Editing Lomé (section)

===Colonial period===
{{more citations needed section|date=February 2023}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 137-003033, Togo, Lomé, Verladen von Baumwollballen.jpg|thumb|Loading of [[cotton]] bales (1885)]]

It was the threats of the British present in the neighboring Gold Coast (now [[Ghana]]) that put an end to the competition that Lomé provoked for their colony, which then provoked a call for the protection of [[Germany]]. Togoland was thus created as an entity of international law within the German colonial empire on 5 July 1884, by the [[Treaty of Togoville]], signed by [[Gustav Nachtigal]] and King {{ill|Mlapa III|fr}}.

Lomé continued to prosper freely as a centre of import, thus becoming the main gateway to the North, whose major axis of penetration was then the Volta Valley; it was to access it that the construction of the first real road in the country, [[Kpalimé|Lomé-Kpalimé]], was undertaken from 1892. It was this major economic role that led the German administration to transfer the capital of the territory to a city that already had more than 2,000 inhabitants.<ref>Britannica,
[https://www.britannica.com/place/Lome Lomé], britannica.com, USA, accessed 28 July 2019</ref>
[[File:1902 Togo Lomé 10pfg.jpg|thumb|left|Stamp of the German colony Togogebiet cancelled in Lomé in 1902.]]
[[File:Lomé Togo Weg nach dem Gouverneurspalast 1904.png|thumb|Alley leading to [[Palace of the Governors, Togo|the Governor's Palace]] (1904).]]

Lomé benefited from 1904 from a port that made it the only maritime contact point of Togo, ruining its rival, [[Aného]], until then much more important. From this development, a network of railways could be deployed: to Aného in 1905, to Kpalimé in 1907 and to [[Atakpamé]] in 1909. All the "useful Togo" was now organized in a funnel around Lomé, whose preponderance on the Togolese urban network was definitively established and growth assured. The city reached a population of 8,000 in 1914. But, if the infrastructure set up by the Germans - which consisted of a post office in 1890, the [[telephone]] in 1894, the cathedral in 1904, a bank in 1906 and the intercontinental telegraph in 1913 - could benefit everyone, a system of discriminatory patents and licenses gradually ousted African traders from the most lucrative activities, that is the trade or import-export business.

Apart from the rich [[Octaviano Olympio]], with his large Cocoterais, the first in the city, his herds, his [[brickyard]] and his construction company, most [[Togolese]] merchants had to put themselves at the service of foreign firms as managers of their agencies in other cities, or enjoying more autonomy as buyers of agricultural export products in the interior. The smallest had been hired in large numbers as clerks in the main factories (headquarters of the offices of a trading company abroad). Firms in other African territories looked with envy at Togo, which had an abundant skilled workforce, while elsewhere, it was necessary to entrust all positions to expatriates, much more expensive for the employer.

The [[World War I|First World War]] completely spared the city. However, in 1916, it led to the eviction of German companies, gradually replaced by British and French firms. Many Togolese traders returned to Lomé. Their flourishing businesses, their vast coconut groves, and their large land holdings made them a bourgeoisie with which the new French colonial authorities had to reckon, prompting the creation of the council of notables in 1922 (elective from 1925), which gave Lomé a remarkably early political life in French-speaking Africa. It is also quite exceptional that an African capital has been so marked by its indigenous [[bourgeoisie]], both in the production practices of urban space, so original in Lomé, and in the singularities of its popular architecture.

The French renewed the infrastructure left by the Germans, repairing railways, building more roads, constructing a new quay, etc. They added electrification in 1926 and drinking water supply in 1940. However, they took years to fill the void left in the schools by the [[Society of the Divine Word|German verbist missionaries]] when they left. The level of students enrolled in 1945, at the death of {{ill|Jean-Marie Cassou|fr}}, reached that of 1914.

In the 1920s, a policy of systematic low taxation ushered in a long period of prosperity. In January 1923, a {{ill|Révolte des femmes de Lomé|women's revolt||fr}} took place against the arrest of two Duawo leaders and forced their release.<ref>{{Cite journal |first=Messan Adimado |last=Aduayon |title=Un prélude au nationalisme togolais : la révolte de Lomé, 24-25 janvier 1933 |journal=Cahiers d'Études africaines |volume=24 |number=93 |date=1984|doi=10.3406/cea.1984.2226 |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/cea_0008-0055_1984_num_24_93_2226 |access-date=2019-12-31 |pages=39–50 }}.</ref>

<gallery caption="Map of the city of Lomé in 1931" mode="packed" heights="200px"> 
File:Ville de Lomé 1931 partie gauche.jpg |Left part
File:Ville de Lomé 1931 partie droite.jpg |Right part
</gallery>

Lomé reached 15,000 inhabitants around 1930. But the [[Great Depression|global economic crisis of the early 1930s]] led to a brutal recession. Many businesses closed or had to consolidate. Investments stopped, like the Northern Railway, definitively stopped in [[Blitta]] in 1934. A plan for a sharp tax increase, while the people's resources were falling, provoked the riots of January 1933, which were undoubtedly a major political break in the history of Togo. It was only after [[World War II]], following a decade of postwar stagnation, that boom times resumed in Lomé.