13.1.69 to 13.1.75

The last territories in Africa (1898-1975) In 1481 the papal Bull Aeterni regis had granted all land south of the Canary Islands to Portugal. Only these archipelago and the cities of Sidi Ifni (1476-1524), known then as "Santa Cruz de Mar Pequeña", Melilla (conquered by Pedro de Estopiñán in 1497), Villa Cisneros (founded in 1502 in actual Western Sahara), Mazalquivir (1505), Velez (1508), Oran (1509-1790), Argel (1510-1529), Bugia (1510-1554), Tripoli (1511-1551), Tunez (1535-1569) and Ceuta (ceded by Portugal in 1668) remained as Spanish territory in Africa. In 1778, the Bioko Island, adjacent islets, and commercial rights to the mainland between the Niger and Ogoue Rivers were ceded to Spain by the Portuguese in exchange for territory in South America (Treaty of El Pardo). In the XIX century, some Spanish explorers and missionaries would crossed this zone, as Manuel de Iradier. In 1848, Spanish troops conquered the Islas Chafarinas. In 1860, after the Tetuan War, Morocco ceded Sidi Ifni to Spain as a part of the Treaty of Tangiers. The following decades of Franco-Spanish collaboration resulted in the establishment and extension of Spanish protectorates south of the city, and Spanish influence obtained international recognition in the Berlin Conference of 1884: Spain administered Sidi Ifni and Western Sahara jointly. Spain claimed a protectorate over the coast of Guinea from Cape Bojador to Cap Blanc, too. Río Muni became a protectorate in 1885 and a colony in 1900. Conflicting claims to the Guinea mainland were settled in 1900 by the Treaty of Paris. In 1911, Morocco was divided between the French and Spanish. The Disaster of Annual (1921) was a grave military defeat suffered by the Spanish army. Between 1926 and 1959, Bioko and Rio Muni were united as the colony of Spanish Guinea. Spain lacked the wealth and the interest to develop an extensive economic infrastructure in his african colonies during the first half of the twentieth century. However, through a paternalistic system, particularly on Bioko Island, Spain developed large cacao plantations for which thousands of Nigerian workers were imported as laborers. The Spanish also helped Equatorial Guinea achieve one of the continent's highest literacy rates and developed a good network of health care facilities.