Western Africa · SLE
Sierra Leone
The story · 9 chapters
How it was drawn
Sapi carvers and Temne and Mende chiefdoms, a coast of the slave trade where Britain founded Freetown for freed Africans in 1792, a protectorate from 1896, independent in 1961 and rebuilt after a civil war.
Play the story Take the first lessonThrough the ages
Rivals in history
The kingdoms, empires and states Sierra Leone fought or stood against, from the first to today.
- Mane invaders1545 to 1560
In the mid sixteenth century the Mane, warrior groups linked to the Mande world of the interior, sweep down to the coast and conquer the Sapi peoples. Their leaders found new ruling lineages among the Temne and others.
- Koya Temne1789 to 1807
The Temne kingdom of Koya owns the land of the first settlement. In 1789 its ruler, King Jimmy, burns Granville Town after a quarrel with British sailors. Temne forces attack Freetown again in 1801 and 1802, but fail to take it.
At war with Britain, a French squadron reaches Freetown in September 1794, plunders it for two weeks and burns much of the young town. The settlers rebuild it within a few years.
- British Empire1898
Britain's hut tax provokes the war of 1898. Bai Bureh's Temne fighters and the Mende rising hold out for months against British and West Indian troops before the revolt is crushed and its leaders hanged or exiled.
- Revolutionary United Front1991 to 2002
The RUF invades from Liberia in 1991, seizes the diamond fields and takes Freetown in 1999 with the army's renegade junta. It is defeated with West African, UN and British help, and disarms by 2002.
- Liberia under Charles Taylor1991 to 2003
Charles Taylor's forces arm and train the RUF, trading guns for diamonds. A UN backed court in Sierra Leone convicts him in 2012 of aiding and abetting war crimes, and sentences him to fifty years.
Today
Sierra Leone now
Continuously populated for at least 2,500 years, the area now known as Sierra Leone is covered with dense jungle that allowed the region to remain relatively protected from invading West African empires. Traders introduced Sierra Leone to Islam, which occupies a central role in Sierra Leonean culture and history. In the 17th century, the British set up a trading post near present-day Freetown. The trade originally involved timber and ivory but later expanded to enslaved people.
- Capital
- Freetown
- Government
- presidential republic
- Head of government
- David Sengeh
- Head of state
- Julius Maada Bio
- Languages
- Krio, English
- Area
- 72,300 km²
Through time
Then and now
- Population8.5 million2023 · 2.0 million in 1950
- Life expectancy61.8 years2023 · 28.9 years in 1950
- GDP per person$1,6902022 · $902 in 1950
- Living in cities46%2025 · 12% in 1950
- Literacy44%2019 · 8% in 1950
- Political regimeElectoral autocracy2025 · Closed autocracy in 1950
- Military alliancesNone of these2024 · None of these in 1950
- Military spending0.4% of GDP2025
- War deathsNone2025
Population: HYDE 3.3, Gapminder and UN WPP. GDP per capita: Maddison Project Database 2023. Urban share: UN WPP. Life expectancy: Riley, HMD, UN WPP. Literacy: OWID historical estimates, World Bank, UNESCO. Military spending: SIPRI. War deaths: UCDP. Political regime: V-Dem, Regimes of the World. All via Our World in Data (CC BY 4.0). Alliances and organization memberships: compiled by Atlas. Satellites in orbit: CelesTrak SATCAT. Modern borders, backcast.
Relations
Close partners and tensions
Close partners
- United Kingdom
- United States
- China
Summarised from World Bank and Wikipedia data, updated 24 October 2026.