Dominating the colony: forest cartography, timber business and land appropriation in the former Spanish continental Guinea

Abstract

Between 1949 and 1952 the Spanish Army Geographical Service published the fifteen sheets at the scale of 1:100,000 that constitute the Advancement of the Topographic and Forest Map of Guinea. Even though the name itself suggests a certain degree of tentativeness, the aim long pursued by the organisms of the Spanish colonial administration is thus achieved: to have a forest cartography of Spanish continental Guinea. This paper aims at showing both the Advancement’s original process of elaboration as well as its being part of an economic, political and administrative context characterized by a triple necessity: to increase industrial and commercial integration of the Guinean forest; to expand forest concessions beyond the coastal area where they are located; and to possess an accurate knowledge of its location after its rapid development from 1927 and, at times, confusing processing.