Major Islands And Archipelagos Codexery

Canary Islands

The Fortunate Isles: a subtropical archipelago linking Africa, Europe, and the Americas.

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With around 2.27 million residents, this archipelago holds the distinction of being the European Union's most populous overseas special territory.[1]

Geography and history

The name Islas Canarias is likely derived from the Latin name Canariae Insulae, meaning 'Islands of the Dogs'.[2] La Graciosa is the sole additional inhabited island, and it falls under the administrative authority of Lanzarote.[3] The year 1402 marked the start of Castilian colonization of the archipelago, initiated when the French explorers Jean de Béthencourt and Gadifer de la Salle, who were nobles and vassals of Henry III of Castile, led an expedition to Lanzarote.[4] It was not until 1496 that the Castilians gained full dominance over the islands, following the final subjugation of Tenerife and La Palma by Alonso Fernández de Lugo.[5]

What the cited sources add

Scholars admit that the history of the Canary Islands before it was conquered in the 15th century by Europeans still represents one of Spanish archaeology’s greatest mysteries.[6] Archeological and DNA-based research has proven that the first inhabitants of the Canary Islands were Berbers (also known as Amazigh).[6] The Canary Islands lack iron mines or any other significant source of metal, so the early inhabitants were forced to adapt their knowledge of metallurgy to the local environment.[6] Las Palmas de Gran Canaria serves as the capital for Gran Canaria, while Santa Cruz de Tenerife fulfills that role for Tenerife.[7]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Canary Islands" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Utreta, Federico, "Canarias, secreto de estado: episodios inéditos de la transición política y militar en las islas", Mateos López Editores, 1996, p. 291; Tamaimos, "Canarias está en África", tamaimos.com; "Población residente por fecha, sexo, grupo de edad y lugar de nacimiento (España/extranjero)(59588)", INE (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Canary Islands" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, Book 6, Chap. 37. (32.) —The Fortunate Islands (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Canary Islands" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Benjamin, "The Atlantic World: Europeans, Africans, Indians and Their Shared History, 1400–1900", Cambridge University Press, 2009, p. 107; "La Macaronesia. Consideraciones geológicas, biogeográficas y paleoecológicas" (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Canary Islands" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Olaya, "Studies shed new light on origins of Canary Islands population", El País, 27 November 2021; Adhikari, "Europe's First Settler Colonial Incursion into Africa: The Genocide of Aboriginal Canary Islanders", African Historical Review, 2 January 2017, p. 1–26; Adhikari, "Destroying to Replace: Settler Genocides of Indigenous Peoples", Hackett Publishing, February 2026 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Canary Islands" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Santana, "The early colonial atlantic world: New insights on the African Diaspora from isotopic and ancient DNA analyses of a multiethnic 15th–17th century burial population from the Canary Islands, Spain", American Jour (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Olaya, "Studies shed new light on origins of Canary Islands population", El País, 27 November 2021. facts only, no text reused. english.elpais.com
  7. "Ley Orgánica 1/2018, de 5 de noviembre, de reforma del Estatuto de Autonomía de Canarias.", BOE, 6 November 2018, p. 107645–107708. facts only, no text reused. boe.es

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Canary Islands (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

Related entries

Named in this entry

SpainEuropePliny the Elder

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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