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Tenerife is the largest and most populated island of the seven Canary Islands.It is also the most populated island of Spain, with a land area of 2,034.38 square kilometres (785 sq mi) and 898,680 inhabitants, 43 percent of the total population of the Canary Islands. Tenerife is the largest and most populous island of Macaronesia.

Macaronesia is a collection of four archipelagos in the North Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the continents of Europe and Africa. Apart from the Azores, which are considered mainly as part of Europe, the other islands of Macaronesia are closer to Africa. The Macaronesian islands belong to three countries: Portugal, Spain, and Cape Verde

About five million tourists visit Tenerife each year, the most visited island of the archipelago. It is one of the most important tourist destinations in Spain and the world. Tenerife hosts one of the world's largest carnivals and the Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife is working to be designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Served by two airports, Tenerife-North Airport and Tenerife-South Airport, Tenerife is the economic centre of the archipelago.

Ports

Besides air transport, Tenerife has two principal maritime ports: the Port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Puerto de Santa Cruz), which serves the various capitals of the Canary Islands, especially those in the west; and the Port of Los Cristianos (Puerto de Los Cristianos), which serves the various island capitals of the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The first port also has passenger services, which connect with the mainland port of Cádiz (and vice versa). In 2017, a large important port was opened in the south of the island, the Port of Granadilla, and another one is planned in the west, in Fonsalía. The Port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife is the first fishing port in the Canary Islands with approximately 7,500 tons of fish caught, according to the Statistical Yearbook of the State Ports 2006 (the latest of which is changing). Following this report is the largest port number of passengers recorded. Similarly, the second port of Spain moving ship and loaded into cars, only surpassed by the Port of Algeciras Bay. In the port's facilities include a border inspection post (BIP) approved by the European Union, which is responsible for inspecting all types of imports from third countries or exports to countries outside the European Economic Area.

Buses (guaguas) Tenerife has an extensive system of buses, which are called guaguas in the Canary Islands. The bus system is used both within the cities and also connects most of the towns and cities of the island. There are bus stations in all of the major towns, such as the Intercambiador de Transportes de Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

Santa Cruz de Tenerife is the capital of the island and the seat of the island council (cabildo insular). The city is capital of the autonomous community of Canary Islands (shared with Las Palmas), sharing governmental institutions such as presidency and ministries. Between the 1833 territorial division of Spain and 1927, Santa Cruz de Tenerife was the sole capital of the Canary Islands. In 1927 the Crown ordered that the capital of the Canary Islands be shared, as it remains at present. 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. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the city is the second to have been founded on the island, and is the third of the archipelago. The city of La Laguna was capital of the Canary Islands before Santa Cruz replaced it in 1833.
The University of La Laguna (in Spanish: Universidad de La Laguna), also known as the ULL, is situated in San Cristóbal de La Laguna, on the island of Tenerife. It is the oldest university in the Canary Islands. It has six campuses: Central, Anchieta, Guajara, Campus del Sur, Ofra and Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

In 2015, the University of La Laguna entered the ranking of the top 500 universities in the world by the Institute of Education in Shanghai (China), being the only of the two Canarian public universities to enter the ranking.[1] In addition, the Leiden ranking, prepared by the Center for Studies of Science and Technology of the Leiden University (Netherlands), has ranked the University of La Laguna as the first Spanish university in scientific collaboration. Meanwhile, in 2016 the University of La Laguna was recognized as the second best university in Spain in Humanities, according to a survey by the Everis Foundation.

Teide National Park, a World Heritage Site in the center of the island, has Teide, the highest elevation of Spain, the highest of the islands of the Atlantic Ocean, and the third-largest volcano in the world from its base. Also located on the island, Macizo de Anaga since 2015 has been designated as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. It has the largest number of endemic species in Europe.

Toponymy
The island's indigenous people, the Guanches, referred to the island as Achinet or Chenet in their language (variant spellings are found in the literature). 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 (canaria) on the island. Juba II and Ancient Romans referred to the island of Tenerife as Nivaria, derived from the Latin word nix (nsg.; gsg. nivis, npl. nives), meaning snow, referring to the snow-covered peak of the Teide volcano. Later maps dating to the 14th and 15th century, by mapmakers such as Bontier and Le Verrier, refer to the island as Isla del Infierno, literally meaning "Island of Hell," referring to the volcanic activity and eruptions of Mount Teide.

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.

The 18th-century historians Juan Núñez de la Peña and Tomás Arias Marín de Cubas, among others, state that the island was likely named by natives for the legendary Guanche king, Tinerfe, nicknamed "the Great." He ruled the entire island in the days before the conquest of the Canary Islands by Castilla.

