paragraph_text: After four hundred years of colonial rule by the Spanish Empire, Puerto Rico finally received its sovereignty in 1897 through a Carta de Autonomía (Charter of Autonomy). It was signed by Spanish Prime Minister Práxedes Mateo Sagasta and ratified by the Spanish Cortes.

paragraph_text: The two countries eventually signed an agreement making the islands an Anglo-French condominium that divided the New Hebrides into two separate communities: one Anglophone and one Francophone. This divide continues even after independence, with schools teaching in either one language or the other, and with different political parties. The condominium lasted from 1906 until 1980, when the New Hebrides gained their independence as the Republic of Vanuatu.

paragraph_text: On May 6, 1957, Ghana (formerly Gold Coast) became the first sub-Saharan African country to gain its independence from European colonization in the twentieth century.

paragraph_text: Luis Villafañe (born June 21, 1981 in San Juan, Puerto Rico) is a Puerto Rican professional basketball player who plays with Caciques de Humacao of the Puerto Rican Baloncesto Superior Nacional. He also is a member of the Puerto Rico National Basketball Team.

paragraph_text: The 1959 International Cross Country Championships was held in Lisbon, Portugal, at the National Stadium on March 21, 1959. Morocco entered a team for the first time after gaining independence. A report on the event was given in the Glasgow Herald.

paragraph_text: The Latin American wars of independence were the revolutions that took place during the late 18th and early 19th centuries and resulted in the creation of a number of independent countries in Latin America. These revolutions followed the American and French Revolutions, which had profound effects on the British, Spanish, Portuguese, and French colonies in the Americas. Haiti, a French slave colony, was the first to follow the United States; the Haitian Revolution lasted from 1791 to 1804, when they won their independence. The Peninsular War with France, which resulted from the Napoleonic occupation of Spain, caused Spanish Creoles in Spanish America to question their allegiance to Spain, stoking independence movements that culminated in the wars of independence, which lasted almost two decades. At the same time, the Portuguese monarchy relocated to Brazil during Portugal's French occupation. After the royal court returned to Lisbon, the prince regent, Pedro, remained in Brazil and in 1822 successfully declared himself emperor of a newly independent Brazil.

paragraph_text: José Luis Díaz Vázquez (born March 31, 1957 in Maracaibo, Venezuela) is a Spanish retired basketball player. He played 18 times with the Spain national team.

paragraph_text: Luis Antonio García Navarro (30 April 1941 in Chiva, Valencian Community, Spain – 10 October 2001 in Madrid, Spain), was a Spanish conductor.

paragraph_text: Portuguese natives comprise a very small percentage of Guinea-Bissauans. After Guinea-Bissau gained independence, most of the Portuguese nationals left the country. The country has a tiny Chinese population. These include traders and merchants of mixed Portuguese and Chinese ancestry from Macau, a former Asian Portuguese colony.

paragraph_text: The Latin American wars of independence were the revolutions that took place during the late 18th and early 19th centuries and resulted in the creation of a number of independent countries in Latin America. These revolutions followed the American and French Revolutions, which had profound effects on the British, Spanish, Portuguese, and French colonies in the Americas. Haiti, a French slave colony, was the first to follow the United States; the Haitian Revolution lasted from 1791 to 1804, when they won their independence. From this emerged Napoleon Bonaparte as French ruler, whose armies set out to conquer Europe, including Spain and Portugal in 1808. The Peninsular War with France, which resulted from the Napoleonic occupation of Spain, caused Spanish Creoles in Spanish America to question their allegiance to Spain, stoking independence movements that culminated in the wars of independence, which lasted almost two decades. At the same time, the Portuguese monarchy relocated to Brazil during Portugal's French occupation. After the royal court returned to Lisbon, the prince regent, Pedro, remained in Brazil and in 1822 successfully declared himself emperor of a newly independent Brazil.

