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The history of La Palma: The conquest of the island |
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The history of La Palma:
THE CONQUEST
The conquest of the Canaries started in 1402 when Juan de Bethencourt came to Lanzarote. The spaniards met hard resistance from the guanches, and it wasn't until 1496 that the Castilian conquistadors could claim full ownership of the Canary islands.
Fernandez de Lugo came to Tazacorte in 1492, and started the conquest of La Palma. The guanche kings were giving the conquistadors hard battles, just like in the other islands. But in May 1493 the island of La Palma were under the Castilian crown after they had defeated all of the guanchekings who ruled each of their parts of the island.
Tanausu was the last king left on Benahoare, as the guanches called La Palma. The other guanchekings had either been killed or brought to Spain as slaves. Tanausu ruled the Kingdom of Acero, which is Caldera de Taburiente. The conquistadors tried to get inside of the Caldera two times, but failed each time.
A relative of Tanausu had been converted to christianity by the Castilians, and took the name Juan de Palma. He was sent in by the conquistadors to establish a truce with the guancheking Tanausu. The king agreed, but was ambushed by the conquistadors and taken to Spain as a slave. On the ship he refused to eat and died before they came ashore.
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