Area now known as Equatorial Guinea was charted by Portuguese explorer Fernando Pó and accordingly plucked for Portugal in 1474 as her colony for 300 years until control was transferred to the Spanish crown in 1778, compensation (Treaty of El Pardo) for Portugal's violation of the spirit of Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, which divided the world into Portuguese and Spanish spheres of influence.
The nation has been held under the grip of uninterrupted authoritarian rule since independence from Spain in 1968.
Equatorial Guinea today is the only sub-Saharan country where Spanish is the official language.
