These islands are located just off the coast of the north-western portion of the African continent/mainland, nearest the political divide of Morocco and Western Sahara. The archipelago consists of seven major islands, one minor island, and several small islets. They are of volcanic origin. 2 million people live there now. There are many theories about where the name came from, but the most popular theory is that they were named after a particularly large and fierce breed of dog indigenous to the islands (Canaria is Latin for dog)

There is an ancient Greek legend that Hercules had to go beyond the known world (marked by the Pillars of Hercules in the Strait of Gibraltar) to the paradisical Garden of Hesperides to retrieve golden apples. It is believed this mythological place was the Canary Islands. Furthermore, some believed that “Elysium”, the place where the Greeks believed the good spent their afterlife, is also the Canaries. And, many believe that the Canary Islands, along with the Cape Verde Islands to the south and Madeira and the Azores to the northeast, are all that remains of the sunken continent of Atlantis that Plato wrote about. Despite the fact that the Greeks, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, and Romans all knew of the fabled islands, the first hard evidence that any westerner landed there is in 40 AD when a North African regional king within the Roman Empire sent out an expedition.

The archeological data suggests with certainty that the islands were inhabited in 200 BC, but prior to that, the evidence is less clear. There were many different tribes, but the tribes seemed to be made up of two distinctive people groups. One group had dark hair and skin and were certainly descendents of the Berbers that are indigenous to North Africa, and the other people group was tall and powerfully built with fair skin, blonde hair and blue eyes. Where this second group came from is a complete mystery and many theories abound. The indigenous people, called Guanches, were simplistic people. They did limited farming and herding, relying largely on hunting and gathering. Weapons were made from stone, wood and bone. Some tribes lived in caves, some lived in basic stone and wood houses. Interestingly, like the Egyptians, they worshipped a sun god and mummified nobility upon their death.

The islands were left alone until the late 1200’s or early 1300’s, when European explorers searching for gold in Africa and African slave traders made stops in the Canaries for supplies, and missionaries moved in to convert the locals. In 1402, a Norman lord named Jean de Bethencourt set out for the Canaries on his way to Africa to search for gold. He stopped in the northwest island of Lanzarote and quickly and easily conquered the island as his personal possession. In 1406, Bethencourt went to Castilla (a feudal state in what is now Spain) and convinced the king to give him money and troops to conquer all the islands for Castilla. He only managed to conquer four. De Bethencourt encouraged many Normans to settle in the conquered islands.

The indigenous people were heavily taxed and some were sold into slavery. The colonists continually squabbled with one another. Portugal attempted to lay claim to the islands, and the Vatican had to step in to settle the land dispute. Castilla won. The Castillans/Spanish (Spain was unified about this time) continued to try in vain to conquer the remaining three islands, but the locals, particularly the blondes, put up a fierce resistance. It took until 1483 to conquer Gran Canaria and 1492 to take La Palma. Tenerife probably would not have fallen had the Spaniards not brought a disease called Modorra (today believed to be influenza, pneumonia and encephalitis) to the island in 1494. The Spaniards who brought it got sick, but seemed to get over it. The Guanches became much sicker, with many dying. By 1495, the Guanches were simply too sick to fight anymore and surrendered. The Guanches had a hard time assimilating into the colonial lifestyle and religion, and the Spanish continued to ship them off as slaves. Many native Canarians voluntarily emigrated to the “New World”. The Guanches eventually faded away as a people group. Some refer to the conquering of the Canaries as a “dress rehearsal” for what was yet to come in the Americas.

In 1492, Christopher Columbus set off for his Atlantic expedition from Gran Canaria, and from then on, the Canaries became a major shipping stop along the trade routes, bringing great wealth. The islands also grew sugar, and produced wine and cochineal (red dye made out of a certain type of bug that is still used today). From the mid-1600’s until almost 1800, the English would every now and again try to conquer the Canaries from the Spaniards, but never succeeded. The Ottoman Turks and the Dutch both tried, too.

In 1936, the much beloved General Francisco Franco was transferred from Morocco to the Canaries. Four months later, Franco executed a plot to overthrow the Spanish government. He quickly overthrew the Canary government with virtually no fighting, then headed off to Morocco to lead troops into the civil war he had just launched. The “years of hunger” hit the Canaries especially hard, and thousands emigrated. When Franco opened up the country to tourism, the Canaries flourished as a tourist center. With nicer weather than mainland Spain, it attracts many northern Europeans. Tourism accounts for 32% of the islands total GDP.