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previously one of Africa’s most prosperous nations and yet was run into the ground through incompetence and graft. By 1989 both the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank had cut off financial aid. But Doe was kept afloat for many years by the United States, which feared further communist inroads into Africa. In time, 50 percent unemployment, tribal favoritism, and political repression ignited a widespread revolt in the interior of the country among the Mano and Gio peoples. In December 1989 Charles Taylor led fighters of the National Patriot Front from the Ivory Coast to seize the capital of Monrovia. At length they were joined by soldiers from another group, headed by Prince Yormie Johnson, which further compromised Doe’s grip on power. The presence of a Nigerian peace-keeping force in the vicinity did little to stabilize events, which had already cost 20,000 lives. Liberia’s army, badly trained and disciplined, responded to the fighting by indiscriminately murdering civilians. This only further enraged the populace, and the guerrillas continued advancing. Doe obtained a temporary respite when competing rebel camps started fighting each other outside the capital. Sensing an opportunity to negotiate a peaceful end to his regime, he approached the representatives from Johnson’s group, who invited him across the lines to parley. On September 9, 1990, Doe’s motorcade was ambushed, and he was wounded, captured, and tortured to death. This act concluded one of Africa’s most brutal regimes and ushered in a prolonged period of civil war lasting another five years. Liberia, once one of Africa’s most stable and prosperous nations, now lay in ruins. The only good to come from all this bloodshed was that the Americo-Liberians finally lost their stranglehold on political power. Further Reading Abango, George. “Political Gamble in Liberia: The Rise and Fall of Samuel Doe.” Towson State Journal of International Affairs 29, no. 2 (1994): 14–19. Ahmadu Sesay, Max. “Politics and Society in Postwar Liberia.” Journal of Modern African Studies 34 (September 1996): 395–421. Andrews, G. Henry. Cry, Liberia, Cry! New York: Vantage Press, 1993. Dolo, Emmanuel. Democracy Versus Dictatorship: The Quest for Freedom and Justice in Africa’s Oldest
Republic, Liberia. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1996. Gifford, Paul. Christianity and Politics in Doe’s Liberia. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Givens, Willie A., ed. Liberia: The Road to Democracy under the Leadership of Samuel Kanyon Doe. Bourne End, Bucks., England: Kensal Press, 1986. Lyons, T. “Liberia’s Path from Anarchy to Elections.” Current History 97 (May 1998): 229–233.
Dollfuss, Engelbert (1892–1934) chancellor of Austria Engelbert Dollfuss was born in Texing, part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, on October 4, 1892, the illegitimate son of a farmer. Like most peasants in this intensely Catholic country, Dollfuss was extremely conservative in his political outlook. He was raised by grandparents before passing through the University of Vienna to study law. During World War I the diminutive Dollfuss (around five feet tall) had trouble joining the army, but he eventually fought with distinction in Italy. Afterward he ventured to Germany and obtained an advanced law degree from the University of Berlin. World War I left the Austro-Hungarian Empire dismembered, and Austria, cut adrift from its imperial past, tried adjusting to parliamentary democracy as a small republic. Dollfuss entered politics in 1922 by joining the Lower Austria Chamber of Commerce and within five years served as its director. A skilled administrator, he advanced to president of the Federal Railway Board in 1930 and served as leader of the conservative Christian Social Party. The following year, drawing upon his lifelong experience as part of the Peasant League, Dollfuss became minister of agriculture. He rose unexpectedly to chancellor of Austria in 1932, thanks to a coalition of conservative groups dissatisfied with the nation’s political instability. This made him the youngest head of state then in Europe. Dollfuss assumed power at a difficult juncture in Austrian history, for the economy was reeling under the Great Depression. Worse, in 1933 the nation seethed with Nazi-inspired agitation after the election of ADOLF HITLER as chancellor of Germany. The rise of Nazism was something Dollfuss was determined to prevent. Ignoring public opinion, he refused to join a German customs union for fear it would serve as a platform for