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Sierra Leone has four physical regions: the coastal-swamp region along the Atlantic, a flat, low-lying, frequently flooded plain 20 to 40 miles (32 to 64 km) wide; the Sierra Leone Peninsula, the site of Freetown and a region of thickly wooded mountains that rise from coastal swamps to an elevation of 2,913 feet (888 m) at Picket Hill; the interior plains, consisting of featureless grasslands, rolling wooded country, and a variety of landforms ranging from savanna-covered low plains to rocky scarp …

…colony. The hinterland was gradually explored and was proclaimed a British protectorate in 1896. Sierra Leone achieved independence in 1961 but remained in the Commonwealth of Nations. The civilian government was overthrown by military forces in 1967. The military government was ousted a year later, and civilian rule was reestablished. Sierra Leone became a republic in 1971 and a one-party state in 1978. A military regime assumed power in 1992 in response to the country's declining economy and chronic governmental misrule.