French Togoland

Togo, 1916–1960. Draft, not yet reviewed

French Togoland was a French colonial League of Nations mandate from 1922 to 1946, and a UN trust territory from 1946 to 1960 in French West Africa. Togoland was divided into French and British administrative zones in 1916, and following the war, Togoland formally became a League of Nations mandate divided for administrative purposes between France and the United Kingdom. By statute in 1955, French Togoland became an autonomous republic within the French Union, although it retained its UN trusteeship status. On 27 April 1960, in a smooth transition, Togo severed its constitutional ties with France, shed its UN trusteeship status, and became fully independent under a provisional constitution with Olympio as president.

Seat of power: Lomé

No rulers documented for this era yet.

Culture

• French troops landed at Little Popo on 6 August 1914, meeting little resistance.
• After World War II, the mandate became a UN trust territory, still administered by French commissioners.
• In the 1956 referendum, French Togoland decided to end the trusteeship. On 10 September 1956, Nicolas Grunitzky became prime minister of the Autonomous Republic of Togo.
• On 21 June 1957, at the Hoda market, the colonial army fired on the crowd, killing 20 and injuring many.

Picture

The city was founded by the Ewes and expanded in the 19th century by German, British and African traders, becoming the capital of Togoland in 1897.

Image: Reich geck, CC BY 4.0, file

Sources

• French Togoland (Wikipedia)
• French Togoland (Wikidata)
• About the picture (Wikipedia)

Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.