History
The earliest known human settlement in the islands date to around 200 BC, by Berbers known as the Guanches.

Territorial organisation before the conquest (The Guanches)

Guanche mummy in Museo de la Naturaleza y el Hombre of Santa Cruz de Tenerife
About one hundred years before the conquest by king Juba II, 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 el Grande, son of the mencey Sunta, governed the island from Adeje in the south. However, upon his death, 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 would be similar to municipalities today. The menceyatos and their menceyes (ordered by the names of descendants of Tinerfe who ruled them).

Alonso Fernandez de Lugo presenting the native kings of Tenerife to Ferdinand and Isabella
Tenerife was the last island of Canaries to be conquered and the one that took the longest time to submit to the Castilian troops. Although the traditional dates of conquest of Tenerife are established between 1494 (landing of Alonso Fernández de Lugo) and 1496 (conquest of the island), it must be taken into account that the attempts to annex the island of Tenerife to the Crown of Castile date back at least to 1464. For this reason, from the first attempt to conquer the island in 1464, until it is finally conquered in 1496, 32 years pass.
In 1464, Diego Garcia de Herrera, Lord of the Canary Islands, took symbolic possession of the island in the Barranco del Bufadero (Ravine of the Bufadero), signing a peace treaty with the Guanche chiefs (menceyes) 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 (Spanish: bando de paz) and the side of war (Spanish: bando de guerra). 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 ("military governor") 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.

Spanish rule
Many of the natives died from new infectious diseases, such as influenza and probably smallpox, to which they lacked resistance or acquired immunity. The new colonists intermarried with the local native population. For a century after the conquest, many new colonists settled on the island, including immigrants from the diverse territories of the growing Spanish Empire, such as Flanders, Italy, and Germany.
As the population grew, it cleared Tenerife's pine forests for fuel and to make fields for agriculture for crops both for local consumption and for export. Sugar cane was introduced in the 1520s as a commodity crop on major plantations; it was a labor-intensive crop in all phases of cultivation and processing. In the following centuries, planters cultivated wine grapes, cochineal for making dyes, and plantains for use and export.

Trade with America

Amaro Pargo (1678-1741), corsair and merchant from Tenerife who participated in the Spanish treasure fleet (the Spanish-American trade route).
In the commerce of the Canary Islands with America of the 18th century, Tenerife was the hegemonic island, since it exceeded 50% of the number of ships and 60% of the tonnage. In the islands of La Palma and Gran Canaria, the percentage was around 19% for the first and 7% for the second. The volume of traffic between the Indies and the Canary Islands was unknown, but was very important and concentrated almost exclusively in Tenerife.

Among the products that are exported were cochineal, rum and sugar cane, which were landed mainly in the American ports of La Guaira, Havana, Campeche and Veracruz. Many sailors from Tenerife joined this transcontinental maritime trade, among which the corsair Amaro Rodríguez Felipe, more commonly known as Amaro Pargo, Juan Pedro Dujardín and Bernardo de Espinosa, both companions of Amaro Pargo, among others.

Emigration to the Americas
Tenerife, like the other islands, has maintained a close relationship with Latin America, as both were part of the Spanish Empire. From the start of the colonization of the New World, many Spanish expeditions stopped at the island for supplies on their way to the Americas. They also recruited many tinerfeños for their crews, who formed an integral part of the conquest expeditions. Others joined ships in search of better prospects. It is also important to note the exchange in plant and animal species that made those voyages.

After a century and a half of relative growth, based on the grape growing sector, numerous families emigrated, especially to Venezuela and Cuba. The Crown wanted to encourage population of underdeveloped zones in the Americas to pre-empt the occupation by foreign forces, as had happened with the English in Jamaica and the French in the Guianas and western Hispaniola (which the French renamed as Saint-Domingue). Canary Islanders, including many tinerfeños, left for the New World.

The success in cultivation of new crops of the Americas, such as cocoa in Venezuela and tobacco in Cuba, contributed to the population exodus from towns such as Buenavista del Norte, Vilaflor, or El Sauzal in the late 17th century. The village of San Carlos de Tenerife was founded in 1684 by Canary Islanders on Santo Domingo. The people from Tenerife were recruited for settlement to build up the town from encroachment by French colonists established in the western side of Hispaniola. Between 1720 and 1730, the Crown moved 176 families, including many tinerfeños, to the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico. In 1726, about 25 island families migrated to the Americas to collaborate on the foundation of Montevideo. Four years later, in 1730, another group left that founded San Antonio the following year in what became Texas. Between 1777 and 1783, More islanders emigrated from Santa Cruz de Tenerife to settle in what became St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, during the period when Spain ruled this former French territory west of the Mississippi River. Some groups went to Western or Spanish Florida.

