What if Argentina kept Equatorial Guinea?

Atzyn

Spanish Guinea was administratively attached to the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata from 1778 until independence in 1810. After the May Revolution, the colony was forgotten about and fell into disrepair. Trying to keep the territory together in the mainland after the revolution was already enough of an issue, and Equatorial Guinea wasn't even worth a passing thought at the time.

Still, what if, somehow, Argentina had kept this tiny piece of Africa? Perhaps if they managed to keep a lot more of the Viceroyalty's territory, like Antofagasta, Tarija and Uruguay, or prevented most of the civil wars and conflicts that would ravage the country for the next 70 or so years. If they had kept it, maybe the territory could've had a completely different shape: perhaps no mainland territory so it's just Annobon and Fernando Poo (Bioko), as Spain had practically abandoned them after the dismemberment. Or maybe Argentina takes an interest in the mainland, spurred on by the Conquest of the Desert, and expands into the continent just before the Berlin Conference and takes part in the scramble. Then the colony could fight for their independence later on, or be granted it during one of Argentina's many economic crises. Or they just keep it.

This timeline would definitely result in the number of Afro-Argentines not declining so dramatically after the immigration wave of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as they would have a close connection with an African territory. There would also be a lot of Argentine influence in the colony, with the local Spanish dialect being less Peninsular and over time adopting a lot of the peculiarities of the Argentine dialects.

This isn't a scenario that's discussed much, so I'd love to see your takes on this idea.
 
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Atzyn

Would Argentina be considered a serious power in this timeline, if they own a piece of Africa? Would they be invited to the Berlin Conference? Would they be able to exert enough influence to claim another territory? Argentina was one of the most prosperous economies at the time, though most of the wealth was accumulated at the top.
 

Fulano

I want to think some interesting scenarios about it, but sadly I think the timing is against the odds. Fernando Poo was too small, too far away, and Argentina didn't exactly have the most stable independent start. Besides Argentina already abolished slavery and those regions usually only served to fuel the slave trade, and that was already out of the way after Napoleon.
They would probably sell to whatever European power is willing to pay for it for a quick buck, or if not the Europeans, another country like America or Brazil, considering they were still interesting in those ventures.
 

GuildedAgeNostalgia

Perhaps some influencial Creoles in the Argentinian government set up a joint stock company to settle the colony and get some revenue for themselves and the government with cash crops from there?
 

Atzyn

Fulano said:
I want to think some interesting scenarios about it, but sadly I think the timing is against the odds. Fernando Poo was too small, too far away, and Argentina didn't exactly have the most stable independent start. Besides Argentina already abolished slavery and those regions usually only served to fuel the slave trade, and that was already out of the way after Napoleon.
They would probably sell to whatever European power is willing to pay for it for a quick buck, or if not the Europeans, another country like America or Brazil, considering they were still interesting in those ventures.
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What if Argentina became a monarchy after independence, much like Mexico and Brazil (and perhaps maintained slavery like the latter)? They'd probably have bigger imperial ambitions like those two, and having a good claim to a territory on another continent could help that.
 

Tupolev0247

Atzyn said:
What if Argentina became a monarchy after independence, much like Mexico and Brazil (and perhaps maintained slavery like the latter)? They'd probably have bigger imperial ambitions like those two, and having a good claim to a territory on another continent could help that.
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Argentina could have been a monarchy if in 1815 the proposal to accept Francisco de Paula de Borbón as king had been taken more seriously.
 
OxSpace

OxSpace

Atzyn said:
What if Argentina became a monarchy after independence, much like Mexico and Brazil (and perhaps maintained slavery like the latter)? They'd probably have bigger imperial ambitions like those two, and having a good claim to a territory on another continent could help that.
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If this was the case Mexico would've pressed ""claims"" on the Philippines and Brazil on Angola. Neither happened because dislodging their mother country outside of their continuous borders was incredibly difficult and not worth it.
 
Aguss

Aguss

Tupolev0247 said:
Argentina could have been a monarchy if in 1815 the proposal to accept Francisco de Paula de Borbón as king had been taken more seriously.
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I always thought that the Viceroyalty of La Plata (Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia and Paraguay) was more inclined to have Infanta Carlota Joaquina of Borbón as Queen, even having a political movement called Carlotism.

However, Carlota would eventually be ignored for 2 reasons, being an absolutist (the colonies wanted a constitutional monarch) and because of her marriage, she was married to the Crown Prince of the Empire of Brazil.

The other colonies feared a "union of crowns" that would lead to a subsequent annexation, being practically annexed by Brazil. Nor did they feel comfortable with Carlota having the support of the Brazilian army. Carlota and her husband demonstrated her intentions after invading and conquering Cistaplina (Uruguay) with the Brazilian army.

In short, although Carlota had political support from some elites, mainly in Argentina, and the backing of the Brazilian army, she also had the opposition of the viceroys (who wanted to maintain their power), other authority figures in the Americas, part of the peasantry (plain people), and of course, the British (who did not want a bigger Brazil). With the invasion of Uruguay with a Brazilian army, most of her followers went from being Carlotistas to being independentistas (Republicans with no loyalty to Spain or the Bourbons).

If she had a different marriage (nobody wanted a royal union with Brazil) and if she were not an absolutist, she would have been Queen, at least of Argentina and Uruguay (Paraguay and Bolivia are more complicated).

Well, that's at least how it was explained to me. I can be wrong.
 
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Warthog

Warthog

It's a fascinating idea, but I suspect the more likely outcome is that once the scramble for Africa accelerated, one of the European powers would likely seize the islands from Argentina, likely either Britain or Germany, who held territory closer to Biyoko, or Portugal seizing Annobon from their base at Princip.
 
Flashman

Flashman

Atzyn said:
This timeline would definitely result in the number of Afro-Argentines not declining so dramatically after the immigration wave of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as they would have a close connection with an African territory.
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Conversely, I think there is some possibility that it actually accelerates this trend. By far, one of the biggest issues hampering development in Equatorial Guinea throughout its entire history was a lack of manpower. The had to hire (and kidnap) workers from all corners of the Gulf of Guinea up through the 20th century to keep the territory productive. Maybe an easy solution to this for Argentine administrators is to import the free blacks of Argentina proper, turning Equatorial Guinea into another Sierra Leone or Liberia.

Though then again, it's not like Sierra Leone or Liberia ever recieved a demographically significant number of African-Americans or Afro-Carribbeans, so maybe it wouldn't have made a difference in the deline of the Afro-Argentines. Even still, they could be influential in the development of the colony.
Warthog said:
It's a fascinating idea, but I suspect the more likely outcome is that once the scramble for Africa accelerated, one of the European powers would likely seize the islands from Argentina, likely either Britain or Germany, who held territory closer to Biyoko, or Portugal seizing Annobon from their base at Princip.
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Historically, when the Spanish may have still formally controlled the territory but did not exercise sovereignty, the British did seize Bioko and use it for anti-slavery patrols, resettling some freed slaves there. Hence why the local Creole is English-derived, not Spanish. But maybe that doesn't happen at all if the Argentines continue to maintain an active presence.
 
Pax_Nihil

Pax_Nihil

Well it is only valuable for the oil so the sooner it can be discovered and exploited the more likely it is considered in the thoughts of Buenos Aires as anything else but a fart in the wind....
 
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