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Historical Timeline for Canary Islands- A chronology of key events

History[edit | edit source]

The conquest of the Canary Islands was the process by which this archipelago, inhabited by aboriginal peoples, was incorporated by military occupation to the Crown of Castile throughout the 15th century.

Two stages can be distinguished in this process: the stately conquest, carried out by the nobility in exchange for a vassalage pact, and the royal conquest, carried out directly by the Crown during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs.

The islands are known from antiquity, when they were inhabited by the Canarian Aborigines. From the 16th century on, Europeans became interested in the archipelago again, the conquest of which began in 1402 (with the expedition of the Normans Jean de Bethencourt and Gadifer de la Salle). A second stage of the conquest, the conquest of realengo, was initiated by the Crown of Castile in 1477.

After the Spanish conquest, human and cultural miscegenation gave rise to modern Canarian society. The beginning of the 18th century is characterized by a series of pirate attacks, which did not invade any island.

Currently the Canary Islands are an Autonomous Community of Spain, divided into two provinces, Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

Year	Event
500 a.C.	Arrival of the first settlers from North Africa.
25 a.C.	Euforbio, a scholar at the head of the expedition of Juba II, king of Mauritania, gives an account of the existence of Tenerife, which he calls Nivaria.
1312	First documented European trip to the Canary Islands, starring Lancelotto Mallocello.
1392	According to tradition, some Guanche shepherds find the Virgin of Candelaria on the coast of the Güimar valley, 104 years before the conquest of Tenerife.
1434	Pope Eugene IV establishes a bull in which he expresses the absolute prohibition of the slave trade with natives of the Canary Islands.
1458	The Franciscan Fray Alonso de Bolaños created the first nucleus of missionary activity in Güimar.
1464	Diego de Herrera, lord of the Canary Islands, establishes agreements with the Guanches and draws up a certificate of possession.
1477	Tenerife acquires the status of a royal island when the Crown of Castile acquires the rights, upon payment to the family of Hernán Peraza.
1492	Francisco Maldonado, governor of Gran Canaria, tries unsuccessfully to conquer Tenerife.
1494	The advance Alonso Fernández de Lugo begins the conquest; he recorded a major defeat at Acentejo. The city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife is founded.
1495	Second attempt by Fernández de Lugo. The Castilians win in La Laguna and, a month later, in Acentejo.
1496	Alonso Fernández de Lugo completes the conquest of Tenerife.
1501	The advance appears before the Royal Council in relation to the demands made by Guanche slaves who allege that, despite belonging to the peace groups and being of Christian confession, they are, on a regular basis, sold as slaves, mistreated and abused.
1502	The advance establishes that the owners of lands with waters are obliged to put them under cultivation by planting sugar cane.
1511	The release of the captive Guanches is ordered.
1519	Fernando de Magallanes leaves Tenerife on the important journey that allows him to discover the strait that bears his name.
1536	Pedro Fernández de Lugo, second advance of the Canary Islands, leaves with 1,500 men to conquer South America. He founded the city of Tenerife, on the banks of the La Magdalena river (Colombia).
1657	Santa Cruz records the attack of the English admiral Robert Blake, who tried to take over the cargo of the New Spain fleet. He was repulsed by the Island's troops.
1666	In Garachico the riot known as the wine spill occurs, which ends the English monopoly of the trade in this product.
1704	Eruptions of the Siete Fuentes, Fasnia and Arafo volcanoes.
1705	Eruptions of the Siete Fuentes, Fasnia and Arafo volcanoes.
1706	The Trevejo volcano erupts in Garachico. The eruption lasted 40 days and buried the port, part of the town and the cultivation areas. Rear Admiral John Jennings, with a squad of 13 ships, tries unsuccessfully to seize the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
1726	The 20 island families that founded Montevideo (Uruguay) depart from Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
1730	The 20 families that the following year will found San Antonio (Texas) leave Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
1751	The first printing press in the Canary Islands begins to operate in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
1778	Santa Cruz de Tenerife says goodbye to the first canaries who move to Louisiana. Among the towns they founded, San Bernardo stands out.
1792	The Chamber of Castilla publishes the royal decree by which Carlos IV orders the creation of a Literary University in La Laguna. Before, in 1744, the Ecclesiastical University of San Agustín had been created, as a transformation of a center for higher studies for Augustinian religious, established in the same city in 1701.
1797	General Gutiérrez rejects the attack by the Royal Navy, led by Rear Admiral Horacio Nelson.
