A Togolese Republic occurs as united states around West Africa, bordering Ghana in the west, Benin in the east and Burkina Faso in the north. To the south, it has the short Gulf of Guinea coast, on which a capital Lomé is located. |- | align=center style="vertical-align: top;" colspan=Two | National motto: Travail, Liberté, Patrie
(French: Work, Liberty, Country of origin) |- | align=center colspan=Deuce style="background: #ffffff;" | image:LocationTogo.png |- | Official language | French |- | Capital | Lomé |- | President | Faure Gnassingbé |- | Prime Minister | Edem Kodjo |- | Area
 - Total
 - % water | Ranked 122nd
56,785 km²
4.2 |- | Population
 - Total
 - Density | Ranked 106th
5,556,812 (2002)
98/km² |- | Independence
 - Date | From either France
April 27, 1960 |- | Currency | CFA franc |- | Time zone | UTC |- | National anthem | Salut à toi, pays de nos aïeux (Hail to thee, land of our forefathers) |- | Internet TLD | .tg |- | Calling Code | 228 |} History
Independent Article: History of Togo

Before European settlement
There are no of these is quite for sure what was happening within Togo prior to a Portuguese arrived in the late 15th century. Various tribes go in a united states from either everthing sides - a Ewé from Nigeria and Benin and the Mina and Guin from Ghana.

European Colony
While a slave trade began earnestly in the 16th century, several of a tribes - especially a Mina - became offices for the European bargainer, travelling inl& to purchase slaves from either the Kabyé and more northern tribes. Denmark staked a claim within Togo in the 18th century, however in 1884, Germany signed the treat by using a local king, Mlapa III, and Togoland became a German colony. A Germans brought scientific cultivation to the united states's independent exportation crops (theobroma cacao, coffee & cotton gauze) & developed its infrastructure to the greatest level inside Africa. However around 1914, Togo was occupied by French & British forces. Togo was split between a British & a French by League of Nations mandates fallowing World War I ended in 1918. & all the encompassing countries.

Independence
When you took a compound time period, a Myna grew around political & economic influence by virtue of their coastal position & yearn association by having Europeans. A Ewé, by direct contrast, were divided by having a dissection of Togoland, and political groups in each sides began to agitate for reunion. Hopes for unity were dashed whilst British Togoland voted to be incorporated into Ghana, so on the brink of independence. When a expiration of the French-administered UN trusteeship on April 27 1960, the French side declared its independence, by owning French Togoland becoming Togo.

Military Coup d'Etat
Inside 1963, Togo became the number one united states on the continent to own household budget the military coup resulting independence (Africa has averaged at least two a year since so, + several extra stillborn tries). President Sylvanus Olympio, who took professional when soon when Togo gained independence within 1960, was overthrown by 626 Togolese veterans of the French army. After Olympio refused to allow a veterans, numerous of whom experienced fought inside Indochina and Algeria, to join Togo's army, they deposed him within the military coup in January 13, 1963. He was flushed a next day, shot by Sgt. Étienne Eyadéma. Olympio's brother-around-law, Nicolas Grunitzky, returned from exile & was put inside charge, however he as well was deposed within January 1967 by then Lt Colonel (later on General) Étienne Eyadéma who became president. Since so, despite a façade of multiparty rule instituted in the early Nineties, the food & drug administration continues to become dominated per war machine, which has maintained its power day & night since 1967 and is firm to Eyadéma and his personal.

Eyadéma placed dead set unify a united states, insistence in a single trade union confederation & of these political person. Fallowing about losing his life inside the plane crash that he (at least publicly) chalked as much as an assassination attempt, Eyadéma nationalised the united states's phosphate mines & ordered 100% Togolese to choose an African title. He renamed himself Gnassingbé Eyadéma.

