Tenerife


Tenerife is the largest and most-populous island of the Canary Islands, an autonomous community of Spain. With a land area of and a population of 969,691 inhabitants as of 2025, it is the most-populous island in Spain and the entire Macaronesia region. Tenerife is also home to 42.7% of the total population of the archipelago.
More than seven million tourists visit Tenerife each year, making it by far the most visited island in the archipelago. It is one of the most important tourist destinations in Spain and the world, hosting one of the world's largest carnivals, the Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
The capital of the island, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, is also the seat of the island council. That city and Las Palmas are the co-capitals of the autonomous community of the Canary Islands. The two cities are both home to governmental institutions, such as the offices of the presidency and the ministries. After the 1833 territorial division of Spain, Santa Cruz de Tenerife was the sole capital of the Canary Islands. In 1927, the Crown established the current co-capital arrangement. Santa Cruz contains the modern Auditorio de Tenerife, the architectural symbol of the Canary Islands.
The island is home to the University of La Laguna. Founded in 1792 in San Cristóbal de La Laguna, it is the oldest university in the Canaries. The city of La Laguna is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is the second-most populous city on the island, and the third-most populous in the archipelago. It was the capital of the Canary Islands before Santa Cruz replaced it in 1833. Tenerife is served by two airports: Tenerife North Airport and Tenerife South Airport.
Teide National Park, located in the center of the island, is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It includes Mount Teide, which has the highest elevation in Spain, and the highest elevation among all the islands in the Atlantic Ocean. It is also the third-largest volcano in the world when measured from its base. Another geographical feature of the island, the Macizo de Anaga, has been designated as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 2015. Tenerife also has the largest number of endemic species in Europe.

Toponymy

The name 'Tenerife' likely comes from Tamazight, but there is no consensus on its correct interpretation.
The island's indigenous people, the Guanche Berbers, referred to the island as Achinet or Chenet in their language. According to Pliny the Younger, Berber king Juba II sent an expedition to the Canary Islands and Madeira; he named the Canary Islands for the particularly ferocious dogs on the island. Juba II and the ancient Romans called the island of Tenerife Nivaria, from the Latin word , meaning "snow", after the snow-covered peak of the Mount Teide volcano. Later maps dating to the 14th and 15th centuries, drawn by mapmakers such as Bontier and Le Verrier, called the island Isla del Infierno,, due to Mount Teide's volcanic eruptions and other volcanic activity.
Although the name given to the island by the Benahoare was derived from the words teni and ife, after the island was colonized by the Spanish, the name was modified by Spanish phonology: the letter "r" was added to link the two words, producing the single word Tenerife.
Throughout history, though, other explanations for the origin of island's name have been proposed. For example, 17th-century historians Juan Núñez de la Peña and Tomás Arias Marín de Cubas, among others, suggested that the indigenous peoples might have named the island for the famous Guanche king, Tinerfe, nicknamed "the Great", who ruled Tenerife before the conquest of the Canary Islands by Castile.

Demonym

The formal demonym used to refer to the people of Tenerife is Tinerfeño/a; also used colloquially is the term chicharrero/a. In modern society, the latter term is generally applied only to inhabitants of the capital, Santa Cruz. The term chicharrero was once a derogatory term used by the people of La Laguna when it was the capital, to refer to the poorer inhabitants and fishermen of Santa Cruz. The fishermen typically caught mackerel and other residents ate potatoes, assumed to be of low quality by the elite of La Laguna. As Santa Cruz grew in commerce and status, it replaced La Laguna as capital of Tenerife in 1833 during the reign of Fernando VII. Then, the inhabitants of Santa Cruz used the former insult to identify as residents of the new capital, at La Laguna's expense.

History

The earliest known human settlement in the islands, dating to around 200 BC, was established by Berbers known as the Guanches, but the Cave of the Guanches in the northern municipality of Icod de los Vinos has provided the oldest chronologies of the Canary Islands, with dates around the sixth century BC.
In terms of technology, the Guanches can be placed among the peoples of the Stone Age, although scholars often reject this classification because of its ambiguity. Guanche culture was more advanced culturally, possibly because of Berber cultural features imported from North Africa, but less technologically advanced due to the scarcity of raw materials, especially minerals that would have allowed for the extraction and working of metals. The main activity was gathering food from nature, though fishing and shellfish collection were supplemented with some agricultural practices.
As for religion and cosmology, the Guanches were polytheistic, with further widespread belief in an astral cult. They also had an animistic religiosity that sacralized certain places, mainly rocks and mountains. Although the Guanches worshiped many gods and ancestral spirits, among the most important were Achamán, Chaxiraxi, Magec, and Guayota. Especially significant was the cult of the dead, which practiced the mummification of corpses. In addition, small anthropomorphic and zoomorphic stone and clay figurines of the kind typically associated with rituals have been found on the island. Scholars believe they were used as idols, the most prominent of which is the so-called Idol of Guatimac, which is thought to represent a genius or protective spirit.

Territorial organisation before the conquest (the Guanches)

The title of mencey was given to the monarch or king of the Guanches of Tenerife, who governed a menceyato or kingdom. This role was later referred to as a "captainship" by the conquerors. Tinerfe "the Great", son of the mencey Sunta, governed the island from Adeje in the south. Upon his death, though, his nine children rebelled and argued bitterly about how to divide the island.
Two independent achimenceyatos were created on the island, and the island was divided into nine menceyatos. The menceyes within them formed what were similar to municipalities today. The menceyatos and their menceyes were the following:
The achimenceyato of Punta del Hidalgo was governed by Aguahuco, a "poor noble" who was an illegitimate son of Tinerfe and Zebenzui.

Castilian conquest

Tenerife was the last island of the Canaries to be conquered and the one that took the longest time to submit to the Castilian troops. Although the traditional dates of the conquest of Tenerife are established between 1494 and 1496, attempts to annex the island of Tenerife to the Crown of Castile date back at least to 1464.
In 1464, Diego Garcia de Herrera, Lord of the Canary Islands, took symbolic possession of the island in the Barranco del Bufadero, signing a peace treaty with the Guanche chiefs which allowed the mencey Anaga to build a fortified tower on Guanche land, where the Guanches and the Spanish held periodic treaty talks until the Guanches demolished it around 1472.
In 1492 the governor of Gran Canaria Francisco Maldonado organized a raid that ended in disaster for the Spaniards when they were defeated by Anaga's warriors. In December 1493, the Catholic monarchs, Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, granted Alonso Fernández de Lugo the right to conquer Tenerife. Coming from Gran Canaria in April 1494, the conqueror landed on the coast of present-day Santa Cruz de Tenerife in May, and disembarked with about 2,000 men on foot and 200 on horseback. After taking the fort, the army prepared to move inland, later capturing the native kings of Tenerife and presenting them to Isabella and Ferdinand.
The menceyes of Tenerife had differing responses to the conquest. They divided into the side of peace and the side of war. The first included the menceyatos of Anaga, Güímar, Abona and Adeje. The second group consisted of the people of Tegueste, Tacoronte, Taoro, Icoden and Daute. Those opposed to the conquest fought the invaders tenaciously, resisting their rule for two years. Castillian forces under the Adelantado de Lugo suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the Guanches in the First Battle of Acentejo on 31 May 1494, but defeated them at the Second Battle of Acentejo on 25 December 1494. The Guanches were eventually overcome by superior technology and the arms of the invaders, and surrendered to the Crown of Castile in 1496.