Togoland

Togoland, officially the Togoland Protectorate, was a German protectorate in West Africa from 1884 to 1914. It covered about 90,400 square kilometres, corresponding to modern Togo and most of Ghana's Volta Region. Germany established the colony during the Scramble for Africa: in July 1884 the explorer and imperial commissioner Gustav Nachtigal signed a treaty with the local chief Mlapa III and raised the German flag on the Slave Coast. The first seat of administration was at Baguida, and the capital later moved to Sebe and then to Lomé. Germany gradually extended control inland and promoted cacao, coffee and cotton, building roads and three rail lines from Lomé. The colonial administration was small, with only a handful of officials, and relied on a police force recruited locally. At the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, British and French forces invaded and quickly overran the colony, which surrendered on 26 August. In 1916 the territory was divided into British and French administrative zones, formalised in 1922 as League of Nations mandates. British Togoland joined Ghana in 1957, while French Togoland became independent as Togo in 1960.