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 History |
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To its natives, Tenerife was called Chenech, Chinech or Achinech but to the Romans it was Nivaria, Latin for ‘snow.’ The name was made in reference to the snows found atop the volcano known as El Teide.
The name El Teide was incidentally also used by the Guanches of the neighboring island of La Palma in referring to Tenerife; ‘tene’ for mountain and ‘ife’ for white, with the Spanish adding the “r” later on.
Tenerife at the time of its conquest was comprised of nine distinct menceyatos, as the small kingdoms of the Guanches were known.
In the year 1494, the Spanish forces under the Adelantado ("military governor") Alonso Fernandez de Lugo, suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the Guanches in the First Battle of Acentejo. The Guanches eventually surrendered to the Crown of Castile after being overcome by superior enemy technology and the onslaught of diseases on December 25, 1495.
As in the other islands of the same group, much of Tenerife’s native population was either enslaved or succumbed to diseases at the same time as immigrants from various associated parts of the Spanish Empire (Portugal, Flanders, Italy, Germany) settled on the island.
Native pine forests on the island were cleared to make way for the cultivation of sugarcane in the 1520s. In succeeding centuries, the island’s economy was centered around the cultivation of other commodities like wine and cochineal for making dyes and bananas.
The island was attacked in 1797 by the British. A particularly fierce engagement was one led by Horatio Nelson, on July 25 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the capital town of the province. It resulted in substantial casualties and cost Nelson his right arm.
Later, on September 25th, residents of the Valley of Santiago repelled another British landing by hurling stones from the cliffs of Los Gigantes. Still others came to the island not for conquest but for exploration, such as the famous naturalist Alexander Von Humboldt who climbed the peak of El Teide.
Tourists came in droves to Tenerife in the 1890s, especially in the northern towns of Puerto de la Cruz and Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
Before his rise to power, Francisco Franco was posted to Tenerife in March 1936 by a Republican government, wary of his influence and political leanings. In Tenerife, Franco organized the political coup that would result in the Spanish Civil War; the Canaries fell to the Nationalists in July 1936.
The island’s population was subject to the mass executions of opponents to the new regime. That coupled with the misery of the post war years forced an exodus of inhabitants to Cuba and Latin America in the 1950s.
Tenerife also had its share of tragedies such as the airline collision that occurred in Los Rodeos airport located north of the island on March 27, 1977. The incident was, until the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York City, considered the deadliest aviation collision in history.
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