Canary Island History

In 1402, the Castilian conquest of the islands began, with the expedition of Jean de Bothencourt and Gadifer de la Salle to the island of Lanzarote. Bothencourt was eventually crowed the King of the Canary Islands.

After 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, since 6 March 1480 a colony of Castile (from 1556 of Spain), and Tenerife, a Spanish colony since 1495, had separate governors.

The sugar-based economy of the islands faced stiff competition from Spain’s American colonies. Crises in the sugar market in the nineteenth century caused severe recessions on the islands. These economic difficulties spurred mass emigration during the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries. From 1840 to 1890, as many as 40,000 Canary Islanders emigrated to Venezuela. During the Spanish-American War of 1898, the Spanish fortified the islands against possible American attack; but the attack never came.

During the time of the Second Spanish Republic, Marxist and anarchist workers’ movements began to develop, led by figures such as Jose Miguel Perez and Guillermo Ascanio. However, outside of a few municipalities, these organizations were a minority and fell easily to Nationalist forces during the Spanish Civil War.

After the establishment of a democratic constitutional monarchy in Spain, autonomy was granted to the Canaries via a law passed in 1982. In 1983, the first autonomous elections were held. The Spanish Socialist
Workers’ Party (PSOE) won. In the most recent autonomous elections (2007), the PSOE gained a plurality of seats, but the nationalist Canarian Coalition and the conservative Partido Popular (PP) formed a ruling coalition government of the Canary Islands.

Looking for more detailed information?  Click on the topics below: