Chapter V: Spanish Africa

The enterprise of Spain in Africa was relatively small, the greater
part of Spanish energy being devoted to founding an empire in the
New World, in the far East, in Italy and Flanders. It was also knit
up politically at first with the Portuguese colonial empire.
Nevertheless Spain has left very distinct marks of her influence on
North-western Africa in both language and culture. This in past
times arose from the Spanish Moors expelled from Spain, but bringing
much Spanish valour, ingeniousness, art, and pride into the life of
Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, and Timbuktu.

When Portugal was commencing to acquire oversea dominions in the
Açores (1437-66), Madeira (1430), and on the coast of Morocco,
Christian Spain was still divided into three kingdoms—Castile,
Aragon and Navarre—and the two former were concentrating their
energies on the destruction of the Moorish kingdom of Granada (not
accomplished till 1492). But the monarchs of Castile and Aragon
became jealous of the oversea expansion of Portugal; and that power
deemed it wise to surrender to Castile in 1479 the Portuguese claim
to the Canary Islands.

The Canary Islands had been partially conquered by a Norman
adventurer, Jean de Béthencourt, in 1402-6, more or less under the
suzerainty of Castile; and the Canary kingdom passed into the hands
of Ferdinand and Isabella in 1476. Prior to the final occupation of
the Spaniards the islands were inhabited by a Berber race of some
antiquity known as the Guanches. These were partly exterminated and
partly absorbed by the Spanish settlers, to whom they were so much
akin in blood that complete race fusion was rendered easy,
especially as the Guanches had not been reached by Muhammadanism.
The Canary Islands were an invaluable stepping-stone for the
trans-Atlantic ventures of the Spanish ships during the first fifty
years of American discovery and colonization. Many Spanish and
Guanche colonists—the Isleños or Islanders—proceeded from this
archipelago of seven islands to the greater Antilles; and there are
plantations and villages to-day in Cuba and Porto Rico which possess
Berber names derived from those of the Guanche prisoners or
colonists who founded them. It took Spain however fifteen years to
conquer the brave and warlike Guanches, a task not accomplished
until 1495. The wonderful scenery, genial climate, and fertile soil
attracted the attention of the British in the 18th century; and one
or two attempts were made to acquire this archipelago, but in face
of the gallant resistance offered by the islanders (it was at
Tenerife that Nelson lost his arm in an attempted landing) British
cupidity was foiled. In 1833 the archipelago was made a separate
government—a province of Spain by itself; but in 1902 a movement for
home rule was severely repressed. The Canary Islands now form
politically part of Spain. They are thoroughly civilized, well
governed and prosperous. The two principal islands, Tenerife and
Grand Canary, are favourite health resorts; and the whole group owes
much to British capital, enterprise and shipping for its industrial
and agricultural development.

At the close of the 15th century the Spaniards followed up their
expulsion of the Moors from Spain by attacking them on the North
coast of Africa. They established themselves at Melilla[76], Oran,
Algiers[77], Bugia, Bona, Hunein, Susa, Monastir, Mehedia, Sfax, and
Goletta[78]. The apogee of Spanish power in North Africa was reached
about 1535, at which time the Spaniards alternately with the Turks
dominated the Barbary States. Then, owing to victory inclining to
the Turkish corsairs[79], the Spaniards’ hold over the country began
to decline. A resolute attempt was made by Charles V in 1541 to take
and hold the town of Algiers, the Spanish having lost Peñon, a rock
fortress overlooking part of the town. This attempt of 1541 (only
less serious than the French expedition of 1880) would probably have
succeeded but for a torrential downpour of rain, which made the
surrounding country impassable to the Spanish guns and cavalry, and
led to a terrible rout. Had Algiers fallen at this time, its capture
might have resulted in a Spanish empire over North Africa. As it
was, this twenty-four hours’ downpour of rain changed the future of
the northern part of the continent, or rather prevented a change
which might have had very far-reaching results. Charles V had
invaded Tunis in 1535 at the appeal of the last sovereign but one of
the House of Hafs, who had been dispossessed by the Turkish pirate,
Khaireddin. Although his intervention was ultimately unsuccessful,
and his _protégé_ was killed and succeeded by his son, who more or
less intrigued with the Turkish corsairs, the Spaniards retained
their hold on Goletta till 1574, the Turks having then definitely
intervened in the affairs of Tunis. The Spaniards surrendered
Goletta to the renegade pirate, Ochiali; and with it went all their
influence over Tunis. An expedition which they had sent to the
island of Jerba, under the Duke de Medina-Cœli and the younger
Doria, ended in a great disaster—a defeat at the hands of the
Moorish pirates who massacred, it is said, not less than 18,000
Spaniards (May, 1560). Their skulls were built into a tower, which
remained visible near the town of Humt Suk till 1840, when the
kindly Maltese settlers on this island obtained permission from the
Bey of Tunis to give Christian burial to the Spanish skulls, which
now are interred in the Christian cemetery at Humt Suk. For brief
intervals the Spaniards held other coast towns[80] of Tunis, but in
retiring from Goletta they withdrew from all further hold over the
Regency.

