Spain obtained what we know today as Equatorial or Spanish Guinea in 1777 through the Treaty of San Ildefonso (1777) and the Treaty of El Pardo (1778) with Portugal.
BSpanish Guinea formed part of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, until its independence, which was fragmented into a series of republics (Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay).
In 1843 D. Juan José Lerena re-established the Spanish presence in Malabo, to strengthen the rights of Spain, and in 1858 the first Spanish governor, Carlos de Chacón y Michelena, arrived. The mainland portion, now Rio Muni, became a protectorate in 1885 and a colony in 1900, the year in which a treaty signed in Paris determined the limits of the territory recognised by Spain.
Both territories (insular and continental) were united in 1926 as Spanish Guinea with its capital in Santa Isabel (now Malabo), on the island of Bioko. Even when Spain lacked sufficient economic forces to develop a major economic infrastructure during the first half of the 20th century, it managed to develop large cocoa plantations on Bioko Island with thousands of imported Nigerian labourers as braceros. At independence in 1968, largely as a result of this system, Equatorial Guinea had one of the highest per capita incomes in Africa.
Spain also helped Equatorial Guinea achieve one of the highest literacy rates on the continent as well as a remarkable network of health facilities, with patients coming from as far away as South Africa for surgery. In 1956 the territories were organised as the Province of the Gulf of Guinea and in 1959, the Spanish territories in the Gulf of Guinea acquired the status of Spanish provinces, joining the rest of the metropolitan provinces. The territory was divided into two provinces: Fernando Poo and Rio Muni, and renamed the Spanish Equatorial Region. In 1963, Guinea gained regional autonomy until independence in 1968.
Sources
This post was translated from:
(2021) ‘La Guinea española’, 15 August. Available at: https://frikihistoria.wordpress.com/2021/08/15/la-guinea-espanola/ (Accessed: 15 August 2021).
Source:Cuenta lo que fuimos
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On this day
- 1492 Christopher Columbus, sails from La Gomera (Canary Islands), the last port before his voyage across the Atlantic Ocean to the West Indies.
- 1522 The ship Victoria arrives at Sanlúcar de Barrameda (Cadiz), with 18 crew under the command of Juan Sebastián Elcano completing the first round-the-world voyage.
- 1593 The Spanish Jesuit priest Gregorio Céspedes becomes the first Westerner to land in Korea, according to letters he sends to Spain.
- 1634 The Catholic Spanish-Imperial army under Ferdinand of Austria and Matthias Gallas defeats the Protestant army of Sweden and Germany at the Battle of Nördlingen.
- 1766 British physicist and naturalist John Dalton is born.
- 1901 US President William McKinley is wounded in an assassination attempt. McKinley would die days later.
- 1914 World War I: First Battle of the Marne.
- 1921 The writer Carmen Laforet, winner of the Nadal Prize for her work Nada, is born.
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