View source for Spanish Guinea

{{short description|Former Spanish colony in West Africa}}
{{Expand Spanish|topic=hist|Guinea española|date=October 2023}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2024}}
{{Infobox former country
| conventional_long_name = Spanish Territories on the Gulf of Guinea
| native_name            = {{native name|es|Territorios Españoles del Golfo de Guinea}}
| common_name            = Spanish Guinea
| era                    = {{ubl|[[New Imperialism]]|[[World War I]]|[[World War II]]|[[Cold War]]}}
| status                 = Dependencies of Spain (1858–1926)<br>Colony of Spain (1926–1956)<br>[[Provinces of Spain|Province]] of [[Francoist Spain|Spain]] (1956–1968)
| empire                 = [[Spanish Empire]]
| event_start            = [[Treaty of El Pardo (1778)|Treaty of El Pardo]]
| date_start             = 11 March
| year_start             = 1778
| event_end              = [[Equatorial Guinea|Independence]]
| date_end               = 12 October
| year_end               = 1968
| event1                 = Spanish evacuate Fernando Po
| date_event1            = 1780
| event2                 = Spanish sovereignty reasserted over Fernando Po
| date_event2            = 1844
| event3                 = Protectorate established over [[Río Muni]]
| date_event3            = 1885
| event4                 = Definitive territorial delimitation by the [[Treaty of Paris (1900)|Treaty of Paris]]
| date_event4            = 1900
| event5                 = Administrative union of the various colonies
| date_event5            = 1926
| event6                 = 
| date_event6            = 
| p1                     = Governorate of Fernando Po
| flag_p1                = Flag of the United Kingdom.svg
| p2                     = Fang people
| flag_p2                = 
| p3                     = Elobey, Annobón, and Corisco
| flag_p3                = Flag of Spain (1785-1873 and 1875-1931).svg
| s1                     = Equatorial Guinea
| flag_s1                = Flag of Equatorial Guinea (without coat of arms).svg
| image_flag             = <!-- Flag of Spain (1785–1873, 1875–1931).svg -->
| flag_type              = <!-- Top: [[Flag of Spain]] (1843–1931)<br>Bottom: [[Flag of Spain]] (1945-1977) -->
| image_flag2            = <!-- Flag of Spain (1945–1977).svg -->
| image_coat             = Coat of Arms of the Portuguese and Spanish Guinea.svg
| symbol_type            = [[Coat of arms of Equatorial Guinea|Coat of arms]]
| image_map              = LocationEquatorialGuinea.svg
| image_map_caption      = Location of Spanish Guinea in Africa
| capital                = [[Malabo|Santa Isabel]]
| largest_city           = 
| national_anthem        = [[Marcha Real]] (1844–1873, 1874–1931, 1942–1968)<br>[[Himno de Riego]] (1873–1874, 1931–1942)
| common_languages       = [[Spanish language|Spanish]] (official)<br>[[Annobonese Creole]]<br>[[Pichinglis]]<br>[[Fang language|Fang]]
| religion               = [[Catholic Church in Equatorial Guinea|Catholicism]]
| currency               = [[Spanish peseta]]
| leader1                = [[Isabella II of Spain|Isabella II]]
| leader2                = [[Francisco Franco]]
| year_leader1           = 1858–1868 (first)
| year_leader2           = 1936–1968 (last)
| title_leader           = [[Monarch]] and [[List_of_heads_of_state_of_Spain#Francoist_Spain_(1936–1975)|Caudillo]]
| representative1        = [[Carlos Chacon y Michelina]]
| representative2        = [[Víctor Suances y Díaz del Río]]
| year_representative1   = 1858–1859 (first)
| year_representative2   = 1966–1968 (last)
| title_representative   = [[List of colonial governors of Spanish Guinea|Governor-General]]
| stat_year1             = 
| stat_pop1              = 
| stat_year2             = 
| stat_pop2              = 
| stat_year3             = 
| stat_area3             = 
| today                  = [[Equatorial Guinea]]
}}

'''Spanish Guinea''' ({{langx|es|Guinea Española}}) was a set of [[Insular Region (Equatorial Guinea)|insular]] and [[Río Muni|continental]] territories controlled by [[Spain]] from 1778 in the [[Gulf of Guinea]] and on the [[Bight of Bonny]], in [[Central Africa]]. It gained independence in 1968 as [[Equatorial Guinea]].

