Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Canary Islands

Episode Date: January 4, 2021

If you think of Spain as the country on the Iberian Peninsula which is sandwiched between France and Portugal, you are not wrong, but you are also not totally right. There is also a significant part of the country which is located in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Morocco: The Canary Islands. Here you will find things that you aren’t going to find in mainland Spain or even the rest of Europe. Learn more about the Canary Islands on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you think of Spain as the country on the Iberian Peninsula, which is sandwiched between France and Portugal, you're not wrong, but you're also not totally right. There is also a significant part of the country which is located in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Morocco, the Canary Islands. Here you'll find things you aren't going to find on mainland Spain or anywhere else in Europe. Learn more about the Canary Islands on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. This episode is sponsored by the tourist office of Spain. Did you know that Spain gets the second largest number of visitors of any country in the world? In 2019, over 83 million people visited Spain. That means no matter what you want to do or where you want to go,

Spain has one of the best infrastructures for tourism in the world. They have direct flights from dozens of countries. They have a wide range of accommodations from hostels to five-star luxury resorts. They also have high-speed trains, which can take you from Madrid to Barcelona in only two hours and 45 minutes. You can start researching your dream trip to Spain today by visiting Spain. Info, where you can get everything you need to know to plan your Spanish adventure. Any discussion of the Canary Islands should start with the name. The Canary Islands are not named after canary birds.

There are no canaries in the Canary Islands. The name actually comes from Latin. The Romans call the islands Canari Isulai, which means the islands of the dogs. Legend has it that King Jubis II of Mauritania, which was an ancient kingdom that encompassed much of northwest Africa, sent an expedition to the islands where they found a whole lot of dogs, and hence got its name. The problem is, there has never been any evidence found of dogs being on the islands,

or any explanation of how they might have gotten there. What they probably saw were seals, in particular monk seals, which did inhabit the islands in antiquity. So to summarize, the canary islands are not named after birds, but rather dogs, which were probably really just seals. The islands themselves are volcanic islands. Their creation is very similar to other island chains, such as the Hawaiian Islands and the Galapagos Islands.

They were created from a hotspot in the Earth's mantle, which poked through the crust. As the tectonic plate moved over the hotspot, a chain of islands was created. To that extent, the Canary Islands really are sort of like Spain's version of Hawaii. There are seven major populated islands in the Canaries. They are going from west-east.

El Iro, La Palma, La Gomerra, Tenerife, Grand Canary. Fyterventura, and Lanzarote. And personally, I've been to six of the seven, only missing El Ero. The history of the islands is rather odd. They were known to almost every civilization around the Mediterranean. The island of Fyteventura is just barely visible from the coast of modern-day Morocco. While most ancient peoples didn't particularly like sailing in the open ocean, sailing approximately 100 kilometers from shore, while it's still visible,

is something most seafaring cultures like the Phoenicians and the Romans could easily. do. However, there wasn't really any strategic value to the islands back then. They were located far away and not on any trade routes. Islands like Majorca, Malta, or Cyprus were in the middle of the Mediterranean, and were important to the cities located on the coast. So, for the most part, the islands were ignored for centuries. The islands did have an indigenous population, which was there as late as the Middle Ages. They didn't really have much in the way of contact with either Africa or Europe, and their level of development was well below that of what could be found in either continent. Genetic tests done and remain showed that the people who lived there were

related to the Berbers from North Africa. Europeans began the permanent settlement of the canaries in the 14th century. There were visits by Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and French vessels on and off, some of which ended up establishing small settlements. At the beginning of the 15th century, the island began being claimed by Spanish nobles, and then in the late 15th century, control and sovereignty of the islands were finally consolidated under the Spanish crown. In the late 15th century is when the history of the Canary Islands became interesting. The Spanish structured the economy around a single cash crop, sugar cane. If a group of islands, apart from the main country growing sugar cane, sounds familiar, it is.

The Canary Islands were sort of a prototype for what would become the colonial system in the new world. The importance of the canaries changed soon after with the discovery of the Americas. On Columbus's first voyage, the last place they stopped to get fresh water and provisions was the Canary Islands. Before, I mentioned that the Canary Islands didn't have much value to the ancients because it wasn't on any trade routes. With the discovery of the New World, suddenly the importance and location of the canaries changed. No longer was it an out-of-the-way location off the beaten path of civilization. Now, it had a strategic location between Europe and the Americas. Not exactly in the middle, but it was the last place ship stopped.

before making the long journey across the Atlantic. In fact, in no small part, the Canaries is why most of the Spanish colonies in the New World were in the south. The Canary Island weren't a really good stopping off point for someone, say, going to Canada. As the importance of the islands grew, they became very wealthy, and it attracted a lot of people. Many of those people and their descendants went on to the Americas. In fact, many communities in the Spanish colonies were established by Canary Islanders, most famously San Antonio, Texas. The wealth of the canaries also attracted those with less than honorable intentions.

The Dutch attempted an unsuccessful invasion of the islands in the 16th century. Barbary pirates harassed the ships going to and from the canaries in the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1797, the British were repulsed in a battle where Admiral Nelson lost his arm. In the 19th century, the fortunes of the Canary Islands started to wane. They found it hard to compete against cheap Caribbean sugar, as more Spanish-competes. colonies became independent and ship technology improved, the importance of their location lessened. There was a large migration of Canary Islanders to the Americas during this period, and the population declined. Much of the tumult of the 20th century avoided the Canaries.

There was concerns that the United States would invade during the Spanish-American War, but that never happened. Other than a few minor skirmishes, the islands largely avoided the Spanish Civil War. It also avoided any action in World War II. As a fully integral part of Spain, the fortunes of the Canary Islands grew with the advent of the Schengen zone in the European Union. It turns out the canaries are the southernmost parts of the EU where Europeans can travel without a passport and use the euro. The Canaries have exploded as a tourist destination, especially during the long, dark European winters. Each of the islands are very different, and that isn't just a saying. There are extreme differences between the various Canary Islands. Take, for example, the island of Lanzarote.

Lanzarote is geologically the youngest of the islands, and it's still very volcanically active. It basically has no trees. The entire island is almost all volcanic rock. In Timnifaya National Park, there is a restaurant called El Diablo, where they cook their food over an open volcano. Yep, the grill is just an open hole down to the hot rock below. It uses absolutely no fuel. Despite the island not having any real soil, there is actually a wine in. industry. Each of the vines are kept in a rock semicircle to protect it from the wind,

and the roots get moisture from the dew which condenses on the volcanic rocks. The island of Tenerife, which is the largest island, both by population and area, is also home to the highest point in Spain, Mount Tide, which is 3,715 meters or 12,188 feet tall. La Gomerah is home to a terraced landscape, where for centuries farmers grew crops in the hillsides. That's also where the home of the unique whistling language, called Silbo Gomero is from. Farmers would use the whistling language to communicate with each other across the large valleys on the island. Today, Silbo Gomerro is taught in the schools and has been named a masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity by UNESCO. Whereas Lanzarote and Futa Ventura have very

little in the way of vegetation, La Palma is a very green and lush island. It's also home to some of the world's largest astronomical telescopes. Much of the history I spoke of earlier can also still be found on the islands. San Cristobal de Laguna in Tenerife is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the old town has buildings going back to the 15th century. You can also see the building where Christopher Columbus stayed on his first voyage to the Americas. Yet, not too far away, you can also find the ultramar, Auditorio de Tenerife, which was designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. The vast majority of visitors to the Canary Islands come from Europe, and it's still relatively unknown to North Americans. Most Americans are Canadians who, who are

want to go to an island for vacation, will go either to the Caribbean or Hawaii, depending on the coast they live on. So if you're thinking of a place to go on your next vacation, consider the Canary Islands. The canaries are extremely accessible, and they are very diverse in terms of geology, biology, and history. Executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is James Mackala. The associate producer is Thor Thompson. Today's five-star review comes from Apple Podcasts.

Listener teacher user wrote, This has quickly become one of my favorite pods. I appreciate that it's brief and I plan on using it in my high school classroom. The content has varied and the brevity makes it engaging. I'll be a daily listener this year. Thank you, teacher user. I actually designed the show from the beginning to be clean and available for use for teachers and homeschoolers. You should never have to worry about language or inappropriate subjects.

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