They finally quitted Oran in 1791, after a terrible earthquake. They
had been turned out of this place in 1708, but recaptured it after a
period of 24 years, and held it for 59 years longer. Spain only
retained down to the present day on the north coast of Morocco the
little island of Melilla[81], the island of Alhucemas, the rock of
Velez de la Gomera, and the rocky promontory of Ceuta. Ceuta (and
Tetwan, which she once possessed) she inherited from Portugal after
a separation had once more taken place between the two monarchies in
1640.

Awakened from the torpor which followed the Napoleonic wars and the
home struggles for constitutional government by the French
activities in Algeria, Spain suddenly seized the Chafarinas
Islands[82] in 1849 so as to forestall the French. On the strength
of some clause in a treaty concluded after the war with the Moors
(1859-60), Spain secured from Morocco the town of Ifni, near Cape
Nun on the Atlantic coast and nearly opposite the Canary Islands,
but made no attempt to occupy it. From the middle of the 19th
century onwards an increasing number of Spaniards, chiefly of the
artisan and peasant class, emigrated from Andalucia to the Oran
coast of Algeria, with the result that Western Algeria to-day
contains a Spanish-speaking population of about 150,000. Yet prior
to the 20th century, Spain, distracted by home affairs and troubles
in Cuba, seemed willing to let Morocco drift beyond her control to
that of England or Germany, until the revival of Spanish industries
and trade and the loss of her colonies in America and the Pacific
decided her to plead with Britain and France that a sphere of
influence should be reserved for Spain on the North Morocco coast.
In 1910-11 the region between Melilla and the Muluya mouth was
brought under Spanish control; and in 1911 Spanish troops occupied
all the important towns on or near the coast between Melilla and
Kasr al Kabīr on the Atlantic, except Tangier (which will probably
be internationalized). Spain in fact will sooner or later annex all
the Rif country of North Morocco. In the south she claims a very
large area between Cape Jubi and the Anti-Atlas mountains.

Spain had allowed her influence over the coast opposite the Canary
Islands (“Santa Cruz de Mar Pequena”) to lapse between the end of
the 16th century and the scramble for Africa which commenced in
1884. At this period an English trading firm with agencies in the
Canary Islands had been established at Cape Jubi, south of the
Morocco border; and British influence for a time dominated the coast
immediately opposite the Canary Islands, and arrested Spanish action
in that neighbourhood. After the scramble for Africa commenced,
however, the Spanish, who were greatly interested in the north-west
coast (for its valuable fisheries in which the Canarian fishermen
were employed), raised their flag in 1885 at an inlet called the Rio
d’Ouro[83], and declared a Protectorate over the Sahara coast
between Cape Blanco and Cape Bojador and for a varying distance
inland. This Protectorate has since been extended farther to the
north beyond Cape Bojador; but the Empire of Morocco theoretically
extends to the south of Cape Jubi to meet the Spanish frontier, the
Moorish Government having bought up the claims of the English
company. The inland boundary of this Spanish Protectorate has
recently been settled as between France and Spain, and comprises an
approximate area of 73,000 square miles, mainly desert, but
extending inland to the Adrar hills. The only establishment of any
importance or size is on the Rio de Oro inlet, not far from the
islet which the Carthaginians once frequented. No doubt before long
the Rio de Oro Protectorate will be fused with the territory which
Spain claims in South-west Morocco.