==Name==
From the resumption of Spanish sovereignty in 1843, and until 1904, the colony went by various names in official documents. The name of the colony in an 1868 royal decree that outlined the administration of the colony was the '''Spanish Possessions on the Gulf of Guinea'''.<ref>Decreto dictando varias medidas para la colonización de las posesiones españolas del Golfo de Guinea.

Gaceta de Madrid:

<abbr>núm.</abbr> 318, de 13/11/1868, páginas 2 a 4

Departamento:

Ministerio de Ultramar

PDF (Referencia BOE-A-1868-9859)</ref> The other name commonly used was the name '''Colony of''' '''Fernando Poo and Dependencies'''.<ref>Solicitud de la plaza de intérprete, creada en el Gobierno de Fernando Póo é Islas adyacentes.

Gaceta de Madrid:

<abbr>núm.</abbr> 365, de 31/12/1858, página 2

Departamento:

Ministerio de Ultramar</ref> In a royal decree in 1904, the official name became '''Spanish Territories on the Gulf of Guinea''' as many of the administrative inefficiencies in the previous decrees were rectified.<ref>Real decreto reorganizando los servicios de las posesiones españolas del Golfo de Guinea.

Gaceta de Madrid:

<abbr>núm.</abbr> 194, de 12/07/1904, páginas 131 a 133

Departamento:

Ministerio de Estado</ref> This was reaffirmed in a 1935 decree. In 1956, the colony became the Province of the Gulf of Guinea, a province of Spain.

==History==
{{main|History of Equatorial Guinea}}

===18th–19th centuries===
[[File:África Ecuatorial Española.svg|thumb|left|Evolution of Spanish possessions and claims in the Gulf of Guinea (1778-1968).]]

The Spanish colony in the [[Guinea (region)|Guinea region]] was established in 1778, by the [[Treaty of El Pardo (1778)|Treaty of El Pardo]] between the [[Spanish Empire]] and the [[Portuguese Empire]].  Between 1778 and 1810, Spain administered the territory of Equatorial Guinea via its colonial [[Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata]], based in [[Buenos Aires]] (in present-day [[Argentina]]).<ref>{{Cite web|author=Hubert de Vries|date=2008-11-11|title=Guinea Ecuatorial|url=http://www.hubert-herald.nl/GuineaEcuat.htm|access-date=2023-01-14|website=www.hubert-herald.nl}}{{reliable source?|date=July 2023}}</ref>

From 1827 to 1843, the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]] had a base on [[Bioko]] to combat the continuing [[slavery|Atlantic slave trade]] conducted by Spain and illegal traders.<ref>"Fernando Po", ''Encyclopædia Britannica,'' 1911.</ref> Based on an agreement with Spain in 1843, Britain moved its base to its own colony of [[Sierra Leone]] in West Africa. In 1844, on restoration of Spanish rule, it became known as the ''Territorios Españoles del Golfo de Guinea''.

===20th century===

<gallery mode="packed" caption="Some maps of Spanish Guinea">
File:(1897) Golfo de Guinea.jpg|Spanish possessions in the [[Gulf of Guinea]] in 1897.
File:Eq Guinea 1900 ES.PNG|Spanish Guinea after [[Treaty of Paris (1900)|Treaty of Paris]] of 1900.
File:Muni - Guinea Continental Espańola LOC 2012590213.jpg|[[Río Muni]], continental part of Spanish Guinea, 1903.
</gallery>

Spain had never undertaken colonial settlement of the large area in the [[Bight of Biafra]] to which it had treaty rights. The French expanded their occupation at the expense of the area claimed by Spain. By the [[Treaty of Paris (1900)|treaty of Paris]] in 1900, Spain was left with the continental enclave of [[Río Muni]], 26,000&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> of the 300,000 stretching east to the [[Ubangi River|Ubangi river]], which the Spaniards had previously claimed.<ref name=Clarence-Smith>William Gervase Clarence-Smith, 1986 "Spanish Equatorial Guinea, 1898-1940", in ''The Cambridge History of Africa: From 1905 to 1940'' Ed. J. D. Fage, A. D. Roberts, & Roland Anthony Oliver. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press>{{cite web |url=http://es.scribd.com/doc/63545279/The-Cambridge-History-of-Africa-Volume-7-From-1905-to-1940-0521225051-1986 |title=The Cambridge History of Africa, Volume 7~ from 1905 to 1940 (0521225051, 1986) |accessdate=2013-09-23 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140220142411/http://es.scribd.com/doc/63545279/The-Cambridge-History-of-Africa-Volume-7-From-1905-to-1940-0521225051-1986 |archivedate=2014-02-20 }}</ref>