Economic expansion
It was, still, merely the perfunctory strike against colonialism: Togo remained heavily contingent the West. From either a late 1960s to 1980, Togo experienced the booming economy, built largely in its phosphate reserves, & Eyadéma tried to mould the united states into a traveler's & trader's paradise. His plans proved excessively challenging, & whilst a recession of the early Eighties hit & phosphate price levels plummeted, Togo's economy fell into ruin. The food and drug administration was plagued by many coup tries. Eyadémthe himself fired several of the shots that flushed Long dozen assailant within a 1986 coup.

Fight for democracy
In the early 1990s, the international community began putting pressure in Eyadémthe to democratize, a notion he resisted sustaining two or three waves of his trademark iron fist. Pro-democracy activists - mainly southern Mynah & Ewé - were met by having armed troops, killing scores of protesters around many clashes. A population of France & Togo were furious, & under their backlash Eyadéma gave inside. He was summarily stripped of tons powers & manufactured president in name. An interim prime minister was elected to require across command, but not quaternary months late his home was shelled using heavily artillery by Eyadéma's army. Their hardball manoeuvre continued into 1993.

Terror strikes against a independent click & political assassination tries became commonplace, when a promised 'transition' to democracy come to the standstill. A opposition continued to call for general strikes, leading to farther violence per army & a exodus of hundreds of thousands of southerners to Ghana & Benin. Utilizing intimidation tactics & clever political intrigue that disqualified a single opposition person & induced an additional to refuse to participate, Eyadéma won a 1993 presidential elections using to a higher degree 96% of the vote. In the years as a result, opposition parties use misplaced virtually all of their steam & Eyadéma's control hwhen be nigh when business firm as prior to a crisis began.

Within August 1996, Prime Minister Edem Kodjo resigned, and a planning minister, Kwassi Klutse, was appointed prime minister. Eyadéma won an additional 5-season term within June 1998 with 52% of the vote, nearly existence defeated by Gilchrist Olympio, son of Sylvanus Olympio. Late investigations revealed far flung human being rights abuses.

Inside 2002, in what critics known as the 'constitutional coup', a national assembly voted nemine contradicente to vary a constitution & allow Eyadéma to 'sacrifice himself once again' & run a third term in the period of the 2003 presidential elections. A constitutional vary eliminated presidential term restricts. Meanwhile, Gilchrist Olympio's attempts to beat the human world health organizatiin overthrew his father were scuppered however once again after he was banned from either heading on a tax-law triviality.

Despite allegations of electoral fraud, Eyadéma won 57% of a votes in the 2003 elections, which international observers from either the African Union described as typically loose & transparent. For several Togolese, there wwhen little optimism for the new & the prevailing feel of déjà vu when Eyadéma extended his record as Africa's longest-serving ruler.

Current political situation
In February 5 2005, Eyadéma died of a heart attack. Shortly after, his boy Faure Gnassingbé was named by Togo's military when a united states's leader, raising many brow. A constitution of Togo declared that in the experience of the president's dying, a speaker of Parliament will require his place, & has Lx years to call for recently elections. Yet, in February 6th, Parliament retroactively changed a Constitution, declaring that Faure would hang on to professional for the rest of his father's term, by owning elections deferred until 2008.

A African Union described a takeover as a military coup d'état. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4241001.stm] International pressure come likewise from either a United Nations. Inside Togo, opposition to the takeover culminated inside riots where tetrad humans died. Around response, Gnassingbé agreed to hang on to elections in April 2005. In February 25, Gnassingbé resigned as president, presently when accepting nomination to run the professional within April. Parliament intended Deputy Speaker Bonfoh Abbass as interim president until the inauguration of the election winner. [http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2005/02/25/international/i180735S60.DTL] In May 3, 2005, Gnassingbé wwhen sworn in as a newly president garnering 60% of the vote based on data from official outcomes. Disquiet hwhen continued but using a opposition declaring a ballot rigged, claiming a armed forces stole ballot boxes from either various polling stations south, besides as more election irregularities, like telecommunication closure. [http://www.scidev.net/gateways/index.cfm?fuseaction=readitem&rgwid=4&item=Opinions&itemid=401&language=1] A European Union has suspended help around trend lines of a opposition claims, when a African Union & a United States stand declared the vote "reasonably fair" & accepted a effect. A Nigerian president & Chair of the AU, Olusegun Obasanjo, has sought to negotiate between the incumbent government & the opposition to establish a coalition government, however surpisingly rejected an AU Commission appointment of previous Zambian president, Kenneth Kaunda, as favorite AU envoy to Togo ([http://allafrica.com/stories/200506060694.html] & [http://allafrica.com/stories/200507040093.html]).

