ABSTRACT
Gran Canaria had been occupied in 1483, but Tenerife and La Palma were tierra brava when Christopher Columbus stopped off at Gomera for repairs and provisions on the First Voyage. There has been an almost unbroken current of Canary Islanders that has crossed the Atlantic to new homes in the New World in the nearly five centuries since Columbus. The carrying of immigrants across the Atlantic to the beckoning Americas became a well organized and lucrative business as the nineteenth century progressed. The Canario contribution of the peopling of Spanish America appears especially disproportionate when considered in relation to the population of the archipelago. Possession of the Canary archipelago gave Spain the strategic key to the Atlantic world, ideally situated as a way station to the Indies. Slaves from the African mainland with experiences in the Canary sugar industry were especially prized in the West Indian markets.