In 1959, Spain declared Guinean "acculturation" complete, passing a law which declared Guineans to have equal rights with European Spaniards. It also reclassified the territory as the "Equatorial Region" of Spain, and split it into two provinces: Fernando Poo and Río Muni. However, this law also returned power over Spanish Guinea to the direct control of the presidency, reinforcing the second-class status of Guinean self-governance compared to the European Spanish regions.<ref name=Campos2003>{{cite journal |last1=Campos |first1=Alicia |title=The Decolonization of Equatorial Guinea: The Relevance of the International Factor |journal=The Journal of African History |date=March 2003 |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=95–116 |doi=10.1017/S0021853702008319 |access-date=12 December 2025 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-african-history/article/abs/decolonization-of-equatorial-guinea-the-relevance-of-the-international-factor/013AC68DA1699ED71CA2B9A16643EBF6}}</ref>{{rp|98}}<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bibang Ondo Eyang |first1=José Luis |title=The Process of Decolonization of Equatorial Guinea |journal=SSRN Electronic Journal |date=2024 |doi=10.2139/ssrn.4794543 |url=https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm?abstractid=4794543 |access-date=12 December 2025}}</ref>{{rp|10-15}}

In 1963, the Regime of Autonomy ({{langx|es|Regimen de Autonomía a de Guinea Ecuatorial}}) was instituted in Spanish Guinea, as a compromise step toward autonomy. Approved by a [[1963 Spanish Guinean autonomy referendum|1963 referendum]], this new system reduced international pressure on Spain by granting the colony a degree of formal self-governance. In some sense, this was illusory, as the new regime reinforced much of the previous colonial governmental structure but with a more palatable appearance. However, the political process in which these changes took place also introduced local political groups into the government and served as a springboard for the independence movement.<ref name=Campos2003/>{{rp|103-105}}

After five years of increased movement toward independence under the Regime of Autonomy, the colony formally gained independence in 1968. A constitution committee drafted a constitution throughout late 1967 and early 1968, releasing a final version on 22 June 1968. That constitution was approved by [[1968 Spanish Guinean constitutional referendum|referendum in August 1968]]. [[Francisco Macías Nguema]] won the [[1968 Spanish Guinean general election|presidential election in September]], and Spain formally handed power to the new government on 12 October 1968.<ref name=Campos2003/>{{rp|109-114}}

===Agricultural economy===
Toward the end of the 19th century, Spanish, Portuguese, German and [[Fernandino peoples|Fernandino]] planters started developing large [[cacao plantation]]s on the island of Fernando Po.<ref>Clarence-Smith, William G. "African and European Cocoa Producers on Fernando Po, 1880s to 1910s." ''Journal of African History'' 35 (1994): 179-179.</ref> With the indigenous Bubi population decimated by disease and forced labour, the island's economy came to depend on imported agricultural contract workers.

A labour treaty was signed with the Republic of [[Liberia]] in 1914; the transport of up to 15,000 workers by sea was orchestrated by the German [[Woermann-Linie]], the major shipping company.<ref>Sundiata, Ibrahim K. ''From Slaving to Neoslavery: the Bight of Biafra and Fernando Po in the Era of Abolition, 1827-1930,'' Madison, WI: Univ of Wisconsin Press, 1996.</ref> In 1930 an [[International Labour Organization]] (ILO) commission discovered that Liberian contract workers had "been recruited under conditions of criminal compulsion scarcely distinguishable from slave raiding and slave trading".<ref>{{Cite web|title=Slavery Conditions in Liberia|work=The Times|date=27 October 1930|url=http://www.opensourceguinea.org/2012/12/slavery-conditions-in-liberia-times-27.html|access-date=2023-01-14}}{{full citation needed|date=July 2023}}</ref> The government prohibited recruiting of Liberian workers for Spanish Guinea.

