Spanish Guinea (1777-1900) – History Archives

One of the elements that stands out in the distribution of Africa in the decades after the promulgation of the Final Act of the Berlin Conference is the role that Spain is left in. Why the country whose empire had dominated the planet for three centuries and in which, until as late as 1898, the sun did not set received the least attractive pieces of the puzzle that it became in the cast? Was it a unilateral decision by the big companies or did Spain have something to do with it? Could Spain have done something to avoid it? The following article will seek to answer these questions regarding the Spanish colonization of the territory of what is now Equatorial Guinea.

Guinea and the search for a slave port: The Treaties of San Idelfonso (1777) and del Pardo (1778)

The history of the colonial relationship between Guinea and Spain does not begin on the African continent but on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, in South America. There, in 1680, the Portuguese, violating the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, founded on the north bank of the Río de la Plata the Sacramento colony. This fact provoked almost a century of intermittent armed struggle between the Spanish and the Portuguese. During the same, said colony changed hands on numerous occasions (García Cantús, 2004: 27).

In 1777, with the death of José Manuel I of Portugal, the neighboring country ended its policy of hostility against Spain.. There was a rapprochement between the two crowns, that of the Queen Mother Mariana Victoria, on the Portuguese side, and Carlos III, on the Spanish side. The consequence of this rapprochement was the signing of the Preliminary Treaty of Limits for South Americaalso know as Treaty of San Idelfonso (Garcia Cantus, 2004: 27).

Six months after the signing of this first treaty, the Treaty of Friendship, Guarantee and Trade, also called Pardo Treaty. This served as ratification of that of San Idelfonso and brought to light three new articles. One of which showed the Spanish purpose of starting their “African adventure”:

«I would cede to His Catholic Majesty and his family in the Crown of Spain, the island of Annobón, on the coast of Africa, with all the rights, possessions and actions that the same island has, so that, of course, it belongs to the Spanish dominions in the same way that until now it has belonged to the Crown of Portugal; and likewise all the right and action that has or may have to the island of Fernando Póo, in the Gulf of Guinea, so that the vassals of the Crown of Spain can establish themselves there and negotiate with the ports and coasts opposite said island, such as the ports of the river Gabón, Camarones, Santo Domingo, Cabo Formoso and others in that district» Treaty with Portugal (March 24, 1778) (García Cantús, 2004: 28).

Spain had won. It is important to mention that, prior to the negotiation of these treaties, the viceroy of Río de la Plata, Pedro de Cevallos, had conquered Sacramento, the Portuguese island of Santa Catalina and threatened to enter the Brazilian territory of Rio Grande. Without a doubt, something that made the Portuguese more understanding in the negotiations.

Spain sought with this acquisition to participate directly in the slave trade business. With this, he intended to free himself from the old policy of the seat, traditionally in Portuguese, Dutch, French and English hands. For this, a port was needed. A rest and storage position that linked the points of acquisition of slaves and the American markets. It was also to allow the settlement of Spanish settlers and companies in Africa. And, a priori, the islands of Guinea seemed to meet the requirements (García Cantús, 2004: 29).

The other objective of the acquisition was, following the precepts of enlightened despotism, the liberalization of colonial trade. This had been monopolized since 1717 from Cádiz after two centuries of stay in Seville. He responded to the need to combat lucrative British smuggling in the Spanish colonies. Smuggling was heavily supported by the black seat, and would allow other powerful national economic groups to participate in American trade. For example, to the Catalan bourgeoisie, whose trade was limited to “loose records.” A system of supply ships for remote areas, all under license from the Crown and regulated by the Cadiz monopoly (García Cantús, 2004: 31-33).

At the end of 1778, a Spanish fleet from Montevideo took possession of the islands in the Gulf of Guinea. According to the orders given to the head of the expedition, the Spanish plans for Guinea went far beyond simple occupation and colonization. Also of serving only as a base for the slave trade with the nearby coasts of the continent. The islands were intended to serve as resting ports on the route to the Philippines with the intention of marketing Asian products. All this, with the aim of facilitating the slave trade. The islands would become part of a new colonial trade project (García Cantús, 2004: 36).

The Floridablanca government expected profitability from Spain’s entry into this business. Above all, because of the growing demand for slave labor. This demand was the result of the expansion of the plantations that took place in the Spanish West Indies in the second half of the 18th century (García Cantús, 2004: 38).

