LiberiaData

Between roughly 1880 and 1914, the European powers engaged in the systematic partition of the African continent. At the Berlin Conference of 1884–85, these powers formally divided Africa among themselves without consulting a single African government. By 1914, over 90 percent of the continent was under European colonial rule. The two exceptions were Liberia and Ethiopia.

American Protection

That Liberia survived as a sovereign state was the result of a combination of factors: American diplomatic support, skillful Liberian diplomacy, the persistence of its legal claim to statehood under international law, and the relative lack of resources in Liberia’s interior that might have made it a more attractive prize. The United States exercised what historians have described as a ‘moral protectorate’ over Liberia, declining to formalize a colonial relationship but intervening diplomatically when Liberian sovereignty was directly threatened.

Financial Dependence

Financially, the republic was in perpetual difficulty. In 1912, an international loan of $1.7 million secured by customs revenue, was arranged to stabilize the government’s finances. This arrangement, while it preserved formal sovereignty, placed significant constraints on Liberian economic independence and was a form of external control in all but name.

The survival of Liberia through the Scramble for Africa is one of the most remarkable facts in African political history. It came at a cost; territorial concessions, financial dependence, and limited capacity to resist encroachment in the interior, but the sovereign flag flew over Monrovia throughout the colonial era.

Sources:
Wikipedia — Liberia [2];
Wikipedia — History of Liberia [1];
Britannica [5]