The persisting labour shortage in the cacao, coffee and logging industries led to a booming trade in illegal canoe-based smuggling of [[Igbo people|Igbo]] and [[Ibibio people|Ibibio]] workers from the Eastern Provinces of Nigeria. The number of clandestine contract workers on the island of Fernando Po grew to 20,000 in 1942.<ref name="opensourceguinea.org">{{Cite journal|author=Enrique Martino|title=Clandestine Recruitment Networks in the Bight of Biafra: Fernando Pó's Answer to the Labour Question, 1926–1945| journal=International Review of Social History|volume= 57|pages= 39–72|date=2012|url=https://edoc.hu-berlin.de/bitstream/18452/14237/1/21SLRbxgERA.pdf|access-date=2023-01-14|doi=10.1017/S0020859012000417}}</ref> A labour treaty was signed with the [[British Crown]] in the same year. This led to a continuous stream of Nigerian workers going to Spanish Guinea. By 1968 at the time of independence, almost 100,000 ethnic Nigerians were living and working in Spanish Guinea.<ref>Pélissier, René. ''Los Territorios Espanoles De Africa.'' Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1964.</ref>

====Colony of Spanish Guinea====
{{History of Equatorial Guinea}}
[[File:Coat of Arms of the Portuguese and Spanish Guinea.svg|thumb|upright|Coat of arms of the Portuguese and Spanish Guinea.]]
[[File:Coat of Arms of the Spanish Province of Río Muni.svg|thumb|upright|Coat of arms of the Spanish [[Río Muni]] colony.]]

Between 1926 and 1959, [[Monarchy of Spain|the Crown]] united Bioko and Río Muni as the "colony of Spanish Guinea". The economy was based on the exploitation of the commodity crops of [[Cocoa bean|cacao]] and [[coffee]], produced at large plantations, in addition to [[logging]] concessions. Owners of these companies hired mostly immigrant contract labour from [[Liberia]], [[Nigeria]], and [[Cameroon]].<ref name="opensourceguinea.org"/> Spain mounted military campaigns in the 1920s to subdue the indigenous [[Fang people]], as Liberia was trying to reduce recruiting of its workers. The Crown established garrisons of the [[Colonial Guard of Spanish Guinea|Colonial Guard]] throughout the enclave by 1926, and the whole colony was considered 'pacified' by 1929.<ref>Nerín, Gustau. ''"La última selva de España:" antropófagos, misioneros y guardias civiles. Crónica de la conquista de los Fang de la Guinea Española, 1914–1930'' (The last jungle of Spain: cannibals, missionaries and civil guards. Chronicle of the conquest of the Fang of Spanish Guinea, 1914–1930), Catarata, 2010.</ref>

<!--This section needs expansion - meaning is unclear -->Río Muni had a small population, officially put at a little over 100,000 in the 1930s. Its people could easily escape over the borders into Cameroon or Gabon. Moreover, the timber companies needed growing amounts of labour, and the spread of coffee cultivation offered an alternative means of paying taxes.

The island of Fernando Po continued to suffer from labour shortages. The French only briefly permitted recruitment in Cameroon. Planters began to recruit [[Igbo people|Igbo]] laborers, who were smuggled in canoes from [[Calabar]], Nigeria. [[Bioko|Fernando Po]] was developed after the [[Second World War]] as one of Africa's most productive agricultural areas.<ref name="Clarence-Smith" />

<gallery mode="packed" caption="Pictures of Spanish Guinea">
File:Corisco-Saliendo de misa-1910.jpg|[[Corisco]] in 1910.
File:Iberia- vuelo inaugural a Bata (Guinea) (1941) (5811105541).jpg|Inaugural flight with [[Iberia (airline)|Iberia]] from [[Madrid]] to [[Bata, Equatorial Guinea|Bata]] in 1941.
File:Naval Infantry in Spanish Guinea 1964.jpg|[[Spanish Marine Infantry|Marine Infantry]] in Spanish Guinea in 1964.
</gallery>

====Decolonisation====
The post-war political history of Spanish Guinea had three fairly distinct phases. From 1946 to 1959, it had the status of a "province", having been raised from "colony", after the [[Portuguese Empire]] made overtures to take it over. From 1960 to 1968, Spain tried a system of partial decolonisation to keep the province within the Spanish territorial system, which failed owing to continued anti-colonial activity by Guineans. On 12 October 1968, Spain conceded the independence of the [[Republic of Equatorial Guinea]]. [[Francisco Macías Nguema]] was [[Equatorial Guinean presidential election, 1968|elected as president]].<ref name=Campos2003/>

