Founded in the late 17th century by Ané people, Aného became a coastal trading town and a hub of the Atlantic slave trade under European contact. It served as the capital of German Togoland from 1885 to 1887 and again as the seat of the French occupation from 1914 to 1920, before administration shifted permanently to Lomé. The town declined after the capital moved, a decline worsened by coastal erosion, but it retains old colonial and mercantile buildings. It sits on the narrow strip between the ocean and Lake Togo in the Maritime Region.
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