Togoland was a German protectorate in West Africa from 1884 to 1914,
encompassing what is now the nation of Togo and most of what is now the Volta
Region of Ghana. The colony was established during the period generally
known as the "Scramble for Africa". The colony was established in 1884 in part
of what was then the Slave Coast and was gradually extended inland. At the
outbreak of the First World War in 1914 the colony was drawn into the conflict.
It was invaded and quickly overrun by British and French forces during the
Togoland campaign and placed under military rule. In 1916 the territory was
divided into separate British and French administrative zones, and this was
formalized in 1922 with the creation of British Togoland and French Togoland.
History The colony was established towards the
end of the period of European colonization in Africa generally known
as the "Scramble for Africa". Two separate protectorates were established
in 1884. In February 1884, the chiefs of the town of Aného were kidnapped by
German soldiers and forced to sign a treaty of protection. In the Lomé
region, the German explorer, medical doctor, imperial consul and commissioner
for West Africa Gustav Nachtigal was the driving force toward the establishment
of the West African colonies of Togoland as well as Kamerun. From his base on the
Spanish island possession Fernando Po in the Bight of Biafra he traveled
extensively on the mainland of Africa. On 5 July 1884 Nachtigal signed a treaty
with the local chief, Mlapa III, in which he declared a German protectorate
over a stretch of territory along the Slave Coast on the Bight of Benin. With
the small gunboat SMS Möwe at anchor, the imperial flag was raised for the
first time on the African continent. Consul Heinrich Ludwig Randad, Jr.,
resident agent of the firm C. Goedelts at Widah, was appointed as the first
commissioner for the territory. In 1899, Germany and Great Britain
traded territory in the Samoan Islands for the Northern Solomon Islands and
control in Tonga, using the Togoland Neutral Zone and the Volta Triangle as
bargaining chips. Economics and growth
Germany gradually extended its control inland. Colonial administrators and
settlers brought scientific cultivation to the country's main export crops. The
total number of German officials in the colony was only 12 in 1890. The colony’s
infrastructure was developed to one of the highest levels in Africa. Colonial
officials built roads and bridges to the interior mountain ranges and three rail
lines from the capital Lomé; along the coast to Aného in 1905, to Palime in
1907, and the longest line, the Hinterlandbahn to Atakpamé by 1911. By
1910, over 1,000 of roads were constructed by the colonial office.
Organised in 1888 with 25 Hausa infantry, the Polizeitruppe was utilised
in enforcing the colonial authority over the hinterland of Togo. Expanded to 144
members in 1894, operations against Kpandu and "a number of towns in central
Togo which had resisted the government were attacked and razed to the ground,
the property of the inhabitants confiscated and the people fined sums
ranging from 200 marks to 1,110 marks." For the remainder of the decade, an
additional 35 expeditions were authorised by the colonial government.
In 1895 the capital Lomé had a population of 31 Germans and 2,084
natives. By 1913 the native population had swelled to 7,042 persons and 194
Germans, including 33 women, while the entire colony had a German population of
316, including 61 women and 14 children. In the years just before World War I,
Lomé had grown into the “prettiest town in West Africa.” Because it was one of
Germany's two self-supporting colonies, Togoland was acknowledged as a small but
treasured possession. This would last until the eruption of World War I.
In 1911, colonial governor Edmund Brückner created 5 five point plan to
help advance the natives, as cited in Togo under the German Flag by Heinrich
Klose: 1 "Cultivate the natives by
indoctrinating them into German culture, as it is far superior than the inferior
savage negroid culture." 2 "Insist on enforcing a tax on each
negroid in order to encourage work and deter the natives from ensuing with
their hereditary lazy inactive culture." 3 "Institute segregated facilities, with
the native facilities being inferior to the European as long as the negroid race
remains uncultivated." 4 "Create a Compulsory work scheme for
the negroid species to assist with public projects in developing the
colony." 5 "Consider removing the negroid savages
of low moral fibre into work camps deep into the hinterland."
The plan was never implemented due to the outbreak of World War One.
World War I occupation and beyond After calling on the German colony to
surrender on 6 August 1914, French and British troops invaded unopposed the
next day. No military personnel were stationed in the protectorate. The
police force consisted of a commander and deputy commander, 10 German
sergeants, 1 native sergeant and 660 Togolese policemen deployed throughout
the territory. The Entente forces occupied the capital Lome, then advanced
on a powerful and new radio station near Kamina. The colony surrendered on 26
August 1914, after the German technicians who had built the radio
installation now destroyed the station during the night of 24/25 August. In the
weeks before the destruction, Kamerun, German Southwest Africa, German East
Africa and 47 ships on the high seas were sent reports of Allied actions, as
well as warnings of predicaments ahead. On 27 December 1916, Togoland was
separated into French and British administrative zones. After the end of
World War I, newly established Czechoslovakia tried to acquire the
colony, however this was not realized. Following the ratification of the Treaty
of Versailles, on 20 July 1922, Togoland formally became a League of Nations
Class B mandate divided into French Togoland and British Togoland, covering
respectively about two-thirds and one-third of the territory.
The British area of the former German colony was integrated into Ghana in 1957
following a May 1956 plebiscite where 58% of British-area residents voted in
favour of joining Ghana upon its independence, rather than remaining
under British-administered trusteeship. The French-ruled region became the
Republic of Togo in 1960 and is now known as the Togolese Republic. In 1960,
the new state invited the last German governor of Togoland, Duke Adolf
Friedrich of Mecklenburg to the country’s official independence
celebrations. See also
British Togoland French Togoland
German East Africa German Kamerun
German South-West Africa German West African Company
Gold Coast History of Togo
List of colonial heads of German Togoland
List of former German colonies Volta Region
Footnotes References
Haupt, Werner. Deutschlands Schutzgebiete in Übersee 1884-1918.
[Germany’s Overseas Protectorates 1884-1918]. Friedberg: Podzun-Pallas
Verlag. ISBN 3-7909-0204-7. Laumann, Dennis. "A Historiography of
German Togoland, or the Rise and Fall of a "Model Colony"". History in Africa 30:
195–211. Washausen, Helmut. Hamburg und die
Kolonialpolitik des Deutschen Reiches. [Hamburg and Colonial Politics of the
German Empire]. Hamburg: Hans Christians Verlag.
External links Map of Togoland
Proposed flag of Togoland