Tenerife History
 
 Here are some snippets about the history and culture of Tenerife that you may not have known..

• Nelson gave his right arm to be onTenerife. In July 1797, Rear Admiral Horatio Nelson attacked the harbour at Tenerife's capital, Santa Cruz in an attempt to capture the island from its Spanish dominion. During the ensuing skirmish, Nelson took some shrapnel in his right elbow and had to quit the battlefield to have the limb amputated. This was Nelson’s only defeat in battle and, grateful for the humane treatment his men received following their surrender, he despatched a barrel of English ale and a cheese to the victorious General Gűtiérrez.
•  In return, Gűtiérrez sent Nelson a barrel of Malmsey wine, at that time considered to be the finest wine in the world. This imbalance of cultural exchange between the two countries has remained a strong tradition to the present day.
• The Regional Military Museum in Santa Cruz has a scale model of the whole sorry affair and multitudes of other military memorabilia.
• Tenerife has an affinity with Scotland's Patron Saint, San Andrés; better known to the Scots as Saint Andrew. One popular tale tells of his arrival on Tenerife, the timing of which coincided with the readiness of the year’s new wine. Keen to integrate with the locals, Andrés partook liberally of the ‘vino del país’ and eventually fell into a deep sleep, at which point local children tied pots and pans to his robes so that every time he turned over, the clatter woke him.
• Now every year on the 29th November, the Eve of his Saint’s day, local children drag metal tails composed of old drinks cans, oil cans and anything else they can get their hands on, around the cobbled streets of the harbour, making an almighty din that would prevent all but the most ardent narcolepsy sufferers from sleeping.
• Luckily, the date still coincides with the readiness of the year’s new wine and a few ‘copas’ of the stuff goes some way to numbing the racket.
• The main festivities are in Puerto de la Cruz and in Icod de los Vinos, where metal trays are ridden down steep cobbled streets at breakneck speed to emulate the bygone sound of wine barrels being rolled to the harbour for export.
• And the same flag... which is down to San Andrés again. Brother of fisherman and disciple, San Pedro (Saint Peter), San Andrés was crucified on a saltire (x-shaped) cross from which he is said to have preached for two days. Hence the flag of Tenerife, like that of Scotland, has a white X on a blue background.
• So if you happen to herald from the land of deep fried Mars Bars and tottie scones, you’ll feel right at home the minute you step off the plane.
• The Spanish Civil War originated on Tenerife. In 1936, Francisco Franco was posted, out of harm’s way, to Tenerife to take up the position of Governor General of the Canary Islands. From his base in Santa Cruz, he held secret meetings in the woods high above the coast and laid his plans to overthrow the Republican government of the day. At midnight on 16th July, Franco and his family sailed to Gran Canaria and from there flew to North Africa where he broadcast his manifesto, signalling the start of the Spanish Civil War; thus proving the importance of the old adage; “keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”
• Tenerife is officially a surreal island. In 1935 Santa Cruz hosted the Universal Surrealism Exhibition and Andre Breton signed the manifesto of the movement, officially declaring Tenerife a surrealist island. In 1974, the capital hosted the International Street Sculpture Exhibition and sculptors like Henry Moore, Joan Miró, Martín Chirino and Eusabio Sempere added to the collection of eclectic and fascinating urban art now on show in the streets of the capital city.
• The recently rejuvenated Parque Garcia Sanabría contains many of the best pieces from the exhibition within its fountained, tropical tranquillity.
• Tenerife plays host to Europe’s biggest party. 'Carnaval’ – a fourteen day, non-stop party in which participants engage in such bizarre and extravagant activities that spectators feel like interlopers in an hallucinogenic-induced reverie of flamboyant, fantastic imagery. Some costumes are of such grand proportions that they have to be mounted on wheels and the wearer has to train with weights for months beforehand to build enough muscle to be able to drag the thing around a stage. And on Ash Wednesday a giant papier maché sardine is carried at the head of a funeral cortége of ‘mourning’ male widows clad in black dresses and veils, pearls and big hats and wailing loudly for the demise of the fish...

 The History of the Canary Islands has always been full of myths due to its geographical position. Europeans did not know anything about the islands until the beginning of the 15th century.