paragraph_text: Ángel Luis Andreo Gabán (born 3 December 1972 in Madrid) is a water polo player from Spain, who was a member of the national team that won the gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. He also competed for his native country in the Summer Games of 2000 and 2004.

paragraph_text: María Peláez Navarrete (born 13 November 1977 in Málaga, Andalusia) is a former butterfly swimmer from Spain, who competed at five consecutive Summer Olympics for her native country, starting in 1992. She won the silver medal in the 200 m butterfly at the 1999 European Aquatics Championships in Istanbul, Turkey, after gaining the title in the same event, two years earlier at the European Championships in Seville, Spain.

paragraph_text: Luis del Marmol Carvajal (Granada, Spain, 1520 - Velez Malaga, Spain, 1600) was a Spanish chronicler living many years among the formerly Moorish Granada kingdom morisco's inhabitants and in the North African Berber regions at the end of the 15th, and a good part of the 16th century.

paragraph_text: British America gained large amounts of new territory following the Treaty of Paris (1763) which ended British involvement in the Seven Years' War. At the start of the American War of Independence in 1775, the British Empire included twenty colonies north and east of New Spain (present - day areas of Mexico and the Western United States). East and West Florida were ceded to Spain in the Treaty of Paris (1783) which ended the American Revolution, and then ceded by Spain to the United States in 1819. The remaining continental colonies of British North America formed the Dominion of Canada by uniting between 1867 and 1873. The Dominion of Newfoundland joined Canada in 1949.

paragraph_text: Igor Hernández Colina (born 22 January 1977) is a Venezuelan beach volleyball player. He played with Jesus Villafañe at the 2012 Summer Olympics.

paragraph_text: The separation of Panama from Colombia was formalized on 3 November 1903, with the establishment of the Republic of Panama. From the Independence of Panama from Spain in 1821, Panama had simultaneously declared independence from Spain and joined itself to the confederation of Gran Colombia through the Independence Act of Panama. Panama was always tenuously connected to the rest of the country to the south, owing to its remoteness from the government in Bogotá and lack of a practical overland connection to the rest of Gran Colombia. In 1840 - 1841, a short - lived independent republic was established under Tomás de Herrera. After rejoining Colombia following a 13 - month independence, it remained a province which saw frequent rebellious flare - ups, notably the Panama crisis of 1885, which saw the intervention of the United States Navy.

paragraph_text: He joined the Spanish diplomatic service in 1982, and served from 2005 to 2008 as the Spanish Ambassador to South Africa. Since 2002 to 2004, he served as the 5th Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of the Government of Spain. 2008-2011 he was an advisor to the Directorate General of Foreign Policy for Africa. In February 2011, he became the Ambassador to Sudan, and when South Sudan gained independence 4 months later he was also appointed as ambassador to South Sudan.

paragraph_text: On 6 March 1957, Ghana (formerly the Gold Coast) became the first sub-Saharan African country to gain its independence from European colonization in the twentieth century.

paragraph_text: The Monroe Doctrine was a United States policy of opposing European colonialism in the Americas beginning in 1823. It stated that further efforts by European nations to take control of any independent state in North or South America would be viewed as ``the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States. ''At the same time, the doctrine noted that the U.S. would recognize and not interfere with existing European colonies nor meddle in the internal concerns of European countries. The Doctrine was issued on December 2, 1823 at a time when nearly all Latin American colonies of Spain and Portugal had achieved, or were at the point of gaining, independence from the Portuguese and Spanish Empires.

paragraph_text: After the Spanish -- American War, Spain and the United States signed the Treaty of Paris (1898), by which Spain ceded Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam to the United States for the sum of $20 million. Cuba gained formal independence from the U.S. on May 20, 1902, as the Republic of Cuba. Under Cuba's new constitution, the U.S. retained the right to intervene in Cuban affairs and to supervise its finances and foreign relations. Under the Platt Amendment, the U.S. leased the Guantánamo Bay naval base from Cuba.

Question: When did the country Luis Villafañe is from gain their independence from Spain?
Answer: 1897