Ancient and pre-colonial timesMain article:
Canary Islands in pre-colonial times
Guanche mummy in the
Museo de la Naturaleza y el Hombre (Tenerife).
Before the arrival of the
aborigines, the Canaries were inhabited by prehistoric animals; for example, the giant lizard (
Gallotia goliath), or giant rats (
Canariomys bravoi and
Canariomys tamarani).
The islands were visited by the
Phoenicians, the
Greeks, and the
Carthaginians.
According to the 1st century AD
Roman author and philosopher
Pliny the Elder, the
archipelago was found to be uninhabited when visited by the Carthaginians under
Hanno the Navigator, but that they saw ruins of great buildings
This story may suggest that the islands were inhabited by other peoples prior to the
Guanches. King
Juba,
Augustus's Roman protege, is credited with discovering the islands for the Western world. He dispatched a naval contingent to re-open the dye production facility at
Mogador in what is now western Morocco in the early 1st century
AD.
That same naval force was subsequently sent on an exploration of the Canary Islands, using Mogador as their mission base.
When the Europeans began to explore the islands, they encountered several
indigenous populations living at a
Neolithic level of technology.
Although the history of the settlement of the Canary Islands is still unclear, linguistic and genetic analyses seem to indicate that at least some of these inhabitants shared a common origin with the
Berbers of northern Africa.
The pre-colonial inhabitants came to be known collectively as the
Guanches, although
Guanches was originally the name for the indigenous inhabitants of Tenerife.
During the
Middle Ages, the islands were visited by the
Arabs for
commercial purposes.
The
Muslim navigator Ibn Farrukh, from
Granada, is said to have landed in "Gando" (Gran Canaria) in February 999, visiting a king named Guanarigato.
From the 14th century onward, numerous visits were made by sailors from
Majorca, Portugal, and
Genoa.
Lancelotto Malocello settled on Lanzarote in 1312.
The
Majorcans established a
mission with a bishop in the islands that lasted from 1350 to 1400.
Alonso Fernández de Lugo presenting the captured native kings of Tenerife to
Ferdinand and Isabella==============================================
Castilian conquestMain article:
Conquest of the Canary IslandsThere are claims that the
Portuguese had "discovered" the Canaries as early as 1336, though there appears to be little evidence for this.
In 1402, the Castilian conquest of the islands began, with the expedition of French adventurers
Jean de Béthencourt and
Gadifer de la Salle, nobles and
vassals of
Henry III of Castile, to Lanzarote. From there, they conquered Fuerteventura ( 1405 ) and El Hierro.
Béthencourt received the title King of the Canary Islands, but still recognized King Henry III as his overlord.
Béthencourt also established a base on the island of La Gomera, but it would be many years before the island was truly conquered. The natives of La Gomera, and of Gran Canaria, Tenerife, and La Palma, resisted the Castilian invaders for almost a century.
In 1448
Maciot de Béthencourt sold the lordship of Lanzarote to Portugal's Prince
Henry the Navigator, an action that was not accepted by the natives nor by the Castilians.
A crisis swelled to a revolt which lasted until 1459 with the final expulsion of the Portuguese.
In 1479, Portugal and Castile signed the
Treaty of Alcáçovas.
The treaty settled disputes between Castile and Portugal over the control of the Atlantic, in which Castilian control of the Canary islands was recognized but which also confirmed Portuguese possession of the
Azores,
Madeira, the
Cape Verde islands and gave them rights to lands discovered and to be discovered...and any other island which might be found and conquered from the Canary islands beyond toward
Guinea.
The Castilians continued to dominate the islands, but due to the topography and the resistance of the native Guanches, complete pacification was not achieved until 1495, when Tenerife and La Palma were finally subdued by
Alonso Fernández de Lugo.
After that, the Canaries were incorporated into the
Kingdom of Castile.
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After the conquestAfter the conquest, the Castilians imposed a new economic model, based on single-crop cultivation: first
sugar cane; then wine, an important item of trade with
England.
In this era, the first institutions of colonial government were founded. Both Gran Canaria, a colony of
Castile since 6-3-1480 (from 1556, of Spain), and Tenerife, a Spanish colony since 1495, had separate governors.
The cities of
Santa Cruz de Tenerife and
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria became a stopping point for the Spanish conquerors, traders, and missionaries on their way to the
New World.
This trade route brought great prosperity to some of the social sectors of the islands.
