While working in the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1948, Emilio Pastor Santos came across the official list of all the Pacific islands that Spain had sold to Germany 50 years earlier. What seemed like a simple shopping list of historical curiosities soon became an idea that reached the Cabinet: the end of the Spanish Empire was not yet here.

Madrid, 1948. Pastor Santos immediately realized he was looking at an interesting document. As Manuel P. Villatoro explains in ABC, “None of the Royal Decrees published in the Gazeta of Madrid in 1899 – two in June and one in July – specified anything beyond the surrender of the Caroline Islands, along with Palau and the Marianas, with the exception of Guam”; thus, the distribution of the islands would help to better understand the Spanish presence in the Pacific.

The surprise came when, when checking the official list, he noticed that four islands were missing. Guedes (now Mapia) and Coroa (Ronguerik) from the Marianas archipelago, Pescadores (Kapingamarangi) from Palau and Ocea (Nikuoro) from the Carolinas were nowhere to be seen. How was this possible? To understand this, we need to go back a little further.

An empire in turmoil. Despite the “discovery” of the Caroline Islands by Spain in 1526 and the many expeditions to the region during that century, the Spanish presence in the Pacific was always viewed with suspicion. For centuries, the Philippines was supported and administered by the Viceroyalty of New Spain.

So when Mexico became independent, Manila and the rest of the Pacific became directly dependent on Madrid, and the problems began. Spain was in no position to be stationed in the Pacific, and everyone knew it. As soon as they moved away from the main islands, the Spanish were lost, and everyone knew it.

Therefore, in 1885, Germany (which was already becoming an industrial power, but had failed to ‘create’ a colonial empire) sent a warship to the island of Yap in the Carolinas to try to annex the archipelago.

The Carolinas’ crisis. This led to an international crisis that could only be overcome thanks to the decision of Pope Leo XIII. He recognized Germany’s right to trade and establish routes in the region, but made it clear that sovereignty belonged to the Spanish. Of course, in order for Spain to maintain its presence in the archipelago, it had to make its presence effective.

This actually showed the weakness of the Empire and would lead to the Spanish-American War a decade later, the crisis of ’98.

Sale of the Pacific. That’s when Germany took advantage of the situation and tried to buy the Spanish possessions that had not been ceded to the United States. Without the Philippines (and the loss of the Caribbean), Spain could do nothing on the other side of the world. In 1899, it sold everything for 25 million pesetas.

But let’s go back to Madrid in 1948. When Father Santos found a list of all the islands and discovered that four were missing, he quickly concluded that they were still Spanish. Was it possible that the Empire, hidden by a bunch of boring international treaties, was still alive?

The idea quickly spread through the media, and ABC ran a headline in December of that year that read “Spain has four island groups in Micronesia.” As Carmen Guillén explains, the matter reached the Council of Ministers in January 1949. But the situation in the country was so bad (and so isolated internationally) that the government rejected any claims.

But the idea survived… For decades, in fact. So much so that in 2014, the question was asked at the Congress of Deputies whether Spain really has four islands in the Pacific.

But he could not avoid the question. The State Department explained: “The most logical interpretation of the 1899 Treaty between Spain and Germany is that both parties are clear that what they are ceding are possessions that Spain still holds in the Pacific.” Moreover, if the country had held these hypothetical rights, they would have been relinquished in 1949.

The empire strikes back. The truth is that the world has changed a lot. In recent years, with the revival of interest in books about the dark legend, such stories have become very popular. They have become real legends.

But all of these are remnants of an understanding of the world that is at odds with the international reality that has come to revolve around human rights and the ability of societies to decide their own future without the agreements signed more than a century ago (signed outside the country they are in) having much to say.

But there is no doubt that it is intriguing.

Image | Kurt Cotoaga | ‘1898. The last of the Philippines

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