European discovery and Portuguese occupation In 1472, in an attempt to find a new route to
India, the Portuguese navigator
Fernão do Pó, encountered the island of Bioko, which he called
Formosa. Later, the island was named after its discoverer, Fernando Pó. At the beginning of the 16th century, specifically in 1507, the Portuguese Ramos de Esquivel made a first attempt at colonization on the island of Fernando Pó. He established a factory in
Concepción (now
Riaba) and developed plantations of
sugarcane. With the Treaties of San Ildefonso in 1777 and
El Pardo in 1778, during the reign of the Spanish King
Charles III, the Portuguese gave to the Spanish the islands of Fernando Pó,
Annobón, and the right to conduct trade in the mainland, an area of influence of approximately 800 000
km2 in Africa, in exchange for the
Colonia del Sacramento in
Río de la Plata and the
Santa Catarina Island off the Brazilian coast (occupied by the Spaniards) during a recent war trying to stop Portuguese expansion in the
Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. The area stretched from the
Niger Delta to the mouth of
Ogooué River, now in
Gabon, and included, besides the islands of Fernando Pó and
Annobón, the islets of Corisco and Elobeyes. Spain was uninterested in those lands because it already had vast colonies in other parts of the world, Spain lost interest in Spanish Guinea in 1827 and authorized the British to use the island as a base for suppressing the
African slave trade.
British presence In 1821, the
Nelly approached the island of
Fernando Pó. He found it abandoned and founded the establishments of
Melville Bay (now
Riaba) and
San Carlos (now
Luba). Some years later, another British captain,
William Fitzwilliam Owen, decided to colonize the island and in the north of it — on the site of the present capital — erected a base for British ships hunting
slave traders. Thus, on 25 December 1827,
Port Clarence was founded on the ruins of a previous Portuguese settlement. After the Spanish killed Sas Ebuera, Malabo became the king unopposed, but with no authority. Bubi clans and settlements were slow to accept Spanish sovereignty over the island, and the full conquest of the island was not achieved until 1912.
Reign of Terror During the so-called
Reign of Terror of Macías Nguema, the dictator suppressed much of the intelligentsia of the country, initiating the process of taking over the positions of the public administration by part of the natives of Mongomo and clan Esangui. The infamous
Black Beach prison, also known as
Blay Beach prison (or Playa Negra prison), sits at the mouth of the Cónsul River, beside the black beach and behind the Governor's Palace and barracks. Several people have been jailed there during the 35 years of dictatorship. Among those imprisoned and tortured are many political leaders such as Rafael Upiñalo (Movimiento), Fabián Nsue (UP), Felipe Ondo Obiang (FDR), Martín Puye of
Movement for the Self-Determination of Bioko Island (MAIB) or
Plácido Micó Abogo of the Social Democratic
Convergence for Social Democracy (CPDS). A group of mercenaries were jailed at Black Beach for the
2004 coup d'état attempt against President
Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. == Geography ==