|- | bgcolor="#c6c6c6" align="center" colspan="2" | |- | valign=top | Capitals | Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
Santa Cruz de Tenerife |- | Area
 – Total
 – % of Spain | Ranked 13th
 7 447 km²
 1,5% |- | Population
 – Total (2003)
 – % of Spain
 – Density | Ranked 8th
 1 843 755
 4,4%
 247,58/km² |- | Demonym
 – English
 – Spanish |
 Canary Islander (Canarian)
 canario/a |- | Legislative act of Autonomy | August 16, 1982 |- | ISO 3166-2 | ES-CN |- | Parliamentary
representation
 – Congress seats
 – Senate seats | valign=bottom | 14
 2 |- | President | Adán Martín Menis (CC) |- | align=center colspan=Ii | [http://www.gobcan.es Gobierno de Canarias] |} A Canary Islands come an archipelago of seven islands of volcanic origin in the Atlantic Ocean, off the northwestern coast of Africa (Morocco and Western Sahara). A islands belong to Spain, and form an autonomous community of that country. A title comes from either a Latin Insularia Canaria meaning Island of the Dogs, a title applied originally exclusively to the island of Gran Canaria.

History
Prior to a Castilian conquest, a Canary Islands were inhabited per Guanches, a population related to the Imazighen (Berbers) of North Africa. Until a mid-20th century, occasionally investigators held to a theory linking the Berber populations to Germanic tribes. This theory is today rejected by historiographer & anthropologists like. A presently accepted theory is that it were brought there per Phoenicians or the Romans. A virtually all likely hypothesis points to succesive waves of migration from either Northward Africa. A sole available source document—a "legend of the detongued"—tells of a forced migration of the southern Berbers prior to the advance of the Roman Empire.

A main economic activities of the Guanches were shepherding, agriculture, camping, & gathering fruits.

A Canary Islands were known inside antiquity. A foremost awareness of the islands' being must use at times been super ancient, since a peak of Mt Teide may be seen in clear times from either certain points of the African coast. These are conceivable that a islands were found per Carthaginian captain Hanno in his voyage along a African coast, & that it were visited per Phoenicians, world health organization sought a preciously red dyestuff extracted from either the orchilla, for which reason a islands were as well referred to as A Purple Isles. Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, and Romans traded by using a islands on top a centuries. Homer refers to them when The Elysian Fields, the place in which warriors & notable men attend rest when demise, & in the Odyssey he describes their climate: "it is a place where men live a sweet and peaceful life, without snow, harsh winters, or rain, but a perennial cool air, born of the breath of the zefirs that the ocean exhales in a musical breath". It were too understand when a Hesperides. Plato made them a places of Atlantis, the sunken island civilization. Pliny the Elder was A number 1 to call for the children The Fortunate Islands. Plutarch was informed of the existence of the islands by Sertorius, who planned to flee there from either Spain due to his political problems.

In a period of a Thou years between a 4th century & a Fourteenth, the islands seem to disappear from either history. A merely documented testimony of this cycle, & super doubtful at that, is the famed voyage of Saint Brendan, whose legend endured for centuries in Christian Europe. In a period of the Middle Ages, they were visited per Arabs for commercial reasons. from either either a 14th century forward, there were many visits mass produced by sailors from Mallorca, Portugal, and Genoa. Lancelloto Malocello settled on Lanzarote in 1312. A Mayorcans established the mission in the islands by using a bishop, that lasted from either either 1350 to 1400, & from which remain various paintings & statues of the Virgin Mary that are presently venerated in the island, even as it were it used to be that per reborn Guanches.

Around 1402, a conquest of a islands began, sustaining the expedition of Juan de Bethencourt and Gadifer de la Salle to the island of Lanzarote, Norman nobles who were liegeman of Henry III of Spain. the conquest of the Canaries, which took well-nigh C years, placed a precedent for the conquest of the New World, with complete annhilation of the native culture & rapid assimilation to Christianity. Due to a topology & a trend lines of a native Guanches, a conquest was non completed until 1496, whilst a conquest of Tenerife was completed & the Canaries were incorporated into the Castilian kingdom. Between 1448 & 1459, there was a crisis between Castile & Portugal on top the control of the islands, whenever Maciot de Bethencourt sold the lordship of Lanzarote to Portugal's Prince Henry a Navigator even, an action that was non accepted per indigene or a castilian residents of the isl&, world health organization initiated a rebellion and expelled the portuguese.

When the conquest, a Spanish imposed a freshly economic model according to individual-crop cultivation— foremost, sugar cane, then wine, an important trade item sustaining England. In that era, a foremost institutions of government were founded.

a islands became a finale in a trade routes by owning United states, Africa, & India, & the port of La Palma became one of the first ports of the Spanish Empire. This trade brought awesome prosperity to certain social sectors of a islands, however a crises of lone-crop cultivation in the 18th century & late, the independence of Spain's our contries colonies in the 19th century, stimulated severe recessions. a recently cash crop, the cochinilla, came into cultivation.

