Despite this internal dissent Liberia enjoyed a period of relative calm until 1980 when Master Sergeant Samuel Doe (left) staged a military coup, backed by ethnic soldiers who had eventually tired of Americo-Liberian rule, killing the President William R. Tolbert, Jr. and executed most of his cabinet. Doe then suspended the constitution effectively ending Africa's first republic and became the country's first non Americo-Liberian leader since the country's inception. In 1985 elections were held to legitimise Doe's rule, however Doe lost the vote and responded by firing all count officials, replacing them with his own and declaring himself the narrow victor. The following month Thomas Quiwonkpa, a former Commanding General of the Armed Forces of Liberia, launched a botched coup, and he was later executed by Doe's soldiers along with between 2000-3000 civilians. Hundreds of opposition politicians were arrested and held in detention.

This election and coup spawned an even more oppressive regime that was to sew the seeds of the first Liberian Civil War in 1989 when the Americo-Liberian Charles Taylor and his National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) supported by Burkina Faso and the Ivory Coast entered Liberia and soon seized control of all lands save for an area around the capital of Monrovia.

This was achieved so easily due to the general support of the population who had rapidly become disillusioned with Does' rule. By 1990 Doe had been captured, tortured and killed and the war was in full flow between those supportive of the Americo-Liberian Taylor and elements supporting the majority non-elitist population. Over the subsequent years troops from neighbouring countries entered the conflict, however uneasy elections were held in 1997 which saw Taylor (right) elected as president, elections which were deemed fair by outside observers.