Canary Islands

The Canary Islands are a group of ten small islands (Tenerife, La Palma, Gomera, Hierro, Grand Canary, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, Alegranza, Graciosa, and Isla de Lobos) lying 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of the coast of Morocco that comprise two provinces of Spain. Known to the ancient world as the Fortunate Islands, they received their later name from Pliny the Elder in reference to the large dogs (canes) found there by King Juba II of Mauretania when he explored the islands around 40 bce. Along with the dogs, Juba found the islands inhabited by Guanches, a people of obscure origin, who successfully defended their domain against the king.

The details of first contact with Europe are contradictory. Europeans first visited the Canaries some time between 1330 and 1334, when a French or Iberian ship landed on the islands. This was followed fourteen years later by an expedition led by Luis de la Cerda, a grandson of Alfonso X of Castile, with the objective of converting the Guanches under a papal grant. This and similar attempts by the Spanish failed, both in their religious intent and in establishing a European colony there. Finally in 1402 two Frenchmen, Jean de Bethencourt and Gadifer de la Salle, successfully conquered most of the Canaries. Henry III of Castile gave Bethencourt money and the title of king of the islands in return for recognition of Castile's legal claim to possession. Spain began to consolidate its conquests when Alonso de Lugo signed a treaty with the local leader Tanasú in 1493. When some local residents resisted, de Lugo laid siege to the island, conquering it and freeing him up to invade Gran Canary that same year. By 1496 the islands were completely under the Spanish flag. The British often challenged the Spanish for possession of the Canaries. It was in the town of Santa Cruz on Tenerife during one of these forays that Lord Nelson lost his arm in 1797.

A sugar industry on the Canary Islands had long thrived until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when competition from the West Indies and Brazil proved overwhelming. The Canaries did, however, become a prime producer of cochineal dye, striking a blow at the dye industry of Central America. In turn the Canary dye industry was destroyed by the introduction of chemical dyes in the 1870s. Since the voyage of Columbus, the islands have served as a stopping point for ships to replenish their supplies before continuing on to the Americas. In the early twenty-first century, some Canarians identify more with Latin America than Spain, listening to Andean and Mariachi music.

See alsoCochineal; Colonialism; Sugar Industry.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Mercer, John. Canary Islands: Fuerteventura. Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1973.

Fernández-Armesto, Felipe. The Canary Islands after the Conquest: The Making of a Colonial Society in the Early Sixteenth Century. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.

White, Colin. 1797: Nelson's Year of Destiny: Cape St. Vincent and Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Stroud, U.K.: Sutton Publishing, 1998.

                                          Sheila L. Hooker