Spanish Guinea

Spanish Guinea was the collection of Spanish territories in the Gulf of Guinea and on the Bight of Bonny, in Central Africa. Spain acquired its claims in 1778 through the Treaty of El Pardo with Portugal, and for a time administered the remote possessions from the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata in Buenos Aires. The core territories were the island of Fernando Pó, now Bioko, the mainland enclave of Río Muni, and the smaller islands of Annobón and Corisco. British traders and anti-slavery patrols used Bioko in the 1820s and 1830s, but Spanish rule was restored in 1843. The colony's official name changed several times before the Spanish Territories on the Gulf of Guinea became the standard designation in 1904. Cacao plantations on Fernando Pó made the colony profitable in the late nineteenth century, relying on imported contract labour after disease and forced labour devastated the indigenous Bubi population. In 1956 the territory became the Province of the Gulf of Guinea, and in 1968 it gained independence as Equatorial Guinea under Francisco Macías Nguema.