Geography
Independent article: Geography of Togo

Togo is located in American Africa. These are the little sub-Saharan united states. It borders a Bight of Benin in the south. Ghana lies to the west, Benin to the east. Northerly Togo is attached by Burkina Faso.

North the land is characterized by a gently rolling savannah within counterpoint to the centre of the united states which is characterized by hills. the south of Togo is characterized by the tablel& which reaches to a coastal plain by having extensive laguna and lakes. A land size occurs as little bit little than West Virginia with 21 927 mi², sustaining the density of 23Deuce people/mi².

Regions

Independent Article: Regions of Togo

Togo is divided into Quintet regions. From either northerly to south these regions come Savanes, Kara, Centrale, Plateaux, Maritime.

Economy
Independent article: Economy of Togo

This little Sub-Saharan economy is heavily contingent on each commercial message & subsistence agriculture, which provides employment for 65% of the labor pool. Cocoa, coffee, and cotton together generate about 30% of exportation earnings. Togo is self-self-sustaining within basic foodstuffs while harvests come normal, by using occasional regional supply difficulties. In the industrial sector, phosphate mining is by far a first activity, although it has suffered from either a collapse of globe phosphate cost & increased foreign competition.

Togo serves as a regional commercial message & trade center. The food and drug administration's decade-long effort, supported per World Bank and the IMF, to implement economic reform measures, encourage foreign investment, and bring revenues around line by using expenditures has stalled. Political unrest, including personal & public sector strikes throughout 1992 and 1993, jeopardized a reform program, shrunk the taxation base, & disrupted vital economic activity. A 12 January 1994 devaluation of the currency by 50% provided an important impetus to renewed structural adjustment; these efforts were facilitated per prevent of strife within 1994 & the go to to open political calmness. Progress depends within ensuing across in denationalization, increased openness in government fiscal operations (to accommodate increased social service outlays), & imaginable curtailment of the military, on which a regime has depended to stay in situ. Deficiency of help, along by owning depressed cocothe price levels, generated a 1% fall around GDP around 1998, with incubation resuming around 1999. Assuming there are no deterioration of the political atmosphere, incubation should rise to 5% a year within 2000 - 2001.

Politics
Independent article: Politics of Togo

Togo's transition to democracy is stalled. Its popular institutions remain nascent & fragile. President Eyadémthe, world health organization ruled Togo under a 1-person formulas for about Twenty-five of his 37 years around power, died February 5, 2005. Under a constitution, a speaker of parliament, Fambaré Ouattara Natchaba, should have turn into president, pending the newly election. Even so, a army announced that Eyadéma's boy Faure Gnassingbé, also referred to as Faure Eyadéma, world health organization experienced been a communications minister, would succeed him. A declared justification was that Natchaba was away from a united states. [http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1107659938613]. The food & drug administration besides moved to dislodge Natchaba when speaker [http://www.republicoftogo.com/fr/news/news.asp?rubID=4&srubID=75&themeID=1&newsID=9170] and replenish him using Faure Gnassingbé, world health organizatiin was sworn inside on February 7, 2005, despite the international criticism of the succession. [http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050207/wl_afp/togopolitics_050207180309]

Gnassingbé resigned in February 25 after controversy erupted on top his succession, & ran as a candidate for the presidency. In April 24, 2005, Gnassingbé was elected president of Togo, getting on top 60% of the vote based on data from official resolutions. Understand a History division of this article for details.

Culture
Independent article: Culture of Togo

Look at likewise: Music of Togo, List of writers from Togo