Portugal offered all kinds of facilities to Spain. This was considered from the commercial point of view as a “most favored nation”, as stipulated in article 14 of the Pardo Treaty. And, under an apparent free trade in slaves between the island possessions of both nations, Spain secured the first two batches of slaves from Santo Tomé and Príncipe (García Cantús, 2004: 37).

The problems related to the islands arrived almost immediately and illustrated quite accurately what awaited Spain in the gulf. The Portuguese queen mother had to sign an order ceding sovereignty to inform the relevant island authorities. The order took more than a month to arrive in Madrid. The Portuguese Court did not know who “authorities” were. However, one island was deserted and the other was inhabited by a few natives accompanied by some Catholic missions (García Cantús, 2004: 39). It didn’t take long for theories to appear in Madrid that Lisbon had ceded some islands over which it held dubious rights and no sovereignty.

Another proof of this situation was that the island of Fernando Poo, the current Bioko, part of Equatorial Guinea, considered «the big prize«, was in areas of English influence and far from the richest coastal slave settlements. The populations that populated the nearby coasts had been decimated due to continuous harassment by slave expeditions over several centuries of trafficking. Annobón, for its part, was an enclave casual slave trade (García Cantús, 2004: 42).

When the Spanish arrived in the Gulf they found Annobón populated by about fifteen hundred Africans. They were descendants of former Angolan slaves whose settlement was the result of a failed attempt to establish plantations (García Cantús, 2004: 43). Fernando Poo was “discovered” by the homonymous Portuguese explorer who named it Formosa in the last third of the fifteenth century (García Cantús, 2004: 43). This was fully inhabited by the people bubi.

Between October and November 1778, there was an irregular takeover of the islands by the Spanish expedition. The expedition had to wait three months in the gulf for the arrival of the Portuguese plenipotentiary. During these he suffered abuses by the Portuguese settlers of Port-au-Prince. It was about to go to war against Portugal on numerous occasions. Furthermore, the expedition was decimated by tropical diseases. Fernando Poo completely lacked the necessary infrastructure for settlement. On the other hand, natives of Annobón could not be subdued without a fight. Upon verifying these facts, the Spanish command, after taking verbal sovereignty of both islands, ordered their abandonment (García Cantús, 2004: 50-56).

The context of the following years and decades deprived Spain of the necessary resources and time to establish itself adequately in the Gulf of Guinea. This region would remain in legal limbo. It cannot be ignored that, in this context, events such as the Spanish intervention in the United States War of Independence (1779-1783), the death of King Carlos III (1788), the French Revolution (1789) and subsequent alliances took place. between the revolutionaries and Spain. Furthermore, the only achievements of these alliances, in a way, were the ruin of the country. Added to this is the loss of the fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar (1796-1805).

Carrasco González assures that the establishment of a colony populated by a small contingent of administrators and soldiers, who perhaps, following the English model, would have established factories, missions and small settlements, without altering the indigenous way of life and facilitating peaceful coexistence without claiming a military conquest would have been sufficient in the 18th century and most of the 19th (Carrasco González, 2006: 2).

From a personal point of view and as far as the eighteenth century is concerned, Carrasco González has an overly optimistic view. Not so much because the model of colonization proposed by the author was wrong (although it seems excessively idealized) but because of the context. During the Napoleonic Wars, nations that were annexed by Napoleon lost their African possessions to hegemonic Britain.as is the case in Dutch South Africa.

There is no reliable evidence to ensure that a small but prosperous Spanish trading post in Guinea would not have suffered the same fate. Especially if the attacks on Spanish possessions by Great Britain are taken into account. For example, the failed invasions of Buenos Aires in 1806 and 1807 and the interest that Great Britain would show for the islands in the first half of the 19th century.

And it is that the absence of Spanish interest in the islands of the Gulf of Guinea was taken advantage of by the English. The British occupied Fernando Poo at the beginning of the 19th century. Through the use of missionaries they instructed the natives in the British language and customs. At the same time, its merchants took advantage of the island’s natural resources (García Cantús, 2004: 75).

With the arrival of the new century, another question arose: the abolition of the slave trade by the British. And, with it, the forced extension to the rest of European countries. The treaties signed by Spain for the suppression of trafficking (1817) gave English cruisers the right to visit those ships suspected of carrying it out (Martínez Gallego, 2001: 120).

And it is that a fact must be highlighted is the importance that the island of Cuba had. Importance that was reflected both in the absences and in the Spanish colonizing presences in…