In 1778 Spain, which had become deeply interested in the slave trade
on the West coast of Africa, on account of the need for a regular
supply of slaves to her South American possessions, obtained from
Portugal the cession of the island of Fernando Pô, and also took
over the island of Anno Bom—the last of this series of equatorial
volcanic islands and the smallest. About the same time the Spaniards
made a settlement at Corisco Bay[84]. The Spanish claims extend some
distance up the river Muni. The boundaries of Spanish Guinea (as it
is called) were settled with the French in 1900-2 and resulted in a
territory of 9800 square miles being allotted to Spain. This very
interesting patch of Equatorial West African Coast is emphatically
the home of the gorilla. It is populated by Bantu negroes, more
especially belonging to the Fang group.

At the end of the 18th century the Spanish island of Fernando Pô was
almost abandoned. When the British undertook to put down the slave
trade off the West African Coast, Fernando Pô became their
head-quarters (in 1829); and for a time they were allowed to
administer it by the Spanish Government, the British representative
or “Superintendent” being made at the same time a Governor with a
Spanish commission. But in 1844 the Spanish decided to resume the
direct administration, and refused to sell their rights to Great
Britain, though overtures were made to that end. Until about 1890
nothing was done to develop the resources of this densely forested,
very fertile, but unhealthy island. From that time onwards, however,
some encouragement was given to negro and European planters. From
the island having been for so long under British control, there is a
large population of English-speaking negroes, and English is
understood in Fernando Pô much better than Spanish. These negroes
are descended from a number of freed slaves from Sierra Leone. The
indigenous inhabitants are a Bantu tribe of short stature and very
lowly culture known as the Bube[85]. This tribe is distantly related
to the people of the northern part of the Cameroons, and speaks an
isolated Bantu dialect. Much development of cacao planting has
recently taken place in Fernando Pô, involving the importation of
foreign negro labourers from Liberia; but the interests of the Bube
natives have been well protected by Spanish Dominican and British
Primitive Methodist missionaries.

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Footnote 76:

In 1490.

Footnote 77:

Or the rock, or “Peñon,” overlooking the town, seized and
garrisoned by Cardinal Ximenez in 1509. It was taken by
Khaireddin, the Turkish corsair, in 1530.

Footnote 78:

Held by Spain from 1535 to 1574.

Footnote 79:

The following is a _résumé_ of the history of the first
intervention of Turkey in Barbary. In 1504 Uruj (Barbarossa I), a
pirate of mixed Turco-Greek origin, attracted by the rumours of
American treasure-ships in the western Mediterranean, captured
Algiers (1516) and Tlemsan (1517); but he was defeated and killed
by the Spaniards coming from Oran. His younger brother Khaireddin
(Barbarossa II) appealed to Turkey, which had just (1518)
conquered Egypt, and received from Sultan Selim the title of
Turkish Beglerbeg of Algiers and a reinforcement of 2000 Turks. He
mastered almost all Algeria, was made Admiral of the Turkish fleet
in 1533, captured Tunis in 1534, was driven out by Charles V, and
retired to Turkey in 1535. His successors were sometimes
Sardinian, Calabrian, Venetian, Hungarian renegades; but among the
more celebrated was Dragut, a Turk of Karamania.

Footnote 80:

Susa, Sfax, and Monastir, which were lost to the Turks by 1550.

Footnote 81:

The oldest of her continental African possessions, dating from
1490.

Footnote 82:

The Chafarinas Islands are off the mouth of the Muluya river, near
the Algerian frontier.

Footnote 83:

This Portuguese name becomes in Spanish Rio de Oro.

Footnote 84:

This also, like so many other places on the West coast of Africa,
was named by the Portuguese; _Corisco_ meaning “sheet lightning,”
a name applied to the place because it was first seen during a
violent thunderstorm.

Footnote 85:

Bube is said to be a cant term meaning “male” (from the Bantu
root, _-ume_, _-lume_) and the real name of this race is perhaps
Ediya. This subject is fully treated in the author’s book, _George
Grenfell and the Congo_, which gives a full account of Fernando Pô
and the Bube indigenes.