Canary Islands

Examples of Canary Islands in the following topics:

• The Rise of the African Slave Trade

  • In the 15th century, the Spanish invaded and colonized the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa under the direction of the Kingdom of Castille.
  • They also captured indigenous Canary Islanders to use as slaves both on the Islands and across the Christian Mediterranean.
  • In the 16th century, the Portuguese settlers found that the Canary Islands were ideal for growing sugar, and they forcefully converted much of the land to the production of wine and sugar.
  • Using the Canary Islands as a naval base, they performed raids to capture slaves and sell them in the Mediterranean.
  • The Spanish were the first Europeans to use enslaved Africans in the New World on islands such as Cuba and Hispaniola.

• The Exploration of Christopher Columbus

  • He first sailed to the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Africa, which were ruled by the Crown of Castile; here he restocked his provisions and made repairs.
  • No one knows which modern day island in the Bahamas or Turks and Caicos this name corresponds to, but the prime candidates are Samana Cay, Plana Cays, Grand Turk, or San Salvador Island.
  • He then sailed to the island of Madeira and spent time with the Portuguese captain, João Gonçalves da Câmara, before sailing to the Canary Islands and Cape Verde.
  • Columbus landed on the south coast of the island of Trinidad on July 31, 1498.
  • On June 15, they landed at Carbet, on the island of Martinique (Martinica).

• Portuguese Explorers

  • In 1341, the Canary Islands, already known to Genoese, were officially explored under the patronage of the Portuguese king, but in 1344, Castile disputed them, further propelling the Portuguese navy efforts.
  • In 1420, Zarco and Teixeira returned with Bartolomeu Perestrelo and began Portuguese settlement of the islands.
  • A Portuguese attempt to capture Grand Canary, one of the nearby Canary Islands, which had been partially settled by Spaniards in 1402, was unsuccessful and met with protests from Castile.
  • In 1525, after Magellan's expedition, Spain under Charles V sent an expedition to colonize the Maluku islands.
  • Portugal established trading ports at far-flung locations like Goa, Ormuz, Malacca, Kochi, the Maluku Islands, Macau, and Nagasaki.

• Spanish Exploration

  • It began to establish its rule over the Canary Islands, located off the West African coast, in 1402, but then became distracted by internal Iberian politics and the repelling of Islamic invasion attempts and raids through most of the 15th century.
  • Columbus first sailed to the Canary Islands, where he restocked for what turned out to be a five-week voyage across the ocean, crossing a section of the Atlantic that became known as the Sargasso Sea.
  • Land was sighted on October 12, 1492, and Columbus called the island (now The Bahamas) San Salvador, in what he thought to be the "West Indies."
  • The object of the third voyage was to verify the existence of a continent that King John II of Portugal claimed was located to the southwest of the Cape Verde Islands.
  • In the treaty, the Portuguese received everything outside Europe east of a line that ran 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands (already Portuguese), and the islands reached by Christopher Columbus on his first voyage (claimed for Spain; Cuba and Hispaniola).

• Ancient Carthage

  • Carthaginian commerce extended by sea throughout the Mediterranean, and perhaps into the Atlantic as far as the Canary Islands, and by land across the Sahara desert.
  • Sardinia and Corsica produced gold and silver for Carthage, and Phoenician settlements on islands, such as Malta and the Balearic Islands, produced commodities that would be sent back to Carthage for large-scale distribution.
  • Carthage's military also allowed it to expand into Sardinia and the Balearic Islands.

• The Spanish-American War

  • The victor gained several island possessions spanning the globe, which caused a rancorous new debate over the wisdom of expansionism.
  • Spain retained only a handful of overseas holdings: Spanish West Africa, Spanish Guinea, Spanish Sahara, Spanish Morocco, and the Canary Islands.

• The Reconquista

  • It covered Spain and all the Spanish colonies and territories, which included the Canary Islands, the Spanish Netherlands, the Kingdom of Naples, and all Spanish possessions in North, Central, and South America.

• The Expansion of Europe

  • The lure of profit pushed explorers to seek new trade routes to the Spice Islands and eliminate Muslim middlemen.
  • Riding the trade winds westward across the Atlantic Ocean with the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria, Columbus landed on an island he called San Salvador, in the present-day Bahamas, five weeks after embarking from Spain.
  • Columbus' second voyage landed in the Caribbean, on an island he named Dominica, and continued northward through the Lesser and Greater Antilles.
  • On his third voyage, Columbus landed on the Portuguese Porto Santo Island before continuing on to Madeira; the Canary Islands and Cape Verde, off the coast of West Africa; Trinidad, off the coast of present-day Venezuela; and mainland South America.

• Barrier Islands

• Crafts in the Cook Islands

  • British navigator Captain James Cook arrived in 1773 and 1777 and named the islands the Hervey Islands; the name "Cook Islands", in honor of Cook, appeared on a Russian naval chart published in the 1820s.
  • Woodcarving is a common art form in the Cook Islands.
  • Another popular art form in the Cook Islands is tivaevae—the art of handmade Island scenery patchwork quilts.
  • The Cook Islands has produced internationally recognized contemporary artists, especially in the main island of Rarotonga.
  • These islands share similar artistic traditions of other Pacific Islands, including the art of tattooing.