The coup leaders quickly brought Nicolas Grunitzky and Antoine Meatchi, both of whom were exiled political opponents of Olympio, together to form a new government.

While the government of Ghana and its president Kwame Nkrumah were implicated in the coup and assassination of Olympio, the investigation was never completed, and the international outcry eventually died down.

During World War II, the French Vichy government considered the powerful Olympio family of Togo to be pro-British and so many members of that family were arrested, including Sylvanus Olympio who was held for a significant time in a prison in the remote city of Djougou (in present-day Benin).

[3] His imprisonment became a key point impacting his future relationships with the French and a metaphor for the need for political and economic independence for Togo which he would use repeatedly in speeches.

[7] After this significant victory and as a result of repression following an attempt on Olympio's life in 1961, Togo largely became a one-party state at independence.

He was not part of all French alliances (notably not joining the African and Malagasy Union), and made significant connections with former British colonies (namely Nigeria) and the United States.

[13] After the Togolese Progress Party and the Juvento movement were implicated in a 1961 attempt on Olympio's life, many prominent politicians including Nicolas Grunitzky and Antoine Meatchi left the country and received welcome and support from Ghana.

His insistence on budget austerity aggravated unionists, farmers, and educated youth who sought jobs in the public sector.

[17] However, as a result, troops who had left the French Army to return to their home in Togo were not provided with enlistment in the limited Togolese Armed Forces.

Emmanuel Bodjollé and Kléber Dadjo, the leaders in the Togo military, repeatedly tried to get Olympio to increase funding and enlist more of the ex-French Army troops returning to the country, but were unsuccessful.

The coup began in the early morning hours of 13 January 1963 with shooting heard throughout the capital city of Lomé as the military attempted to arrest Olympio and his cabinet.

However, analysts often contend that the main roots of the coup were in the disgruntled ex-French soldiers who were unable to gain employment because Olympio kept the military small.

However, it was reported that these ministers, led by Theophile Mally, attempted to reestablish rule by Olympio's party on 10 April 1963 and as a result they were arrested again.

Saturday when I was wakened by noises outside our house...All of a sudden they [the 70 soldiers] began shooting through our parlor door downstairs and then smashed through it with gun butts.

They even wanted to see under my bed...Just before six o'clock I went to the back of the house and looked out of the window to try to see our servant boy Bernard and see why he had left us women alone.

"I thought they might be shooting at our party supporters but I ran to the embassy gate and there was Sylvan lying on the ground with his eyes open and his intestines running out.

"Although he also boasted about having personally killed Olympio to different media including Time and Paris-Match shortly after the coup, Eyadéma would deny responsibility decades later.

[17] Military power in Togo further increased with the 14 April 1967 coup d'état where Étienne Eyadéma deposed the government of Nicolas Grunitzky and ruled the country until 2005.

The Ewe people resisted the government with mass protests in 1967 opening the door for Eyadéma's coup on Grunitzky.

The Nigerian Foreign Minister Jaja Wachuku suggested immediately after the coup that the event was "engineered, organized, and financed by somebody.

[35] Ghana responded to the situation by denying any involvement in the coup or support in Antoine Meatchi return to Togo.

[13] Immediately after the fact, the White House released a statement saying that "The United States Government is profoundly shocked by the news of the assassination of President Olympio of Togo.

[38] President William Tubman of Liberia contacted other African leaders wanting a collective lack of recognition of any government installed by the military after the coup.

The leaders were divided on the position to take and so they called on the interim Togo government to prosecute and execute the military officers responsible.

[40] However, Guinea and others were able to get agreement that the government of Togo would not be invited to the Addis Ababa Conference which formed the Organisation of African Unity in May 1963.