Postal history and postage stamps of Equatorial Guinea
The small country of Equatorial Guinea on the Gulf of Guinea in Central Africa has an eventful history, as evidenced by its postage stamps from the Spanish colony and autocratic independence to modern times.
location
Equatorial Guinea is located south of Cameroon and north of Gabon on the Gulf of Guinea. Some islands in the Atlantic belong to the national territory. The largest, most important and northernmost is Bioko . Annobón is the second largest and is still south of Sao Tomé e Principe , an independent island state. The small island of Corisco, not far from the coast in the south, also belongs to Equatorial Guinea. The large and small islands of Elobey in the mouth of the Riu Muni River , which played a major role in the development of the mainland, are even smaller . The mainland makes up the largest part of the approx. 28,000 km² area of this country.
history
The region was discovered around 1500 by Portuguese sailors led by Fernão do Pó . The starting point was the island of Bioko, which was initially named after its discoverer Fernando Po and was only given its current name Bioko in 1779.
In 1778 Portugal handed over the region, with the exception of the island of Sao Tomé e Principe, to Spain, which thus received its southernmost colony in Africa.
It was not until after the Second World War that Spain, at the urging of the United Nations, gave the region more ownership, which ended on October 12, 1968 with independence and the establishment of the Republic of Guinea Ecuatorial. The first president was Francisco Macías Nguema , who set up an autocratic presidential system in difficult times when the Biafra war was taking place in neighboring Nigeria. The new state developed close relations with Cuba and the Soviet Union and called itself from 1973 the People's Republic. In 1979 Macias was convicted and executed after a military coup. His successor was Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo , a relative of Macia. Obiang rules the country to this day a little less autocratically than Macias. From 1990 onwards, the country achieved higher income through the exploitation of oil deposits, which led to an increase in prosperity.
Postal areas
At the time of the Spanish colonial rule, a postal service was established and the first postage stamps were issued. The starting point was the island of Fernando Poo, where the brands of the Spanish Antilles were used before 1868. From 1868 to 1968 the Fernando Poos postal administration issued around 250 different postage stamps.
The islands of Elobey, Annobón and Corisco briefly formed an independent postal area from 1903 to 1910, in which around 50 postage stamps were issued before the postal area was merged with the mainland part of the Spanish possessions.
For the mainland from 1903 to 1910 stamps with the designation Guinea Continental Española were issued, after the incorporation of the islands Elobey, Annobon and Corisco the designation Territorios Españoles del Golfo de Guinea was used, later shortened to Guinea Española .
1959 to 1968 the Spanish colonial administration separated the island of Fernando Poo again from Spanish Guinea, which received its own stamps from 1960 to 1968 as the postal area Rio Muni.
The history of modern postage stamps of Equatorial Guinea began in 1968 with independence, which, as in many people's republics, resulted in an inflation of new issues, which culminated in 1976 with almost 350 postage stamps, mostly in large formats. The stamps were printed by private agencies on behalf of the state and aimed at collectors as foreign exchange brokers. It far exceeded the need for mail. In addition, there were forgeries and illegal overprints of the stamps that flooded the market.
Only after the coup in 1979 did the country return to an issuing policy of fewer than 30 stamps per year, which is sufficient for postal needs. Around 2400 stamps, including many blocks, have been printed with it to date.
Currencies
The stamps were initially issued in the Spanish currency peseta (subunit Centimo ) and from 1899 to 1900 in pesos (subunit Milesima). The newly established republic introduced the currency Peseta Guineana in 1968 , in which postage stamps were issued until 1976. From 1975 to 1985 the currency was Ekuele . From 1984 until today the postage stamps are issued in Central African Francs , a common currency with French influenced neighboring countries.
Memberships
Equatorial Guinea became a member of the United Nations shortly after the founding of the state on November 12, 1968 . On July 24, 1970, the country became a member of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) , but without observing its rules for a long time.
Web links
- Illustration of a modern postage stamp , 1999 issue
Individual evidence
- ↑ Spain, Colonies: Stamps: Years List (Series: Fernando Poo). Retrieved September 19, 2017 (English).
- ^ Spain, Colonies: Stamps: Years List (Series: Elobey, Annobon and Corisco). Retrieved September 19, 2017 (English).
- ^ Spain, Colonies: Stamps: Years List (Series: Spanish Guinea). Retrieved September 19, 2017 (English).
- ↑ Spain, Colonies: Stamps: Years List (Series: Rio Muni). Retrieved September 19, 2017 (English).
- ^ Equatorial Guinea: Stamps: Years List. Retrieved September 19, 2017 (English).
- ^ UPU page for Equatorial Guinea