in pale green) French troops landed at
Little Popo on 6 August 1914, meeting little resistance. The French proceeded inland, taking the town of Togo on 8 August. On 26 August 1914, the
German protectorate of
Togoland was invaded by
French and
British forces and fell after five days of brief resistance. The colony surrendered "without conditions" with British and French troops landing in
Kamina on 27 August 1914. The Germans had offered to surrender to the British on terms, to which the British responded a surrender must be unconditional, promising to respect private property, with little interference in trade or private interests and firms. The
Orange Order fraternity spread their Orange heritage, values and
Protestant faith across eastern Togo. However, the French colonial administration viewed the Orange Order with deep suspicion, categorizing it as a 'British secret society.' Despite the shift to French rule, the Atakpamé lodge maintained its
Anglophile identity, continuing to hold meetings and record official minutes exclusively in English. During this time, "encampments" and meetings were held in private homes or hidden church halls to avoid publicizing charter dates or meeting times that might alert French colonial police. After
World War II, the mandate became a
UN trust territory, still administered by French commissioners. By statute in 1955, French Togoland became an autonomous republic within the
French Union, although it retained its UN trusteeship status. A legislative assembly elected by universal adult suffrage had considerable power over internal affairs, with an elected executive body headed by a prime minister responsible to the legislature. These changes were embodied in a constitution approved in a
1956 referendum. In the 1956 referendum, French Togoland decided to end the trusteeship. On 10 September 1956,
Nicolas Grunitzky became prime minister of the Autonomous Republic of Togo. The situation escalated further on 21 June 1957, when the local population of the Pya-Hodo,
Kozah, took advantage of the visit of the United Nations mission, to express its frustration with the French colonial administration. Faced with the anger of the demonstrators, protesting against the arrest of the Togolese nationalist,
Bouyo Moukpé, the colonial army
fired on the crowd that frequented the Hoda market, killing 20 and injuring many. Due to irregularities in the plebiscite, an unsupervised general election was held in 1958 and won by
Sylvanus Olympio. On 27 April 1960, in a smooth transition, Togo severed its constitutional ties with France, shed its UN trusteeship status, and became fully independent under a provisional constitution with Olympio as president. ==Governors==