Short History of Lanzarote

As it is the matter with the other Canary Islands, Lanzarote’s early history is veiled in myth and mystery. Greeks and Romans certainly knew of the existence of these islands, but there is no evidence that they ever set foot there. Yet, it is known that Plato believed these islands to be the remains of the lost continent of Atlantis. To others, they were also known as the ‘Fortunate Islands’ clinging to the edge of the world where people had no sorrows.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, Europe forgot the Canary Islands for almost 1,000 years until Mediterranean sailors rediscovered them in the early 14th Century.

It is widely thought that Lanzarote’s name derives from the distorted name of the Genoese sailor called Lanzarotto (or Lancelotto) Malocello, who first landed on the island in the early 1300s. Known to Europeans at this stage, the island was invaded several times by Portuguese and Spaniards in search of riches and glory and to take back natives to work as slaves in their countries.

There were many expeditions to the Canaries over the years, but the eventual conquest came in the early 15th Century following a voyage led by the Norman explorer Juan de Bethencourt. After much conflict, the dwindling number of aboriginal people (majos) surrendered.

The conquest of Lanzarote – as well as of Fuerteventura, La Gomera and El Hierro – was, in fact, no great feat because diseases that were introduced by the Europeans during the years of slave trading had already decimated the small native population on these islands.

At the beginning of the Spanish conquest, the islands of the archipelago experienced different histories. While the bigger islands of Gran Canaria and Tenerife still rendered fierce resistance – it took almost a century until they finally surrendered to the Spanish crown – the process of exploration and colonisation of Lanzarote was already going strong. Soon the first churches were built and surviving majos were forced to convert to Christianity.