The first one to write about the islands was Plinio in the first century, who was sent by the King of Mauritania. He then brought back home some dogs, which gave the archipelagos name. You can still find those native race of island dogs on the islands. They are of an impressive aspect and nowadays called bardinos.

 The first historical narrations about Tenerife were always talking about Nivaria, the navigators of the old days were vividly impressed by this huge mountain covered in snow. They could already spot it from miles away and observed the in snow covered top of the mountain emerging above the clouds

Until the islands got conquered by the Spanish in the 15th century, they were inhabited by a population that possibly had their roots in Northern Africa. When they were "discovered" the Spaniards could find some hints of a slightly superior culture compared to their relatives in Northern Africa. They were advanced in everything that concerned religion and arts. The Guanches of Tenerife dressed in skins but completely ignored the art of navigation. Nevertheless, they buried carefully their deads, mummifying them, with very effective techniques, in some cases, and also had a special taste for ornaments.

They worked the mud, and the tips of their lances finished in a sharpened natural volcanic stone

Many old authors - and still some modern ones - thought that the Canary Islands would be the visible elevated rests of a sunken continent; Atlantis. They also thought that the Guanches were the descendants of the Atlantes. According to their thesis the sons and grandsons of the Atlantes all of a sudden became islanders and some even think, that the incapacity of navigation, the lack of communication between the islands, in addition to the enormous stature of the Guanches is proof enough, that they were direct descendents from the Atlantes.

Before the arrival of the Spanish, the island was divided into nine tribal kingdoms, the names of which are still in use in modern Tenerife, Abona, Adeje, Anaga, Daute, Icod, Guimar, Tacoronte, Taoro and Tegueste.

By the time Spanish forces began their conquest of the Canaries in 1402, Tenerife had already established a reputation as an important commercial trading centre due to it's inter-continental location. The Canaries were also popular hunting ground for slave-traders. The island's population in the C15th, prior to conquest, was estimated at around 30,000, with the larger proportion living in the north due it's more favourable conditions for agriculture and cattle breeding. Strangely, the islanders had no knowledge of boats or ocean travel, nor had they any familiarity with metal-working (there are no natural metal resources on the island). Stone was the main tool they had to work with and in this sense the island had remained in the Stone Age.

The islands fell one by one to the Spanish, the last one being Tenerife itself which was finally subdued, after heavy Spanish losses, in July 1496 by Alonso Fernandez de Lugo, who founded the town of La Laguna (The Lagoon - there was one but it has long since dried up) as his capital. La Laguna is therefore the oldest town in the Canaries and remained the capital until 1723. It was built inland, partly due to the favourable agricultural conditions and partly to be further away from the attentions of marauding pirates.

An anecdote: the first man to travel to the Moon, in modern Literature, did it from the peak of the Teide. He was the Sevillian Domingo González, hero in Francis Goldwin's: "A man in the moon" written in the year 1600

Throughout the years, the Canary Islands got closer and closer with America sending more and more ships towards the new continent. The canaries participated actively, as settlers, founding cities such as San Antonio in Texas or Montevideo in Uruguay. Foreign trade and the agricultural wealth of the archipelago such as the world famous Malvasía wines were appreciated all around the world and made the islands well known.

Thus began a new chapter in Tenerife's history. Under the guidance of the newly installed Spanish leaders, the islands quickly adapted to and benefited from the higher civilisation they were becoming steeped in, and asserted themselves as the major commercial trading link between Europe, Africa and the 'new world' of America. This in turn attracted the unwelcome attentions of everyone from pirates, hoping for a piece of the new-found wealth, to whole nations such as Britain, who just wanted everything including the land itself! As mentioned at the beginning, the most famous victory of the islanders over a warring nation was the defeat of Nelson at Santa Cruz in 1797.

Due to the geographical situation the Canary Islands, have always maintained special economic and administrative rights compared to the rest of the national territory. Since 1872 their ports were tax free and they were allowed to build their own Island Governments (Cabildo) since 1912. In 1982 the Canary Islands became an independent region in the state of Spain and could form their own parliament. In 1986 both, Spain and the Canary Islands joined the EC.