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HISTORY
OF THE CANARY ISLANDS: A
short review on the history of the Canary Islands;
Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Tenerife, La
Gomera, La Palma & el Hierro (wikipedia.com) |
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Until
the mid-20th century, some investigators held to a theory
linking the Berber populations to Germanic tribes. This theory
is now rejected by historians and anthropologists alike. The
currently accepted theory is that they were brought there by
the Phoenicians or the Romans. The most probable hypothesis
points to succesive waves of migration from North Africa. The
only available source document -the "legend of the
detongued"- tells of the forced migration of the southern
Berbers before the advance of the Roman Empire. Before the
Castilian conquest, the Canary Islands were inhabited by the
Guanches, a people possibly related to the Berbers of North
Africa.
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The Canary Islands were known in antiquity. The first awareness
of the islands' existence must have been very ancient, since the
peak of Mt Teide can be seen on clear days from certain points
of the African coast. It is possible that the islands were
discovered by the Carthaginian captain Hanno in his voyage along
the African coast, and that they were visited by the Phoenicians,
who sought the precious red dye extracted from the orchilla, for
which reason the islands were also known as The Purple Isles.
Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, and Romans traded with the
islands over the centuries. Homer refers to them as The Elysian
Fields, the place where warriors and notable men went to rest
after death, and in the Odyssey he describes their climate:
"it is a place where men live a sweet and peaceful life,
without snow, harsh winters, or rain, but a perennial cool air,
born of the breath of the zephyrs that the ocean exhales in a
musical breath". They were also know as the Hesperides.
Plato made them the site of Atlantis, the sunken island
civilization. Pliny the Elder was the first to call them The
Fortunate Islands. Plutarch was informed of the existence of the
islands by Sertorius, who planned to flee there from Spain due
to his political problems.
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The conquest of the Canaries, which took almost 100 years, set a
precedent for the conquest of the New World, with complete
annhilation of the native culture and rapid assimilation to
Christianity. Due to the topology and the resistance of the
native Guanches, the conquest was not completed until 1496, when
the conquest of Tenerife was completed and the Canaries were
incorporated into the Castilian kingdom. Between 1448 and 1459,
there was a crisis between Castile and Portugal over the control
of the islands, when Maciot de Bethencourt sold the lordship of
Lanzarote to Portugal's Prince Henry the Navigator, an action
that was not accepted by the natives or the Castilian residents
of the island, who initiated a revolt and expelled the
Portuguese. After the
conquest, the Spanish imposed a new economic model based on
single-crop cultivation— first, sugar cane, then wine, an
important trade item with England. In this era, the first
institutions of government were founded.
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The islands became a stopping point in the trade routes with
America, Africa, and India, and the port of La Palma became one
of the most important ports of the Spanish Empire. The town of
Santa Cruz, on La Palma, became a stopping point for the Spanish
conquerors, traders, and missionaries on their way to the New
World. This trade brought great prosperity to certain social
sectors of the islands. The islands became very wealthy and soon
attracted merchants and adventurers from all over Europe.
Magnificent palaces and churches were built on La Palma during
this busy, prosperous period. Of particular interest to visitors
is the Church of El Salvador, one of the island's finest
examples of the architecture of the 1500s.
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At the beginning of the 20th century, the English introduced a
new cash-crop, the banana, the export of which was controlled by
companies such as Fyffes. The
rivalry between the elites of the cities of Santa Cruz de
Tenerife and Las Palmas for the capital-ship of the islands
would lead to the division of the archipelago in two provinces
in 1927, though this has not laid to rest the rivalry between
the two cities, which continues to this day. In
1936, Francisco Franco traveled to the Canaries as General
Commandant. From the Canaries, he launched the military uprising
of July 17. He quickly took control of the archipelago, with the
exception of a few focal points of resistance on the island of
La Palma and in the town of Vallehermoso, on Gomera island.
Despite the fact that there was never a proper war in the
islands, they were one of the places where the post-war
repression was most severe. Opposition
to Franco's regime did not begin to organize until the late
1950s, which saw the formation of groups such as the Spanish
Communist Party and various nationalist, leftist, and
independence-terrorist movements, such as the Free Canaries
Movement and the MPAIAC. After Franco's death and the
installation of a democratic constitutional monarchy, a bill of
autonomy was put forth for the Canaries, which was approved in
1982. In 1983, the first autonomous elections were held, and
were won by the Spanish socialist party, PSOE. The current
ruling party is the Canarian Coalition.
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