Togoland
Togoland enjoys the distinction of being the smallest and at the same time the most prosperous of the German Colonies. The Colony is 33,700 square miles in extent, with a coastline of only thirty-two miles, reaching from Lome, on the border of the British Colony of the Gold Coast, to Grand Popo on the boundary of French Dahomey.
The French Colonies of Upper Senegal and Niger are the northern boundary; while it is bounded on the east by French Dahomey and by the British Gold Coast on the west.
The climate is tropical, and like the rest of the Guinea coast the coast-belt is hot, humid and malaria-stricken, such as is generally met with in low-lying forest country or on the coast at sea-level anywhere in the Tropics.
Lying behind the coast-belt are stretches of dense forest containing palms, rubber vines, and considerable quantities of timber of good quality. Arising farther inland are high and extensive plateaux, many of the elevated parts being free from malaria and capable of yielding quantities of natural products. The richness of its natural resources indeed made Togoland almost immediately after annexation financially independent.
There is a German population in Togoland of 1,537, nearly all of whom are officials and soldiers; and of the 131 so-called settlers, the majority are plantation managers and overseers.
The native population amounts to 3,500,000, and they are divided into numerous tribes, embracing many degrees of kultur from raw cannibals to comparatively civilised states.
The administration is in the hands of an Imperial Governor, surrounded by a swarm of officials and a local council of unofficial members, who are, as a rule, the representatives of merchant houses.
Immediately on acquiring Togoland, the Germans commenced sending trading expeditions into the interior, and extending their "sphere of influence" inland. A central trading station (Bismarcksburg) was established, and a trade centre was created for each tribe. Two hundred and twenty miles of railway have been built in three lines, all starting from Lome—one 80 miles in length to Palime and another 120 miles to Atakpanie.
Lack of proper transport facilities has retarded the development of the Colony, as owing to the lack of transport animals nearly the whole of the carrying of produce is done by natives.
The prosperity of the Colony is entirely due to the exploitation of the natives; in fact the economic life of the country depends upon the natives' industry. Nearly the whole of the agriculture is in the hands of natives, some of whom have plantations of their own. Only 250,000 acres are in the hands of Europeans, and less than a quarter of these are cultivated.
The hardships inflicted on the native, however, are forgotten by the German trader in his excessive eagerness to get as much as he can out of him; and this has resulted in some rubber-collecting districts in depopulation and a consequent falling off in the production.
The principal exports of Togoland are india-rubber, palm-oil and kernels, cotton and cocoa. Tobacco is also being tried with favourable results.
Rubber forms nearly one-half of the total exports, and is nearly all wild rubber collected by natives from the forest vines—an expensive form of production, as the vines are destroyed in the process.
Palm-oil and palm kernels (largely used in the manufacture of nut butter or margarine) forms another important item. The nuts are collected mainly from the palms originally introduced by the Portuguese and now found in forests for many miles from the coast.
In 1911 the export of palm kernels amounted to 13,000 tons, but fell to 7,000 tons in 1913 owing to a scarcity of native labour.
The natives of Togoland are said to have cultivated cotton in almost every part of the country from time immemorial, and an average of about 500 tons is exported annually.
The Germans, realising the importance of this article, did all they could to extend the cultivation of cotton. The cultivation is entirely in the hands of natives, but an agricultural school was started for them by the Government to train them in better methods of growing cotton, and they were supplied with ploughs and other agricultural implements as well as seed, free of cost.
A certain amount of cocoa is grown on native plantations, 335 tons being shipped during 1913. The natives have also taken kindly to a new crop in the shape of maize, the export of which rose from 103 tons in 1911 to 2,500 in 1913.
Although the conformation of the country is very similar to British Nigeria and other parts of the coasts where gold, tin, and other minerals have been discovered and worked, the Germans have not embarked upon the enterprise of having the country prospected for minerals—a probable cause being that prospecting entails expenditure of money, and to the German this is the negative purpose of a Trade Colony!
Besides being a source of wealth in trade, Togoland was in reality of great strategical value, being connected by cable with Germany and with Dualla in the Kamerun; while Kamina was connected by a powerful wireless installation with Dar-es-Salaam in German East Africa and with Windhoek, the capital of German South West Africa.
On 26th August, 1914, Togoland was occupied by the Gold Coast Regiment of the West African Frontier Force, assisted by a French force from Dahomey.
The Germans destroyed the wireless station at Kamina and asked for terms, but eventually surrendered unconditionally.