Spain, unwilling to invest heavily in the…

Spain, unwilling to invest heavily in the development of Fernando Pó, have leased a base at Malabo on Bioko to the United Kingdom, which they have sought as part of their efforts to control the Atlantic slave trade, from 1827 to 1843.

The British, without Spanish permission, had moved the headquarters of the Mixed Commission for the Suppression of Slave Traffic to Fernando Pó in 1827, before moving it back to Sierra Leone under an agreement with Spain in 1843.

Spain's decision to abolish slavery in 1817 at British insistence had damaged the colony's perceived value to the authorities and so leasing naval bases is an effective revenue earner from an otherwise unprofitable possession.

An agreement by Spain to sell their African colony to the British is frustrated in 1841 by metropolitan public opinion and angry parliamentarians in Madrid.

In 1844, the British restore the island to Spanish sovereignty and the area becomes known as the "Territorios Españoles del Golfo de Guinea."

It is from Fernando Pó that governor John Beecroft launches the seizure of Lagos, which marks the first British incursion into Nigeria.