Editing Equatorial Guinea (section)

=== Late 19th century (1844–1900) ===
[[File:(1897) Golfo de Guinea.jpg|thumb|Map of the Spanish possessions in 1897, before the [[Treaty of Paris (1900)]]]]

In 1844, the British returned the island to Spanish control and the area became known as the "Territorios Españoles del Golfo de Guinea". Due to epidemics, Spain did not invest much in the colony, and in 1862, an outbreak of [[yellow fever]] killed many of the whites that had settled on the island. Despite this, plantations continued to be established by private citizens through the second half of the 19th century.<ref name=autogenerated3>Fegley, Randall (1989). ''Equatorial Guinea: An African Tragedy'', p. 13. Peter Lang, New York. {{ISBN|0-8204-0977-4}}</ref>

The [[plantation]]s of [[Bioko|Fernando Pó]] were mostly run by a black [[Creole elite]], later known as [[Fernandino peoples|Fernandinos]]. The British settled some 2,000 Sierra Leoneans and freed slaves there during their rule, and a trickle of immigration from West Africa and the West Indies continued after the British left. A number of freed Angolan slaves, Portuguese-African creoles and immigrants from Nigeria, and Liberia also began to be settled in the colony, where they quickly began to join the new group.<ref name=autogenerated1>Fegley, Randall (1989). ''Equatorial Guinea: An African Tragedy'', p. 9. Peter Lang, New York. {{ISBN|0-8204-0977-4}}</ref> To the local mix were added Cubans, Filipinos, Jews and Spaniards of various colours, many of whom had been deported to Africa for political or other crimes, as well as some settlers backed by the government.<ref>Fegley, Randall (1989). ''Equatorial Guinea: An African Tragedy'', p. 8–9. Peter Lang, New York. {{ISBN|0-8204-0977-4}}</ref>

By 1870, the prognosis of whites that lived on the island was much improved after recommendations that they live in the highlands, and by 1884 much of the minimal administrative machinery and key plantations had moved to [[Pico Basilé|Basile]] hundreds of meters above sea level. [[Henry Morton Stanley]] had labeled Fernando Pó "a jewel which Spain did not polish" for refusing to enact such a policy. Despite the improved survival chances of Europeans living on the island, [[Mary Kingsley]], who was staying on the island, still described Fernando Pó as "a more uncomfortable form of execution" for Spaniards appointed there.<ref name=autogenerated3 />

There was also a trickle of immigration from the neighboring Portuguese islands, escaped slaves, and prospective planters. Although a few of the [[Fernandino peoples|Fernandinos]] were Catholic and Spanish-speaking, about nine-tenths of them were Protestant and English-speaking on the eve of the First World War, and [[pidgin English]] was the ''[[lingua franca]]'' of the island. The Sierra Leoneans were particularly well placed as planters while labor recruitment on the [[Ivory Coast|Windward coast]] continued. The Fernandinos became traders and middlemen between the natives and Europeans.<ref name=autogenerated1 /> A freed slave from the West Indies by way of [[Sierra Leone]] named William Pratt established the cocoa crop on Fernando Pó.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Clarence-Smith |first=William Gervase |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-1WGAgAAQBAJ&dq=%22William+Pratt%22+cocoa&pg=PA104 |title=Cocoa and Chocolate, 1765-1914 |date=2 September 2003 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-60778-5 |page=104 |language=en |access-date=6 September 2022 |archive-date=23 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240223193836/https://books.google.com/books?id=-1WGAgAAQBAJ&dq=%22William+Pratt%22+cocoa&pg=PA104#v=onepage&q=%22William%20Pratt%22%20cocoa&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>