<gallery mode="packed" caption="Independence of Spanish Guinea">
File:Fraga na sinatura da independencia de Guinea Ecuatorial.jpg|Signing of the independence of Equatorial Guinea by Spanish government on 12 October 1968.
</gallery>

==Colonial demographics==
[[File:Stamp Spanish Guinea 1924 20c.jpg|thumb|20c stamp of 1924.]]

The population of the Colony of Spanish Guinea was stratified (before slavery was abolished). The system was somewhat similar to the one operating in the French, English and Portuguese colonies in the rest of Africa:<ref name="CVC">{{Cite web|author=Justo Bolekia Boleká|author-link=Justo Bolekia Boleká|title=Panorama de la literatura en español en Guinea Ecuatorial|url=https://cvc.cervantes.es/lengua/anuario/anuario_05/bolekia/p01.htm|date=2005|access-date=2023-01-14|website=[[Instituto Cervantes]]|language=es}}</ref>

#[[Peninsulares]] —  [[Spanish people|White Spanish]] population, whose immigration was regulated by the Spanish government.
#[[Emancipados]] — [[Black African]] population, assimilated into the Peninsulares' culture via Spanish Catholic educations. Some were descended from freed Cuban slaves, repatriated to Africa after emancipation and abolition of slavery by the Spanish Royal Orders of 13 September 1845 (voluntary), and of 20 June 1861 (deported). The latter group included ''[[mestizos]]'' (indigenous-European) and ''[[mulattoes]]'' (African-European), mixed-race descendants who had been acknowledged by a white Peninsular father.<ref name="Belmonte">''Espacio, Tiempo y Forma'', Serie V, Hª Contemporánea, t. 11, 1998, págs. 113-138, [http://62.204.194.45:8080/fedora/get/bibliuned:ETFSerie5-C1567B04-34C8-342F-55B8-0888954C0F9E/PDF "Penología e indigenismo en la antigua Guinea española"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110530195736/http://62.204.194.45:8080/fedora/get/bibliuned:ETFSerie5-C1567B04-34C8-342F-55B8-0888954C0F9E/PDF|date=2011-05-30}}, [[Pedro María Belmonte Medina]]</ref>
#[[Fernandino peoples|Fernandinos]] — [[Creole peoples]], multi-ethnic or multi-race populations, often speaking the local Pidgin English of Spanish Guinea's island of Fernando Po (now known as [[Bioko]]).
#"Individuals of colour" under patronage — included the majority of the indigenous [[Black African]] people, and those mestizos−mulattoes who were not acknowledged by white fathers and were being deported from the Americas. Of the [[Demographics of Equatorial Guinea|indigenous ethnic groups]] in Guinea, most were [[Bubi people|Bubi]] and [[Bantu peoples]] such as the [[Fang people|Fang]] of Rio Muni. 
#Others — primarily [[Nigerian people|Nigerian]], [[Cameroonian people|Cameroonian]], [[Han Chinese]], and [[Indian people]]s who were hired as contract laborers under types of indentures.

==See also==
*[[Dominican Spanish]]
*[[Afro-Dominicans]]
*[[White Dominicans]]
*[[Dominican Americans]]
*[[Washington Heights, Manhattan]]
*[[Alfonso XII]]
*[[Royal Palace of Madrid]]
*[[Spanish immigration to Cuba]]
*[[Captaincy General of Cuba]]
*[[Spanish Sahara]]
*[[Spanish protectorate in Morocco]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Spanish Empire}}
{{coord|1|35|N|10|21|E|region:GQ_type:country_source:dewiki|display=title}}

[[Category:Spanish Guinea| ]]
[[Category:Spanish Africa]]
[[Category:Former colonies in Africa]]
[[Category:Former Spanish colonies]]
[[Category:Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata]]
[[Category:States and territories established in 1778]]
[[Category:States and territories disestablished in 1968]]
[[Category:Former countries in Africa|Guinea, Spanish]]
[[Category:Equatorial Guinea–Spain relations]]