1899 treaty between Germany and Spain
German?Spanish Treaty
Borders of
German New Guinea
before (in blue) and after (in red) the 1899 German-Spanish treaty
|
Type
| Bilateral treaty
|
---|
Signed
| 12 February 1899
(
1899-02-12
)
|
---|
Parties
|
|
---|
The
German?Spanish Treaty
of 1899, (Spanish:
Tratado germano-espanol de 1899
; German:
Deutsch-Spanischer Vertrag 1899
) signed by the
German Empire
and the
Kingdom of Spain
, involved Spain selling the majority of its Pacific possessions not lost in the
Spanish?American War
to Germany for 25 million
pesetas
(equivalent to 17 million
Marks
).
History
[
edit
]
During the 19th century, the
Spanish Empire
lost most of its colonies to
independence movements
. Then came the
Spanish?American War
in 1898, in which Spain lost most of its remaining colonies.
Cuba
became independent while the United States took possession of
Puerto Rico
along with the
Philippines
and
Guam
from Spain's Pacific Ocean colonies, the
Spanish East Indies
. This left Spain with only its African possessions of
Spanish Sahara
,
Ifni
, and
Spanish Guinea
, and with about 6,000 tiny, sparsely populated, and not very productive Pacific islands. The latter were both ungovernable, after the loss of the administrative center of
Manila
, and indefensible, after the destruction of two Spanish fleets in the Spanish?American War. The Spanish government, therefore, decided to sell the remaining islands. Germany lobbied the Spanish government to facilitate the sale of the islands to Germany.
The Spanish Prime Minister
Francisco Silvela
signed the treaty on 12 February 1899. It transferred the
Caroline Islands
and the
Northern Mariana Islands
to Germany, which then placed them under the jurisdiction of
German New Guinea
.
Palau
, at the time considered part of the Carolines, was also occupied and during the following years the Germans started up mining there. The United States might have retained both the Carolines and Northern Marianas, but a lack of diplomatic consistency and interest allowed Spain to retain control until the sale.
[1]
[2]
In October 1914, during
World War I
, the
Empire of Japan
invaded and conquered many of these German possessions. After the war, they became in 1919 the
South Seas Mandate
of the
League of Nations
, under control of the Japanese. During and after
World War II
the United States took control of the former Spanish and German archipelagos in the Pacific.
Residual Spanish claims
[
edit
]
It has been asserted that some islands (
Kapingamarangi
,
Nukuoro
,
Mapia
,
Rongrik
,
Ulithi
, and "
Matador
", probably a reef already sunken today, but it appeared on maps of the time) are still in Spanish possession since they were not transferred to the United States nor to Germany.
The hypothesis appeared on 5 March 1948, when the state lawyer and
CSIC
researcher Emilio Pastor y Santos wrote a letter claiming that Spain should establish three naval stations in the Carolinas, Marianas and Palaos, following article 3. He suggested
Saipan
,
Yap
and
Koror
. In October, Pastor announced that there were still four islands under Spanish sovereignty, as they were forgotten in the 1899 treaty. In 1950, Pastor published the book
Territorios de soberania espanola en Oceania
, 'Territories of Spanish sovereignty in Oceania'. On 12 January 1949, the question was dealt with in the Council of Ministers, but
...while the subject is not clear, it becomes to wait before dealing with the United States or the friendly powers taking part of the United Nations, since Spain has no contacts with the UN and it would be this organization which would solve the final lot of those Micronesian islands owned by Japan.
However, a report of 4 January 1949 from the legal advice of the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs "estimated that any hypothetical right of Spain over those islands would have been destroyed by the
later trust regimes
, that were those established after World War I with the transfer of those territories to Japan and, after World War II, with their attribution to the United States".
[4]
In 2014, the Spanish government closed any speculation on the issue of Spanish possessions in the Pacific with an answer in the Congress to the deputy
Jon Inarritu
. According to its interpretation, Spain yielded in 1899 every remaining possession in the Pacific.
[4]
[5]
It added that "those islands were traditionally linked to the Carolinas and it has to be understood that, if the latter were yielded, the former were yielded too"
[4]
and "the Spanish attitude between 1899 and 1948 shows that the intent of Spain by signing the treaty with Germany was to transfer to it all its possessions in the Pacific."
[4]
It would be inconsistent "that Spain would have wanted to yield the Carolinas, the Palaos and the Marianas, but would have reserved the sovereignty over a few little islands of scarce economic value over which it had never exercised its factual sovereignty", concluding that Spain does not preserve any sovereignty over any Pacific islands or atolls.
Currently Mapia is under
Indonesian
sovereignty, Yap, Kapingamarangi, Ulithi and Nukuoro are parts of the
Federated States of Micronesia
, Rongerik is controlled by the
Marshall Islands
, Saipan is in the
North Mariana Islands
controlled by the United States, and Koror is part of
Palau
.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
Further reading
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
|
---|
Sovereign states
| |
---|
Associated states
of New Zealand
| |
---|
Dependencies
and other territories
| |
---|
|
---|
|
Territories
|
---|
South America
|
---|
- New Granada
(
Colombia
,
Ecuador
,
Panama
,
Venezuela, part of Guyana
, a northernmost portion of Brazilian Amazon)
- Peru
(Peru,
Acre
,
Chile
)
- Rio de la Plata
(
Argentina
,
Paraguay
,
Charcas
(Bolivia),
Banda Oriental
(Uruguay),
Misiones Orientales
,
Malvinas
)
|
|
|
|
Administrative subdivisions
|
---|
|
|
|
|
|
|