Traders' mail is known from 1885 carried by steamers of the Woermann Line (see also German Cameroons) and put into the German system at Hamburg.

Togo joined the UPU in 1886 with other German colonies. During German rule there were 17 POs and the last of these, Atakpam, was overrun by the Allies on 26 August 1914.

Allied Occupation of Togo
Colony was seized by the Allies in August 1914 and administered jointly by Britain and France until divided between them on 10 July 1919. Lome was transferred from the British area to the French on 20 September 1920.
Stamps of German Togo overprinted in English issued: 1 October 1914.
Stamps of German Togo overprinted in French issued: 8 October 1914.

Later, British overprints were made on stamps of the Gold Coast (1915), and French overprints on stamps of Dahomey (1916). Some unoverprinted stamps of the Gold Coast were used during shortages in 1914-15.

After the territorial division, the British mandate used stamps of the Gold Coast (territory was absorbed into that colony and is now part of Ghana).

Mandates were confirmed by the League of Nations on 20 July 1922. The United Nations awarded the British zone to the Gold Coast on ethnic grounds.

French-mandated Togo declared for the Vichy Government in 1940. It was made a trust territory in 1946, became an autonomous republic within the French Community on 16 April 1955 and on 27 April 1960 an independent republic. There have since been palace revolutions.

Since independence there have been many issues from the country and, politically, it has been unstable.In 1972 there were 39 POs and 16 PAs.

The first President of Togo was assassinated in 1963. His successor was overthrown by the Military in 1967 and the army commanded, Colonel Eyadema, named himself president. He came under increasing pressure to introduce reforms in 1990 1nd, in October of that year, the RPT, the sole legal party. Approved plans for a new Constitution. Riots broke out in March 1991, mainly in protest at the slow pace of reform and during the next month the Government was forced to conced a political amnesty.

In August 1991, the National Conference stripped the President of all his powers, banned the RPT and elected Kokou Koffigou as the Prime Minister of an Interim Government. However, rioting and civil disobedience continued until, in 1999, legislative elections were held and a new Prime Minister was appointed. Even so, the whole country remains politically unstable.

Gold Coast & Togo 1920
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