History of Tenerife / Canary Islands

History of Tenerife

Facts:
Size: 2.040 sqkm
Population: approx. 600.000
Capital: Santa Cruz de Tenerife

The name ‚’Tenerife’ means:’snow covered mountain’.
The first ones visiting the island between 1.100 and 800 BC where the Phoenicians. In 1341 Tenerife was ‘rediscovered’ by Portuguese seafarers.
Between 1494 and 1496 Alonso de Lugo conquered the island and declared it a colony of Spain. The native inhabitant called ‘Guanche’ was defeated and completely exterminated. Tenerife was the last of the Canarian Islands to be put under the control of the Spanish crown. The islands experienced a quick economical uplift because of their favourable position for Spanish ships sailing to America. But this outstanding position also caused plenty of assaults, the latest 1797 by English ships under the command of Admiral Nelson who lost his right arm to a canon ball fired by the canon ‘El Tigre’ which nowadays is exhibited in the harbour of Santa Cruz.
According to some theories the Canary Islands are the last remains of the legendary continent ‘Atlantis’. Because the Spanish conquerors exterminated most of the native inhabitants the ‘Guanches’ and used the few survivors as slaves there is almost no information available about their culture and way of living. We know that they were a people of herdsmen living in caves. (Important findings of that period are exhibited in the Archaeological museum in Santa Cruz.) The first islands to be conquered by Juan de Bethencourt in 1402 were Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria and then La Gomera and El Hierro. First the Guanches stood their ground successfully against the Spanish assaults but in 1495 they were absolutely and cruelly defeated, though it should be mentioned that this was with the help of the plague that was brought in by the Spanish. Tenerife was often used as a last station before the passage to America. When Christopher Columbus stayed here on the 9th of August 1492 he made an entry in his logbook about an eruption of Mount Teide. In the following years Dutch, English and French tried unsuccessfully to conquer the islands.

• 1817: The first canarian university was founded in La Laguna.
• 1852: The Island was declared a foreign trade zone and the Canary Islands were separated in the two provinces Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
• Starting from 1870: With the triumphant advance of Aniline dyes the Conchinilla production comes to a stop and thousands were forced to emigrate.
• 1888: First Banana plantation.
• 1927: The Canary Islands are split in a western and an eastern province.
• 18th of July 1936: General Francisco Franco, military commander of the Canary Islands, flies from Santa Cruz to Spanish-Marocco. This is the start of the Spanish civil war.
• Starting from 1960: Tourism is becoming the most important industry.
  The Canary Islands are becoming an autonomous region within Spain.