A Place Called Chinet

As we continue with our breath-taking drive towards the North of the Island, I happily share with Zara the ancient history of the Canary Islands (see post Autopista With Vista). Join us on this captivating journey back in time.

 

Located on approximately latitude twenty-eight, the seven islands that make up the Canaries (Lanzarote, Fuerteventure, El Hierro, La Gomera, La Palma, Gran Canaria and Tenerife) bathe in the warm waters of the Atlantic Ocean and only sixty miles or ninety kilometres separate them from nearby Morocco. The conquest of the Islands by the Spanish crown, not an easy task considering the fierce resistance of the local aboriginal population, took place between the years 1402 and 1496 beginning with the Island of Lanzarote and ending with the Island of Tenerife, finally conquered after much bloodshed between the years 1494-1496. By the time of Tenerife's capitulation, four years had elapsed since Christopher Columbus' historical voyage from the neighbouring Island of La Gomera to new lands that would eventually be christened America. When the Spaniards arrived on the Islands in the early fourteen hundreds to begin their slow and steady conquest, they stumbled upon an aboriginal stone-aged people living a seemingly primitive life based on shepherding, fruit gathering, and very limited agriculture. They spoke an unfathomable language, lived in caves hewn out of the soft volcanic rock and worshipped heathen Gods. These people are what we know today as The Guanches.

The Spaniards were astonished to find that some of these native inhabitants were just as fair haired, blue-eyed and tall as they themselves. Nowadays, Guanche is taken to refer to the indigenous population all seven islands, but its original name stems from the Guanche word GuanChinet referring only to the inhabitant of Tenerife ('Guan' meaning Person, and 'Chinet' meaning Tenerife). The origins of the Guanches are still shrouded in mystery, however modern DNA technological advances have significantly contributed towards resolving this centuries-long puzzle, and nowadays it is widely concurred that the Guanche tribes of the Canary Islands seem to be most closely related to the Moroccan Berbers of North Africa. This seems to be a wholly logical conclusion, for the Guanche spoken by these ancient Island people shares an astonishing similarity in vocabulary with the Berber language of today.

But this ancestry has still not been conclusively proved, and there are various competing theories expounding differing origins. Some scholars maintain that the Canarian population are Punic-Phoenician by origin, others claim that this is impossible since the Islands remained uninhabited until 100BC when Greek and Roman sailors began to explore the area. Yet another school of thought claims that during the second half of the 1st century BC, King Juba II of Numidia abandoned North African prisoners on the islands, who eventually became the pre-Hispanic Canarians of the Guanche tribes. If the first inhabitants were indeed abandoned prisoners, then this would go part way to explain their lack of navigational skills, for this is another stunning mystery surrounding the origins of these natives. Upon their arrival on the isIand, the Spaniards were met by a people who had no navigational skills whatsoever even though they were surrounded by water at every turn and abundant material in the form of trees for the construction of vessels. This effectively isolated the natives of each of the seven Island into secluded community with no external interaction, which in turn created unique insular cultures each with their own distinct linguistic evolution.

The Guanches are genetically most closely related to the Berbers of North Africa, but the latter were not known to have significant navigational skills. So how did the Guanches arrive on the Islands in the first place? This is still today an unresolved mystery, one which even Thor Heyerdahl weighed in on as he passed the Island on his famous Ra Expeditions of 1969 and 1970. But arrive from somewhere they most certainly did, for archaeological finds conclusively prove that the original settlers arrived by sea, importing domestic animals such as goats, sheep, pigs, and dogs, and cereals such as wheat, barley and lentils. They also brought with them a set of well-defined socio-cultural practices that seem to have originated and been in use for a long period of time elsewhere such as the mummifying of corpse, the practise of euthanasia on the infirm and elderly, and last but not least, human sacrifice and infanticide.

At the time of the conquest Tenerife was divided up into nine separate kingdoms or Mencayatos according to the Guanche name, each with their own King or Mencey, and here is the map outlining them: Daute, Adeja, Abona, Guimar, Icod, Taoro, Tacoronte, Tegueste and Anaga with a centre area of communal pastureland surrounding the imposing Teide Volcano.The Mencey was the ultimate ruler of each kingdom, and meetings were regularly held between them to discuss matters of common importance, but it seems that the supreme Mencey above all others was that of the kingdom of Taoro, nowadays located in the rich and fertile Valley of the Orovata. 'I didn't know any of this', Zara tells me.' It's absolutely fascinating!' Well listen carefully, I tell Zara, because this is just the beginning, and I continue with my island saga; When the Spaniards (or more precisely Castilians as they were known) initiated their conquest of Tenerife, the four kingdoms around the Western and Eastern coast of the Island, Anaga, Guimar, Abona and Adeje all aligned themselves with the Castilian invaders on the promise of the lands in the north where the climate is rainier and the soil richer. These four kingdoms became known as La banda de Paz, The Band for Peace. The remaining five kingdoms of Daute, Icod, Taoro, Tacoronte, Tegueste all rejected the overtures of the Spaniards, fiercely opposing their occupation with force and becoming known as La Banda de Guerra, The Band for War.

Bencomo, the supreme Mencey of the kingdom of Taoro took the lead of the aboriginal resistance against the Castilian invasion, a role which earned him the alias of Great King. Nowadays there is a statue in the port town of Candelaria commemorating this great warrior and Mencey King who dared to stand up to the invading Spaniards. In May 1494, he fought in the legendary First Battle of Acentejo, a monumental victory for the Guanches and where the Spanish enemy were for the first time heavily defeated. Today, a town in the north of the Island named La Matanza, The Slaughter, commemorates this historical event. After the untimely death of Bencomo, his son Bentor replaced him as supreme warrior, but even he was unable to stem the tide of invasion. After a series of bloody battles, most notably the Second Battle of Acentejo in December 1495, the Guanches were forced to capitulate. The town of La Victoria, The Victory, bears witness to this last and decisive confrontation between the conquering Spaniards and native Guanche population. By early 1496 Tenerife was under absolute Spanish control and the conquest of the Canary Islands was now complete. Spain was now the undisputed superpower of Europe, and alongside the dazzling territories of the New World brought to them by Christopher Columbus, they were now Lord and Master of all seven Canary Islands. The Island kingdoms ceased to exist and the Guanches were now subordinate vassals of the Spanish Empire.

The hour-long drive has fleeted by almost imperceptibly, immersed as we have been in our rich history lesson and we have now reached Santa Cruz, capital city of the Island since 1833. As we park our vehicle, I realise it is also the perfect location for the next part of my history lesson: The Battle of Santa Cruz where Lord Nelson famously lost his arm. But before that we have something of greater importance that overrides even this new historical gem, and this is called Lunch.

To be continued...

Next post 20th October : Steve, Beatriz And Columbus

Note: All written content is the intellectual property of this Author. Image material is drawn largely from Pixabay with some additions from private family archives.