Publication Date
2009
Categories
Located in the Bight of Biafra (Gulf of Guinea), with an area of more than 2,000 sq km, it is currently called Bioko and is part of Equatorial Guinea. Located just 18 miles from the coast, it was the only inhabited island of the Gulf of Guinea when the Portuguese arrived there, and it was initially named by them ilha Formosa [Beautiful Island]. According to João de Barros, the island was discovered during the period of a contract between Fernão Gomes (1469-1475) and navigator Fernando Pó, or Fernão do Pó, after whom the island was named.
Due to the hostile population (the bubi tribe) that inhabited the island, its proximity to the coast, or for other unknown reasons, Portugal was never particularly interested in colonizing the island. Several initial experiments were made to introduce sugar-cane plantations and there were some irregular contacts with São Tomé, but apparently without success. However, according to tradition, there was a small fortress, called "Portuguese Fortress", somewhere in the island's coast, and which was registered in some maps from the 18th century. Groups of slaves that had escaped in canoes from the islands of São Tomé and Príncipe settled early in the south area of the island.
In 1777, in the Treaty of Santo Ildefonso (ratified and adjusted in the Treaty of Pardo on March 11, 1778), Portugal conceded the rights over Fernando Pó to the Spanish Crown, based on historical criteria, as it did with Ano Bom. Using this island, the Spanish hoped to take part in the slave trade in the coast of continental Africa.
Bibliography:
CASTRO, Mariano de e CALLE, Maria Luisa de la, Origen de la colonización española de Guinea Ecuatorial (1777-1860), Valladolid, Universidad de Valladolid, 1992. GARCÍA CANTÚS, Dolores, Fernando Poo: una aventura colonial española, Vic (Barcelona), CEIBA/Centros Culturales Españoles de Guinea Ecuatorial, 2006. MATOS, Raimundo José da Cunha, Compêndio histórico das possessões da coroa de Portugal nos mares e continentes da África Oriental e Ocidental, Rio de Janeiro, Ministério da Justiça e dos Negócios Interiores-Arquivo Nacional, 1963.
Author: Arlindo Caldeira Translated by: Ana Pereira
Due to the hostile population (the bubi tribe) that inhabited the island, its proximity to the coast, or for other unknown reasons, Portugal was never particularly interested in colonizing the island. Several initial experiments were made to introduce sugar-cane plantations and there were some irregular contacts with São Tomé, but apparently without success. However, according to tradition, there was a small fortress, called "Portuguese Fortress", somewhere in the island's coast, and which was registered in some maps from the 18th century. Groups of slaves that had escaped in canoes from the islands of São Tomé and Príncipe settled early in the south area of the island.
In 1777, in the Treaty of Santo Ildefonso (ratified and adjusted in the Treaty of Pardo on March 11, 1778), Portugal conceded the rights over Fernando Pó to the Spanish Crown, based on historical criteria, as it did with Ano Bom. Using this island, the Spanish hoped to take part in the slave trade in the coast of continental Africa.
Bibliography:
CASTRO, Mariano de e CALLE, Maria Luisa de la, Origen de la colonización española de Guinea Ecuatorial (1777-1860), Valladolid, Universidad de Valladolid, 1992. GARCÍA CANTÚS, Dolores, Fernando Poo: una aventura colonial española, Vic (Barcelona), CEIBA/Centros Culturales Españoles de Guinea Ecuatorial, 2006. MATOS, Raimundo José da Cunha, Compêndio histórico das possessões da coroa de Portugal nos mares e continentes da África Oriental e Ocidental, Rio de Janeiro, Ministério da Justiça e dos Negócios Interiores-Arquivo Nacional, 1963.
Author: Arlindo Caldeira Translated by: Ana Pereira