Fuerteonline - The Fuerteventura Portal

THE HISTORY OF THE ORIGINAL INHABITANTS
Little is known of the history of Fuerteventura from the start of the Christian era to the 14th century, when the Conquista began. The culture of the original inhabitants was not unlike the stone age (their Berber ancestors had known metals, but there was no iron on the Canary Isles), and they lived constantly on alert for attacks by Berber pirates capturing slaves for the slave-trade, and for minor volcanic eruptions. Canarios, Guanches, Majos, Majoreros. There are several different names for the original inhabitants, and up to today, CANARIOS is the word for all inhabitants of the Canary Isles, covering not only the original population, but also the Normanic settlers, the permanent Spanish population and all immigrants. GUANCHE is what the original inhabitants of Tenerife called themselves at the time of the conquest. J.L. Conceptión feels the use of this word for the ancient Canarians of all the islands is justified, as all Guanches, as a race, have a common origin, and the word is used as an expression for the Canarian linguistic and cultural community. MAJOS is used to refer to the original inhabitants of all the islands as “cave-dwellers”, and MAJOREROS, a Latinised word, refers only to the people of Fuerteventura, both the original and the present inhabitants.

THE STORY OF THE CONQUESTA
In 1402, the Norman JEAN DE BETHENCOURT landed on Lanzarote with his ally GADIFER DE LA SALLE, and made his first expedition to Fuerteventura. He then returned to speak to the Castillean king, securing for himself a personal claim to all the Canary Isles (of which at that point only Lanzarote, Hierro and Gomera had been conquered) before tackling the task of subduing Fuerteventura in 1404, with the support of GUARDARFIA, the last native Lanzarotean ruler. He failed to mention the services of his companion La Salle, who was the real military ruler, who after the successful and relatively peaceful capture of Fuerteventura returned home in high dudgeon. The two kings AYOZE and GUIZE accepted baptism in 1404, allegedly of their own free will, and were given rich gifts and allowed to remain in their lands - the chronicler states.
Béthencourt did not stay long either. In 1404 he left his nephew MACIOT DE BETHENCOURT in charge of the territory and returned home to enjoy his newly acquired wealth there. Maciót ruled despotically from Lanzarote - but not particularly skilfully, and in 1418 diplomatic intrigues forced him to hand over rule of the Canary Isles to the Andalusian count DE NIEBLAS, who on his part never set foot on the islands. However, at the last minute Maciót managed to sell “his” islands to Portugal and to Spain, which was to cause much confusion for many years.
Lanzarote belonged to Castille and was subject to the antipope, BENEDICT, as the bishopric of Rubicon. So GUILLEN DE LAS CASAS, who acting on the instructions of the Andalusian de Nieblas in 1430 finally subdued the Canarias and who was entrusted not only with acquiring new lands, subjects and fortunes for the Spanish crown on paper, but also with making them usable and profitable, made sure that a bishopric or Fuerteventura was founded, with its centre in Betancuria. The cathedral of Santa María was consecrated in 1426 with permission of the Pope in Rome, MARTIN V - but no bishop ever resided there. Years later, when the Bishop of Lanzarote again paid allegiance to Rome, ecclesiastical rule of all the islands including Fuerteventura was initially centred in Teguise, which at the time was the capital of Lanzarote.

THE HISTORY OF THE 20TH CENTURY
At the beginning of the 20th century, the power of Fuerteventura´s land-owners, who themselves resided on Gran Canaria, was undiminished. The island’s only seat in the Canary Isles parliament was held by members of the MANRIQUE Y LARAS family from 1910 to 1923. The CABILDO INSULAR, or island government, has been in existence since 1912. The seven islands were divided into two provinces in 1927 - Lanzarote and Fuerteventura belong to Gran Canaria, while Gomera, Hierro and La Palma belong to Tenerife.
After PRIMO DE RIVIERA seized power in 1924, Fuerteventura became the place to which people were exiled, being as it was the furthest flung and most unattractive of all the Spanish provinces. The most prominent exile, sent there in that very year, was MIGUEL DE UNAMUNO, poet, philosopher and vice-chancellor of the University of Salamanca, who succeeded in making the crossing to France illegally four months later. The poetry he wrote and dedicated to this bare island made Fuerteventura world-famous.
When Spain was declared a republic for the second time in its history, it was conservative circles who dominated the elections on Fuerteventura (even more so than on the other Canary Isles). In 1933, and especially in 1936, they were still in the lead, and subsequently supported the putsch by FRANCO, who in 1936 declared a national uprising against the democratic government in Madrid from exile in Tenerife. In gratitude for the island’s loyalty, from 1940 onwards Franco favoured Fuerteventura - which brought the island an improved infrastructure, the activities of the German Gustav Winter on Jandia and even as late as 1975 the dubious honour of being home to the Spanish foreign legion, shortly before Franco died and King Juán CARLOS I inaugurated the democratic parliamentary monarchy on 22nd November.