Exploring Euro-African pasts through an analysis of Spanish colonial practices in Africa (Morocco and Spanish Guinea)

Abstract

This article compares Spanish colonial practices in Morocco and Spanish Guinea, the two most influential colonies of its African territories, with the aim of making visible the policies activated in both countries to enable a description of their similarities and differences. The analysis reviews the administration of these colonies and their populations, which varied both between these two countries and also with regard to other European experiences. My final objective is to outline the diverse Spanish colonial practices in North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa, to show how they contrast with those of other European colonizers, for example those undertaken by the French in Morocco, as well as to contribute to debates on the construction of African and Arab otherness, the legacy of the past and memories from Europe, and exploring the Spanish colonialism of the twentieth century.