As Ilhas do Golfo da Guiné. A rivalidade colonial europeia e o Tratado Luso-Espanhol de 1778

Abstract

From the mid-18^th century onwards, more or less coinciding with the ascension to the throne of King José Iand the seizure of power by his minister Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo (the future Marquis of Pombal), the Portuguese crown renewed its interest in the islands of the Gulf of Guinea. This was a response to international competition in the Atlantic, which had enhanced the strategic importance of this archipelago, especially due to the growth in the slave trade. Even though it might appear to be paradoxical, this is the context that served as the backdrop for the 1778 Pardo Treaty, by which Portugal ceded to Spain the islands of Fernando Pó and Ano Bom. Irrespective of the circumstances that gave rise to this agreement, the treaty did not represent a bluff on the part of Portuguese diplomacy, as much of Spanish historiography tends to view it, but was instead a concerted and satisfactory solution for the interests of the two countries in the region.