1798	Eruption on the western slope of the Pico Viejo volcano.
1819	King Fernando VII confirms the creation of the bishopric of Tenerife, based in La Laguna.
1821	The Cortes Generales grant Santa Cruz de Tenerife the title of capital of the province of the Canary Islands, a rank that it will maintain until 1927.
1852	The Islands begin to exercise their status as free ports.
1853	The royal order authorizing freedom of emigration is published; Thus begins the legal exodus of the Canaries to America.
1883	Santa Cruz receives the first telegram to reach the Canary Islands on December 6. The cable was broadcast in Cádiz. 1893 The Italian ship El Remo introduces a new epidemic of morbid cholera in Tenerife, the fourth to be recorded in the 19th century, and which on that occasion caused hundreds of deaths.
1906	King Alfonso XIII, accompanied by several ministers, visits the Archipelago. His first stopover was Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
1909	Chinyero volcano erupts, the last eruption recorded in Tenerife. The lava flowed for ten days.
1912	The Island Councils Law enters into force. Eduardo Domínguez, president of the Tenerife corporation.
1927	The Military Directory of Primo de Rivera agrees the provincial division of the Canary region, with which Santa Cruz de Tenerife loses its capital.
1935	The capital of Tenerife hosts the II Universal Exposition of Surrealism. André Bretón signs the manifesto of this cultural movement, officially declaring Tenerife a surrealist island.
1936	The newly appointed captain general of the Canary Islands, Francisco Franco, who had arrived in Tenerife in March, revolted in July against the Government of the Republic, unleashing the Civil War.
1941	The Los Rodeos (La Laguna) airport is inaugurated, which maintains its exclusive character in the Island's area communication until the Reina Sofía de Tenerife South airport begins its activity in 1978.
1946	The activities of the Canary Islands Economic Command, an organization that emerged in 1941 with the intention of preventing the isolation of the Archipelago from the eventual entry of Spain into World War II, ceased.
1948	The Galician sailboat Emilio transfers 51 Canarian passengers to Venezuela, who embark without authorization in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Clandestine emigration will continue until the 1960s; In this way, some 2,000 people from Tenerife leave their land.
1950	The Canal del Sur de Tenerife comes into service, an important hydraulic engineering work that made it possible to transform large areas into irrigation.
1954	The Teide National Park is created by decree, which is among the first three to achieve this recognition within the nine parks of the national network, of which four are in the Canary Islands.
1964	The Government approves the Canary Islands Economic Development Plan, Laureano López Rodó will be its commissioner.
1972	The Canary Islands Economic and Fiscal Regime Law (REF) is hereby established, by which the Inter-provincial Board of Insular Taxes is created.
1974	Santa Cruz celebrates the I International Exhibition of Sculptures in the Street. The city transforms its appearance by incorporating an important heritage into works of art.
1978	The Junta de Canarias, a pre-autonomous body, is constituted in Las Cañadas del Teide. In 1873 and 1936 two draft statutes had been drawn up, aborted by the Republican Courts themselves, the first, and by the coup, the second.
1978	The Reina Sofía-Tenerife South airport begins its activity.
1982	The Statute of Autonomy of the Canary Islands is approved, which establishes that the Archipelago will have two capitals, Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
1983	The Parliament of the Canary Islands is established, based in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
1985	The Kings of Spain inaugurate the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the Teide observatory. Three other monarchs and two European heads of state attend.
1990	The Parliament of the Canary Islands requests full integration into the European Community.
1992	The EC approves the POSEICAN (Program of Specific Options for the Remoteness and Insularity of the Canary Islands), which addresses the differential fact of the islands and establishes measures to achieve full development. The Archaeological Museum of Tenerife announces the finding of a stone with Tifinagh-Zanata characters, which according to those responsible for the center confirms the theories of the settlement of the Canary Islands by peoples of the northern Atlas (Africa).
1994	Santa Cruz de Tenerife celebrates with an extensive program of activities the V centenary of its foundation.
1996	The construction of the International Center for Fairs and Congresses, designed by Santiago Calatrava, ends in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
2002	Pedro de Betancur (Hermano Pedro) (Vilaflor, 1626-Guatemala, 1667) was canonized on July 30, 2002 by Pope John Paul II, being the first Canarian and Guatemalan saint.
2003	Inauguration in September of this year of the Tenerife Auditorium, the work of Santiago Calatrava.
2007	On June 1, the Tenerife Tram enters service, linking the cities of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and La Laguna.