Emigration to the Americas (mainly Cuba and Venezuela) continued during the 19th and early 20th century, due to the lack of economic opportunity and the relative isolation of the Canary Islands. Since the late 20th century, island protectionist economic laws and a strong development in the tourism industry have strengthened the economy and attracted new migrants. Tenerife has received numerous new residents, including the "return" of many descendants of some islanders who had departed five centuries before.

Military history

Admiral Nelson wounded at Tenerife
The most notable conflict was the British invasion of Tenerife in 1797. On 25 July 1797, Admiral Horatio Nelson launched an attack at Santa Cruz de Tenerife, now the capital of the island. After a ferocious fight which resulted in many casualties, General Antonio Gutiérrez de Otero y Santayana organized a defense to repel the invaders. Whilst leading a landing party, Nelson was seriously wounded in his right arm by grapeshot or a musket ball, necessitating amputation of most of the arm. Legend tells that he was wounded by the Spanish cannon Tiger (Spanish: Tigre) as he was trying to disembark on the Paso Alto coast.

On 5 September 1797, the British attempted another attack in the Puerto Santiago region, which was repelled by the inhabitants of Santiago del Teide. Some threw rocks at the British from the heights of the cliffs of Los Gigantes.
The island was also attacked by British commanders Robert Blake, Walter Raleigh, John Hawkins, Woodes Rogers.

Modern history
Between 1833 and 1927, Santa Cruz de Tenerife was the sole capital of the Canary Islands. In 1927 the government ordered that the capital be shared with Las Palmas, as it remains at present. This change in status has encouraged development in Las Palmas.

Tourists began visiting Tenerife from Spain, the United Kingdom, and northern Europe in large numbers in the 1890s. They especially were attracted to the destinations of the northern towns of Puerto de la Cruz and Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Independent shipping business, such as the Yeoward Brothers Shipping Line, helped boost the tourist industry during this time, adding to ships that carried passengers. The naturalist Alexander von Humboldt ascended the peak of Mount Teide and remarked on the beauty of the island.

Before his rise to power, Francisco Franco was posted to Tenerife in March 1936 by a Republican government wary of his influence and political leanings. However, Franco received information and in Gran Canaria agreed to collaborate in the military coup that would result in the Spanish Civil War; the Canaries fell to the Nationalists in July 1936. In the 1950s, the misery of the post-war years caused thousands of the island's inhabitants to emigrate to Cuba and other parts of Latin America.

Geography
The oldest mountain ranges in Tenerife rose from the Atlantic Ocean by volcanic eruption which gave birth to the island around twelve million years ago.The island as it is today was formed three million years ago by the fusion of three islands made up of the mountain ranges of Anaga, Teno and Valle de San Lorenzo, due to volcanic activity from Teide. The volcano is visible from most parts of the island today, and the crater is 17 kilometres (11 miles) long at some points. Tenerife is the largest island of the Canary Islands and the Macaronesia region.

Geology

Tenerife is a rugged and volcanic island sculpted by successive eruptions throughout its history. There are four historically recorded volcanic eruptions, none of which has led to casualties. The first occurred in 1704, when the Arafo, Fasnia and Siete Fuentes volcanoes erupted simultaneously. Two years later, in 1706, the greatest eruption occurred at Trevejo. This volcano produced great quantities of lava which buried the city and port of Garachico. The last eruption of the 18th century happened in 1798 at Cañadas de Teide, in Chahorra. Finally, and most recently, in 1909 that formed the Chinyero cinder cone, in the municipality of Santiago del Teide, erupted.

The island is located between 28° and 29° N and the 16° and 17° meridian. It is situated north of the Tropic of Cancer, occupying a central position between the other Canary Islands of Gran Canaria, La Gomera and La Palma. The island is about 300 km (186 mi) from the African coast, and approximately 1,000 km (621 mi) from the Iberian Peninsula. Tenerife is the largest island of the Canary Islands archipelago, with a surface area of 2,034.38 km2 (785 sq mi) and has the longest coastline, amounting to 342 km (213 mi).

In addition, the highest point, Mount Teide, with an elevation of 3,718 m (12,198 ft) above sea level is the highest point in all of Spain, is also the third largest volcano in the world from its base in the bottom of the sea. For this reason, Tenerife is the tenth highest island worldwide. It comprises about 200 small barren islets or large rocks including Roques de Anaga, Roque de Garachico, and Fasnia adding a further 213,835 m2 (2,301,701 sq ft) to the total area.

External links
Web Page of public bus service of tenerife
Web page of the tram service (Spanish)
Web page of the Island Council of Tenerife
Web page of the City Council of Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Information taken from: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenerife