Spain in Africa launched the Spanish civil war Morocco has regularly made diplomatic overtures to regain the town, but Spain has maintained its hold, and administratively, Melilla is a part of the Spanish mainland province of Málaga In addition, the Spanish also held the Canary Islands, geographically also a part of Africa The Portuguese had claimed possession as early as 1345 in a letter from King Afonso IV of Portugal to Pope Clement VI However, by the Treaty of Alcỏỗovas, Portugal recognized Spanish sovereignty over the Canaries, which the Spanish completely conquered and occupied by 1496 These islands proved to be important in all four voyages of Christopher Columbus, and many subsequent missions across the Atlantic, including that of Hernán Cortés Francis Drake attacked the Canary Islands in 1585; so, too, did Admiral Blake in 1657—his ships were the first to attack the forts in Las Palmas In 1797 the local forces at Santa Cruz de Tenerife defeated the British admiral Horatio Nelson, the only defeat in his career—and one which cost him his right arm The Canary Islands were a single Spanish province until 1927; they are now two provinces of Spain, Las Palmas and Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and are a popular holiday destination for Britons and many northern Europeans Thus, with the exception of Melilla (and the Canary Islands), from the time of the Treaty of Tordesillas, Spain did not involve itself in African affairs However, in 1579 the situation changed, allowing Spain to establish a foothold in Africa On August 4, 1579, a Portuguese expeditionary force led by their king, Sebastião of Aviz, was destroyed at the Battle of the Three Kings at Alcácer-Quivir in northern Morocco Sebastião had been trying to put his candidate on the throne of Morocco, and the battle saw Sebastian and his Moroccan ally face the Sharif of Morocco (hence three “kings”) As Sebastião II was only 24 and had no children, his uncle, King Philip II of Spain, succeeded to the Portuguese throne (as Philip [Filipe] I of Portugal) Philip promised to maintain the separate Portuguese governmental institutions and bureaucracy and did so However, he did regain Spanish control over Ceuta; Portugal recognized the Canary Islands as Spanish territory Melilla, Ceuta, and the Canary Islands remain part of Spain to this day, as the islands of Penon de Vélez de la Gomera and Alhucemas, which were taken by the Spanish during the 16th and 17th centuries Ceuta returned to Spanish rule in 1580, and the Spanish government set about fortifying it and establishing a permanent garrison As a peninsula jutting into the Mediterranean, the port is partly enclosed by a peninsula, with the Fortress of Hacho located on the furthest 397 part of that peninsula, making it very hard to attack by land Indeed, to so an army would have to fight its way through the town, which occupies the thinnest part in the middle of the peninsula The port has long been associated with the Spanish Foreign Legion, which was established in 1920 to ensure the Spanish Protectorate of Morocco remained in Spanish hands As with Melilla, the town’s economy is helped by tax advantages offered by the Spanish government, which also has a large number of soldiers based there; the modern Kingdom of Morocco has made several diplomatic overtures for the return of Ceuta, but to no avail Most of Spain’s interests in Africa have centered on Morocco, but apart from Ceuta, Melilla, and two small islands, there was no plan to take over the country until the 1890s Finally in 1904 France and Spain concluded a secret agreement for partitioning Morocco into two zones, and the British and Italians agreed to this in return for France dropping it claims to Egypt and Libya In the Treaty of Fez in 1912, the Spanish were given the mountainous regions around Melilla and Ceuta (which became French Morocco), as well as some territory along the Atlantic coast (loosely known as Spanish West Africa) While the French reached an accommodation with the sultan of Morocco, the Spanish faced many problems, partly caused by the nature of the territory they held Spanish Morocco had no major cities except Tetuan, which became the administrative center Most trade from there went through either Tangier, which was an international city, or through Ceuta or Melilla, both Spanish possessions It did help Spain maintain her hold on her two ports, but the region was underdeveloped and communications were very bad Spanish West Africa was essentially divided into a large administrative unit known as the Spanish Sahara Sometimes known as Río de Oro, it was almost entirely desert with very little agriculture and was administered, from the Canary Islands There was also a southern enclave called Cape Juby, where a British engineer had established a commercial factory that he later sold to the sultan of Morocco The only other Spanish possession in Africa was what is now Equatorial Guinea This consisted of an island, Fernando Póo, and the adjoining mainland, known to the Spanish as Río Muni The island of Fernando Póo had been discovered by a Portuguese sailor Fernão Poo in 1472 and then acquired by Spain under a treaty in 1778 From 1827 until 1843 it was leased to the United Kingdom, which used it as a naval base to try to stop the slave trade, whereupon it was returned to Spain The