The lordship's conquest at the Canary Islands
Lordship’s Conquest at the Canary Islands
The lordship’s conquest happened on El Hierro, Fuerteventura, La Gomera and Lanzarote.
First.
Who and what was a Lordship's Conquest?
The one that led the conquest was a lordship that, with the permission of the royalty and the pope, gone
to the island and decided that this land was of his own. Thats what it make it a lordship conquest.
A lot of missionaries went too, and them tried to convert the aborigines to christians.
Most of the aborigens ended being slaves and they were bought by the rich people, the royalty and ect
to be their servants.
Who was the principal lordship?
It was a French privateer-businessman Jean De Bethencourt, who in 1402 and for an eminently
economic interest (was a fabric merchant in Normandy, France, and was looking for the Orchilla
and Cochineal (moss and insect from which natural dyes are extracted)).
The conquest of the Canary Islands began after obtaining the royal permission of Enrique III,
King of Castile, together with his partner Gadifer de la Salle.
He started in...
Lanzarote:
On May 1, 1402, in the midst of the Hundred Years War, the Norman Jean de Bethencourt and Gadifer
de la Salle, knights of the Kingdom of France, left La Rochela (France) for the Canary Islands with the
purpose of " see and visit the whole country to conquer it and convert its people to the Christian faith. "
They got a fleet of several boats and 250 men and left the French Port of La Rochelle. After
several stops for supplies in Galicia and Cádiz, where almost all of their men deserted, leaving
only 63, arriving first at the Alegranza islet, north of Lanzarote, and they immediately went to
Lanzarote, where they founded the first settlement in the Canary Islands, in San Marcial de
Rubicón (currently Playa Blanca, in the south of Lanzarote).
Lanzarote was the first island in the Canary Archipelago to be colonized.
This colonization was the result of a stately conquest financed by the private sectors of the population.
Jean de Bethencourt invaded Lanzarote from the south. At that time, the island had a native population
of about 300 inhabitants, Los Majos, who occupied the center and north of the island. The Majos de
Lanzarote made no resistance.
The origin of the name of Lanzarote could be traced back to the time of Jean de Bethencourt, who
would have broken his spear to commemorate the end of the pacification of the island. It is believed
that the name of Lanzarote could have come from "broken spear" (lanza rota - Lanzarote). The Chapel
of San Marcial, in Femés, was elevated to the category of cathedral in 1404, thus becoming the first
diocese of the Canary Islands.
The Spaniards, busy in conquering the other islands of the archipelago, abandoned the island to the
farmers, who developed self-sufficient agriculture.
The Portuguese, who sailed along the African coasts, were also interested in Lanzarote.
Finally, the Canary Islands -including Lanzarote- officially passed into the hands of the Spanish after
the signing of the Treaty of Alcaçovas in 1479.
While they were at the Lanzarote's conquest...
Fuerteventura:
The Conquest
From Lanzarote they made several expeditions to Fuerteventura, but seeing that they
needed more men and supplies to dominate the Island, Jean de Bethencourt traveled
to Spain to collect more means. and in 1,404 they established the first settlement in
a protected area of the island, which they called Betancuria, next to the most prosperous
area of the island: Vega de Rió Palmas.
In 1.404, and he was finally able to subdue the two kingdoms into which the island
was divided: Maxorata and Jandía, separated by a defensive wall. Each zone was
dominated by two local Kings: Guize in Maxorata and Ayoze in Jandía, who seeing
the superiority of the invaders decided to surrender, and in exchange received
various perks and benefits.
In 1,405, he concluded the conquest of Fuerteventura.
El Hierro:
Conquest of the island
The conquest of the island took place rather peacefully, through negotiations, at the hands
of Jean de Bethencourt. The Norman conqueror had Augeron, brother of the island's monarch,
imprisoned years ago and now mediator between the aborigines and the conquerors. Although
Jean de Bethencourt promised the monarch to respect the freedom of his people in exchange for
surrender, he finally did not keep his word and a large number of its inhabitants were sold as slaves.
Then French and peninsular (mainly Galician) settled, along with the natives of the island, they were
under the mandate of Governor Lázaro Vizcaíno, who suffered an uprising by the aborigines due to
his policy of punishment towards them.
La Gomera
La Gomera is said to have been slowly and peacefully conquered, and that over the years as new
European settlers settled on the island, Aborigines recognized its authority.
The gomeros were a "maverick" and "rebellious" people that rose up every time there was an outrage
or injustice towards their people. This island like El Hierro, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura were under a
lordship, which lasted until the beginning of the 19th century, unlike the royal state where the islands of
La Palma, Tenerife and Gran Canaria were. The manor of La Gomera is related to the Peraza family
and was characterized by its cruelty and tyranny.
The conquerors found La Gomera divided into 4 kingdoms called Mulagua, Hipalan, Orone and Agana,
equivalent to the Hermigua, San Sebastián, Valle Gran Rey and Vallehermoso valleys (in this order).
It is also said that the conquest was carried out gradually and without much resistance, yes,
the Gomeras were famous for being problematic because they rebelled at the slightest injustice
committed by the rulers.
It is during the year 1445 when a period of government begins starring Hernán Peraza, who
bequeathed command to his son also called Hernán, and during whose life there were several
uprisings by the island's aborigines. The historian Viera y Clavijo blamed the legitimate inhabitants
of La Gomera for having made their own conquest much more difficult, bloody and hard, since they
ended the life of the young Hernán Peraza (married to Beatriz de Bobadilla and later wife of Alonso
Fernández de Lugo and supposed concubine of Christopher Columbus), revolt after which Pedro
de Vera led a punitive campaign against the aborigines
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