Santa Apolonia
Territory of Santa Apolonia Territorio de Santa Apolonia | |
|---|---|
 Flag | |
 Santa Apolonia within the Spanish Republic | |
| Capital | Alejandria |
| Largest city | San Amaro |
| Official languages | Spanish Apolonian Creole |
| Other languages | Malagasy Tamil Timorese Malay Vietnamese Cantonese |
| Demonym | Apolonian |
| Government | Autonomous General Council |
| Establishment | Capitancy of Santa Apolonia - 1756
Dependency of Santa Apolonia - 1929 Territory of Santa Apolonia - 1966 |
| Currency | Spanish Peso (ESP) |
Santa Apolonia, officially the Territory of Santa Apolonia (Spanish: Territorio de Santa Apolonia) is a Spanish autonomous territory located in the Indian Ocean, off the southeastern coast of East Africa.
It comprises the eponymous island of Santa Apolonia, Isla de España and Las Palomas Islands, alongside several other smaller islands and atolls. The city of Alejandria is its capital.
History
The islands that make up the territory of Santa Apolonia are believed to have been first spotted by Arab sailors in the 10th century. Portuguese sailors visited the islands in 1507 and gave Santa Apolonia its current name, but never made any attempt to settle it. In the following century the Dutch Republic established several outposts on modern day Isla de España, but they were abandoned and by the early 18th century the islands were firmly established under French rule, during which time they were known as Île de Bourbon and Île de France.
During the Great Silesian War, a Spanish fleet sent from the occupied French port cities in India attacked the islands. In the Treaty of Andorra (1756), France ceded to Spain the Île de Bourbon, the nearby Île de France as well as its dependencies. The Spanish renamed the islands and formed the Captaincy General of Santa Apolonia, establishing a colonial model and administration akin to that of the Spanish West Indies. Santa Apolonia was primarily a plantation colony, and even after the abolition of slavery across the Spanish Empire in 1842, the use of forced labor in the plantations continued, with large numbers of people brought to the islands from the Spanish possessions in India, Timor and Vietn-Nam.
Colonial society in Santa Apolonia was characterized by a unique casta system, comprised of five groups: the Peninsulares, those born in Spain who held the highest positions such as that of governor-general; the Isleños, descendants of Spaniards born in the island who made up the middle-upper class; Mestizos, those of mixed Spanish/European and Indigenous ancestry; the Indios and Malayos, terms used to denote Indian, Malagasy and other laborers brought to work in plantations, and lastly the Americanos, loyalists from Mexico and Peru that settled in Santa Apolonia after the revolutions in the 1880s, and often competed for influence with the Isleños.
In 1929, after the Republican Revolution in Spain, the new republican government reorganized the colony into the Spanish Dependency of Santa Apolonia, abolishing the casta system and cracking down on forced labor. Despite this, there still existed a massive wealth disparity between the Isleños, mostly the wealthy landowners, and Americanos, who held a monopoly on trade, with the rest of the population.
The early years of the dependency were marked by political struggles between these two groups amidst demands for universal suffrage and social reform. Over the 1940s and 1950s, with assistance from the central government in Madrid, a series of progressive coalition governments worked to finally break down the political power of these groups, to reduce the wealth disparity of the historically marginalized groups through affirmative action policies, and to create a unified Apolonian identity within Spain.
The variety of peoples in Santa Apolonia and success of these policies meant that in the 1966 Santa Apolonia National Referendum, the pro-Spanish government won out, resulting in its integration within Spain as a fully autonomous territory with its own local government.