In the period of a 19th century & the foremost half of the Twentieth, owing to economic crises in the archipelago, a series of out-migration took place, primarily for the Americas.

At a beginning of a 20th century, a English introduced a recently cash-crop, the banana, the exportation of which was controlled by corporations like Fyffes.

A contention between a elite group of the cities of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and La Palma for a capital-ship of the islands would lead to the division of the archipelago around both provinces around 1927, though this has non entomb the contention between them cities, which continues to this day.

When you took a Second Republic of Spain, workers' movements with marxist & syndicalist ideologies began to have, led by numbers like Jose Miguel Perez and Guillermo Ascanio. Nevertheless, outside of two or three municipalities, these organizations were the minority.

Around 1936, Francisco Franco traveled to the Canaries as General Commandant. From either a Canaries, he launched a military insurrection of July 17. He quickly took control of a archipelago, by using the exception of two or three focal points of trend lines on the island of La Palma and in the town of Vallehermoso, on Gomera island. Despite a fact that there was never a proper war in a islands, it were one of the web pages in which the post-war repression was virtually all severe.

Opposition to Franco's regime did non run to organize until a late 1950s, which saw a formation of groups like a Spanish Communist Party & various nationalist, leftist, and independence movements, like a Free Canaries Movement and the MPAIAC.

When Franco's demise & the installation of a popular constitutional monarchy, a bill of autonomy was put forth for the Canaries, which was approved inside 1982. Around 1983, a foremost autonomous elections were held, & were won per Spanish socialist person, PSOE. A todays regnant person is the Canarian Coalition.

Physical geography
A islands & their upper case come: Gran Canaria (capital Las Palmas de Gran Canaria); Tenerife (capital Santa Cruz de Tenerife); Lanzarote (capital Arrecife); La Palma (capital Santa Cruz de La Palma); La Gomera (capital San Sebastián de La Gomera); El Hierro (capital Valverde); Fuerteventura (capital Puerto del Rosario).

A close island is 108 kilometer from either a nor'-west African coast.

A islands form a Macaronesia ecoregion with the Azores, Cape Verde, Madeira, and a Savage Isles. A Teide volcano on Tenerife is the greatest mountaaround in Spain, and a third big volcano olympic games. Based on data from a position of the islands by having respect to the trade winds, the climate may be modest & not dry or even super dry. Many native mintage come conserved, rather a dragon tree Dracaena draco and a Laurisilva forests.

4 of Spain's Long dozen national parks come in the Canary Islands, to a higher degree any more autonomous community:

Parque Nacional de la Caldera de Taburiente on La Palma, Parque Nacional Garajonay on La Gomera, Parque Nacional del Teide on Tenerife, Parque Nacional Timanfaya on Lanzarote.

Political geography
A Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands consists of 2 provinces, Las Palmas and Santa Cruz de Tenerife, whose capitals (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Santa Cruz de Tenerife) are co-upper case of the autonomous community. Both of the sevener major islands is ruled by an assembly known as cabildo insular.

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Economy
A economy is according to tourism 32% of GDP construction near 20% & tropical agriculture (banana, tobacco) for exportation to Europe and a Americas. It receive astir 10 million tourer by the season. Ecologists come caring that a resources, especially in the drier islands, come existence overexploited.

Their economy size is (measured when Gross Domestic Product 2001 figures) 25 billion euro. Both days a size of Costa Rica and one-third a size of Venezuela. Remarkable, taken into account their people & surface. Canary Island is likewise one of a virtually all mighty economies of central atlantic area, including a zone known as "macaronesian" (world health organization include Cape Verde, Madeira, Azores & Canary Islands). the islands had continued incubation when you took around Twenty years around the row (go Twenty until 2001), at a rate of 5% annualy around, fueled in the main due to brobdingnagian numbers of Foreign Direct Investment mostly to develop touristry very state (hotels & flat) & European Funds (touching 1One billion euro around 2000-2007 time) since a Canary Islands is labelled Area Objective 1 (ellegible to euro structural funds).

A combination of high mountains, belonging to Europe, & fresh sky has processed a Roque de los Muchachos (in Lthe Palma island) peak a leading placement for telescopes like the Grantecan.

A islands come outside European Union customs territory, though politically within a EU. A ISO 3166-1 α-2 code IC is reserved for representing them around customs affairs. Goods subject to Spanish customs & excise tax duties & VAT, such as tobacco or electronic goods, are so significantly inexpensive in the Canaries. A islands don't have a separate Internet country code from the rest of Spain. A currency is the euro.

Canarian instance is WET, one hour to a lesser degree that of mainland Spain and the equivalent when that of London.