominate and exploit the indigenous population in a racial-esque manner quite similar to European colonialism in other parts of Africa, and set up segregation systems not dissimilar to Jim Crow.
There was never the same scale of African-American migration to Liberia as there was Jewish migration to Palestine, even before the Holocaust. The Americo-Liberians probably never exceeded 10% of the population, wheres Jews were about 17% of Mandatory Palestine (including all of what is now Israel, the West Bank and Gaza) as early as 1931.
Also, the Americo-Liberians saw themselves as engaged in a "civilising mission" towards the native Liberians - they were to convert them to Christianity, get them to adopt Euro-American cultural practices, etc. Zionism never particularly wanted to Judaise the Palestinian Arabs, who they saw more as a somewhat problematic obstacle to the creation of a Jewish homeland/state. I can go a bit more into the debates about that if you want, but be aware it is quite controversial, both historically and politically.