The islands became quite wealthy and soon were attracting merchants and adventurers from all over Europe.
Magnificent palaces and churches were built on La Palma during this busy, prosperous period. The Church of El Salvador survives as one of the island's finest examples of the architecture of the 16th century.
The Canaries' wealth invited attacks by
pirates and
privateers.
Ottoman Turkish admiral and privateer
Kemal Reis ventured into the Canaries in 1501, while
Murat Reis the Elder captured Lanzarote in 1585.
Church of San Juan Bautista,
Arucas in Gran Canaria.
The most severe attack took place in 1599, during the
Dutch War of Independence. A
Dutch fleet of 74 ships and 12,000 men, commanded by
Johan van der Does, attacked the capital, Las Palmas (the city had 3,500 of Gran Canaria's 8,545 inhabitants).
The Dutch attacked the Castillo de la Luz, which guarded the harbor.
The Canarians evacuated civilians from the city, and the Castillo surrendered (but not the city). The Dutch moved inland, but Canarian cavalry drove them back to Tamaraceite, near the city.
The Dutch then laid siege to the city, demanding the surrender of all its wealth. They received 12 sheep and 3 calves. Furious, the Dutch sent 4,000 soldiers to attack the Council of the Canaries, who were sheltering in the village of Santa Brígida.
300 Canarian soldiers ambushed the Dutch in the village of Monte Lentiscal, killing 150 and forcing the rest to retreat.
The Dutch concentrated on Las Palmas, attempting to burn it down. The Dutch pillaged
Maspalomas, on the southern coast of Gran Canaria,
San Sebastian on La Gomera, and
Santa Cruz on La Palma, but eventually gave up the siege of Las Palmas and withdrew.
Another noteworthy attack occurred in 1797, when
Santa Cruz de Tenerife was attacked by a British fleet under
the future Lord Nelson on 25 July.
The British were repulsed, losing almost 400 men. It was during this battle that Nelson lost his right arm.
=================================================
18th to 19th century
Bus Station at San Telmo Park,
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
The sugar-based economy of the islands faced stiff competition from Spain's American colonies. Crises in the sugar market in the 19th century caused severe recessions on the islands. A new cash crop,
cochineal (
cochinilla), came into cultivation during this time, saving the islands' economy.
By the end of the 18th century, Canary Islanders had already emigrated to Spanish American territories, such as
Havana,
Veracruz,
Santo Domingo,
San Antonio, Texas and
St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana These economic difficulties spurred mass emigration, primarily to the Americas, during the 19th and first half of the 20th century.
From 1840 to 1890, as many as 40,000 Canary Islanders emigrated to
Venezuela.
Also, thousands of Canarians moved to
Puerto Rico; the Spanish monarchy felt that Canarians would adapt to island life better than other immigrants from the mainland of Spain.
Deeply entrenched traditions, such as the Mascaras Festival in the town of
Hatillo, Puerto Rico, are an example of Canarian culture still preserved in Puerto Rico.
Similarly, many thousands of Canarians emigrated to the shores of
Cuba as well.
During the
Spanish-American War of 1898, the Spanish fortified the islands against possible American attack, but an attack never came.
===============================Romantic period and scientific expeditions
Coast El Golfo, El Hierro
Sirera and Renn (2004) distinguish two different types of expeditions, or voyages, during the period 1770-1830, which they term "the Romantic period”:
First are “
expeditions financed by the States, closely related with the official scientific Institutions. characterized by having strict scientific objectives (and inspired by) the spirit of Illustration and progress”. In this type of expedition, Sirera and Renn include the following travellers:
- the British citizen Edens (1715) who ascends Mount Teide and publishes his story in Philosophical Transactions.
- Louis Feuillée (1724), who was sent to measure the meridian of El Hierro and to map the islands.
- Jean-Charles de Borda (1771, 1776) who more accurately measured the longitudes of the islands and the height of Mount Teide
- the Baudin-Ledru expedition (1796) which aimed to recover a valuable collection of natural history objects.
The second type of expedition identified by Sirera and Renn is one that took place starting from more or less private initiatives. Among these, the key exponents were the following:
Sirera and Renn identify the period 1770-1830 as one in which “In a panorama dominated until that moment by France and England enters with strength and brio Germany of the Romantic period whose presence in the islands will increase”.
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الأربعاء مايو 18, 2011 8:41 pm
