HISTORY OF CANARY ISLANDS

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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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Grand Canary Info

INFO GRAN CANARIA: Area: 1.562 km2 ; Population: 812.000 inhabitants Capital: Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (375.000 inhabitants). Other cities: Telde, Vecindario, Maspalomas, Arucas, Gáldar... The island of Gran Canaria more the islands of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote form the Province of Las Palmas into the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands