The history of the country's poetic name 'Sierra Leone' dates back to 1462, when a Portuguese explorer, Pedro da Cintra, sailed down the coast of West Africa and saw the long range of mountains of what is now the Freetown Peninsula. As a result of the topographic configuration and climatic conditions experienced by the explorer at the time, he called the lands 'Sierra Lyoa' meaning 'Lion Mountains'. In the sixteenth century an English sailor called it 'Sierra Leoa'; by the seventeenth it was 'Sierra Leona', and by 1787, under the Sierra Leone Company, it became the first of several British Administrations.

Through the years of British Colonisation, the original name was modified and it became 'Sierra Leone', the name by which the country is known today. Before being discovered by Europeans, the original local name for what is now 'Freetown' was 'Romarong', meaning the place of the 'Wailers'; so-called because of the constant weeping and screaming of victims of storm and cross-current disasters at the mouth of the Sierra Leone river. (Interestingly, when the Portuguese sailor, Pedro da Cintra called the country by its present name 'Sierra Lyoa', he had not deviated much from the concept of the indigenous people of names based on the observation of nature.)

During the latter half of the 18th Century, Bunce Island was one of the major slave trading operations on the Rice Coast of West Africa. Sierra Leone was for many years used as a slave trading outpost until it was gradually phased out and later, in the 18th century, it became a settlement for freed slaves after the English philanthropist Granville Sharpe, who was deeply concerned about the welfare of freed slaves, published his proposal to take them all back to Africa and settle them there where they could prosper in a genial climate.

Much has been written of the traumatic history of the Slave Trade, but one of the most courageous stories of the fight of Sierra Leoneans against slavery is the story of the Amistad. Part of the legacy of the Slave Trade can still be seen in the USA, amongst the Gullah, who still retain many cultural traits from their origins in Sierra Leone.

Through its period of British colonisation, Sierra Leone also served as the seat of Government for other British Colonies along the West African Coast. The first college for higher education in West Africa and indeed in tropical Africa, Fourah Bay College, was established in Sierra Leone in 1827. The country is therefore well known for its early achievements in the fields of medicine, law and education which originally earned it the name, 'the Athens of West Africa'.

Freetown, the capital, seat of government and centre of all commercial activities in the country has spread considerably, from its population of a mere 7,400 in 1874 to about 700,000 inhabitants now; and this figure is still growing.

Freetown also provides natural anchorage and berthing facilities for ships at the Queen Elizabeth II Quay, the third largest natural harbour in the world. The City contains many important buildings and landmarks of historical and cultural interest, the most prominent and significant of which is the Cotton Tree, standing almost in the centre of Freetown, and reputed to be more than 300 years old.

Since 1991, civil war between the government and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and the displacement of more than 2 million people (well over one-third of the population) many of whom are now refugees in neighboring countries. A peace agreement, signed on 7 July 1999, offers hope that the country will be able to rebuild its devastated economy and infrastructure, but previous peace efforts have failed. As of late 1999, up to 6,000 UN peacekeepers were in the process of deploying to bolster the peace accord.