Treaty of Paris (1900)

The Treaty of Paris, published in the Spanish Gaceta on 30 March 1901 under the title Convention between Spain and France for the delimitation of the possessions of both countries on the coast of the Sahara and on that of the Gulf of Guinea, was signed on 27 June 1900 between representatives of the Kingdom of Spain (under the government of the regent Queen Maria Christina of Austria) and the French Third Republic (presided over by Émile Loubet).

The Treaty delimited the borders of the Spanish colonies in the Sahara desert (Río de Oro, part of Spanish Sahara) and Equatorial Africa (Spanish Guinea) with respect to the adjoining French colonies on Africa.

Fernando León y Castillo, the then Spanish ambassador to France, and Theophile Delcasse, French deputy and Minister of Foreign Affairs, acted as representatives of their respective governments for the purposes of the Treaty.

Based on the terms of the Treaty, Río Muni was relieved of all conflicting claims. Spain was left with the mainland enclave of Río Muni, a mere 26,000 km² out of the 300,000 stretching east to the Ubangi River which they had initially claimed. Moreover, the treaty granted the French the right to pre-emptively seize all territories if Spain decided to abandon its possessions in Río Muni.