Editing History of Equatorial Guinea (section)

===Portuguese colonial rule (1472–1778)===

The [[Portuguese Empire|Portuguese]] explorer [[Fernão do Pó]], seeking a path to [[Indian subcontinent|India]], is credited as being the first European to discover the island of Bioko in 1472. He called it ''Formosa'' ("Beautiful"), but it quickly took on the name of its European discoverer, usually found on maps Hispanized into "Fernando Po". The islands of Fernando Pó and Annobón were colonized by Portugal in 1474.<ref name="auto">Fegley, Randall (1989). ''Equatorial Guinea: An African Tragedy'', p. 5. Peter Lang, New York. {{ISBN|0820409774}}</ref>

In 1778, Queen [[Maria I of Portugal]] and King [[Charles III of Spain]] signed the [[Treaty of El Pardo (1778)|Treaty of El Pardo]] which ceded the Bioko, adjacent islets, and commercial rights to the Bight of Biafra between the [[Niger River|Niger]] and [[Ogoue River|Ogoue]] rivers to [[Spanish Empire|Spain]]. Spain intended to start slave-trading operations on the mainland.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Morales|first=Edgardo Pérez|date=2017-01-01|title=Tricks of the Slave Trade: Cuba and the Small-Scale Dynamics of the Spanish Transatlantic Trade in Human Beings|url=https://brill.com/view/journals/nwig/91/1-2/article-p1_1.xml|journal=New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids|language=en|volume=91|issue=1–2|pages=1–29|doi=10.1163/22134360-09101001|issn=2213-4360|doi-access=free}}</ref> Between 1778 and 1810, the territory of Equatorial Guinea was administered by the [[Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata]], based in [[Buenos Aires]].<ref name="auto"/>

From 1827 to 1843, the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]] had a base on [[Bioko]] to suppress the [[Atlantic slave trade|transatlantic slave trade]],<ref>"Fernando Po", Encyclopædia Britannica, 1911.</ref> which was then moved to [[Sierra Leone]] upon agreement with Spain in 1843. In 1844, on restoration of Spanish rule, it became known as the "Territorios Españoles del Golfo de Guinea". Spain had neglected to occupy the large area in the Bight of Biafra to which it had treaty rights, and the French had been expanding their occupation at the expense of the area claimed by Spain. The [[Treaty of Paris (1900)|Treaty of Paris]] in 1900 left Spain with the continental enclave of Rio Muni, a mere 26,000&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> out of the 300,000 stretching east to the [[Ubangi River]], which the Spaniards had 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) |access-date=2013-09-23 |url-status=dead |archive-url=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 |archive-date=2014-02-20 }}</ref>