Known to the Romans as Nivaria (from the Latin nix, nivis, "snow"), a reference to the snows atop the volcano known as El Teide, Tenerife bears a name that is also a reference to this volcano, and was used for the island by the Guanches of the neighboring island of La Palma, “Tene” signifying “mountain” and “ife” white (the “r” was added by the Spanish). To the natives of Tenerife, the island was known as Chenech, Chinech or Achinech. As the legend goes, many islands, among them Tenerife, were the uppermost peaks of Atlantis, a continent that sank under the ocean in a catastrophic event which left only the highest mountains above sea level.
It is also believed that nearly 3 million years ago the island known today as Tenerife was three separate islands with three mountain ranges: the Anaga, Teno and Valle San Lorenzo. Then, as the consequence of a remarkable volcanic process, they melted together forming the island of Tenerife.
Tenerife at the time of its conquest was comprised of nine distinct menceyatos, as the small kingdoms of the Guanches were known. Though the Spanish forces under the Adelantado ("military governor") Alonso Fernández de Lugo, suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the Guanches in the First Battle of Acentejo in 1494, the Guanches, eventually overcome by superior technology and diseases to which they were not immune, surrendered to the Crown of Castile on December 25, 1495.
As on the other islands of the same group, much of the native population of Tenerife was enslaved or succumbed to diseases at the same time as ... |
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