Read the film · Part 4 · 12:30
Across the islands, conquest reshapes land, water and work. Grants, council records, sugar mills, ships and sixty-five goats bring the new order down to the scale of a household.
The onscreen text is reproduced below. Select a timestamp to open that scene in the film.
1501–1550 · The Canary Islands
By 1501, Castilian rule covered the archipelago. Resistance continued. Water, land and labor became instruments of power—and family records show how people lived inside that new order.
Picture: El Hierro · modern landscape · neighboring-island context
Maps: Geographic orientation · S7: Conquest and colonization
Before European conquest
The islands shared North African origins, but their communities developed distinct customs and political arrangements. The ocean separated societies as well as connecting the archipelago to the wider world.
Picture: Modern explanatory map · geographic orientation
S7: Historia, prehistoria paragraph on distinct island identities
Before conquest
Tenerife contained nine menceyatos. A menceyato was a political territory led by a mencey: a ruler with authority over its community. These territories help us read the records that follow.
Picture: Modern explanatory map · geographic orientation
S1: S1 opening and archive discussion; S2 PDF11, Tenerife · S2: S1 opening and archive discussion; S2 PDF11, Tenerife
Tenerife · Taoro, Icod and Adeje
Taoro and Icod lie in the north; Adeje lies in the southwest. These old territorial names survived inside new land records, even after the menceyes lost their independent political authority.
Picture: Modern explanatory map · geographic orientation
S1: S1 paragraphs beginning En cualquier caso and Sin ir más lejos · Maps: S1 paragraphs beginning En cualquier caso and Sin ir más lejos
Gran Canaria · before conquest
Gran Canaria’s political centers were Gáldar and Telde, each associated with a guanarteme, its ruler. This is the island from which Juan came, and the setting of Luisa’s earlier story.
Picture: Modern explanatory map · geographic orientation
S2: S2 PDF11, Gran Canaria; established family sequence · SeriesPlan: S2 PDF11, Gran Canaria; established family sequence
La Palma and La Gomera · before conquest
La Palma is described in twelve territories. La Gomera had four principal bandos, or territorial groups. Tenerife’s nine-part arrangement was one island’s political geography, not a template for every neighbor.
Picture: La Gomera · Valle Gran Rey · modern landscape · 2019
S2: PDF11, La Palma and La Gomera
Before conquest
Fuerteventura had two principal divisions. Lanzarote was under Guadarfía when the Normans arrived. El Hierro is described as a single political territory. Each island entered the conquest era with its own arrangements.
Picture: Lanzarote · Famara · modern landscape
S2: PDF11, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote and El Hierro
La Gomera · 1488
On La Gomera, a rebellion killed the island’s lord, Hernán Peraza. The suppression that followed brought killings and enslavement. Establishing Castilian rule had not ended resistance or the use of force.
Picture: Torre del Conde · La Gomera · modern photograph of the historic fortress
S3: PDF9, Incorporación de La Gomera and Torre del Conde
Taoro · 22 January 1501
Pedro Delgado and Juan Dana, both from Gran Canaria, appear together in a grant of water and land.
Picture: Published source excerpts · Los Ara
S4: Printed p19 / PDF18, opening dated quotation
Taoro · 1501
A spring and seven fanegas of adjoining sowing land. Both men are named as recipients.
Picture: Published source excerpts · Los Ara
S4: Printed p19 / PDF18, opening quotation, spring and seven fanegas
Tenerife · land distribution
A data records a grant of land. Under royal authority, Alonso Fernández de Lugo distributed land and water after conquest. Putting names in these documents helped establish the new order of property.
Picture: Published source excerpts · Los Ara
S3: PDF16, Datas de Repartimiento and opening colonization paragraph; PDF24 glossary
Seven fanegas
Here, fanega measures land through sowing: the ground that a quantity of grain could seed. Such measures varied by place. The record gives seven fanegas; it does not give us a modern surveyed area.
Picture: Cultivated terraces · La Gomera today · regional land-use context
S5: Dictionary entries fanega de sembradura and fanega de tierra
Taoro · 1501
The spring seeps from a rock above the auchón of the Great King: old landmarks inside a new grant.
Picture: Los Realejos · modern coastal landscape · the named spring remains unlocated
S4: Printed p19 / PDF18, opening quotation
Icod · 18 September 1501
Another grant calls Juan the stepson of Rodrigo el Coxo. Land records also preserve household relationships.
Picture: Published source excerpts · Los Ara
S4: Printed p18 / PDF17, final quotation, folio20 reference
Tenerife · 25 November 1502
The island council discusses capturing Guanche alzados: people remaining outside its control. The proceeding points toward Adeje, in Tenerife’s southwest.
Picture: Published council proceedings · 25 November 1502 · p.51
S6: Printed p51 / PDF84, entries286–288
The council’s language · 1502
Officials accuse the alzados of robbery. That is the governing authority’s account of the conflict; the people being pursued do not speak in this entry.
Picture: Barranco del Infierno · Adeje · modern landscape
S6: Printed p51 / PDF84, entry287 and entry288
25 November 1502
Four Guanche men agree to pursue the holdouts, provided they receive supplies and expenses. They ask for Don Pedro de Adeje, a prisoner who knows the terrain.
Picture: Published council proceedings · entry 288 · p.51
S6: Printed p51 / PDF84, entry288, Ximón, Fernando Tacoronte, Gaspar and Francisco de Tacoronte
25 November 1502
The magistrate agrees to release Don Pedro into their custody, with a guarantee that they return him when required. His knowledge of Adeje matters to the authorities.
Picture: Published council proceedings · entry 291 · p.52
S6: Printed pp51–52 / PDF84–85, entries289–291
Adeje · 1502
The same record contains holdouts, Guanche men working with officials, and a prisoner proposed as a guide. Conquest left people in sharply different positions.
Picture: Barranco del Infierno · Adeje · photographed 2022
S6: Printed pp51–52 / PDF84–85, entries287–291; editorial synthesis
The archipelago · early 1500s
Gran Canaria, Tenerife and La Palma were administered for the Crown. Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, La Gomera and El Hierro remained lordship islands, under hereditary lords. The archipelago did not have one uniform government.
Picture: Modern explanatory map · geographic orientation
S7: Historia, conquest/colonization section, realengo/señorío paragraph
Cabildos and lords
Island councils—cabildos—and lords exercised authority. Across the archipelago, government was divided among Crown officials, councils and hereditary lords. Decisions about property, obligations and trade followed this unequal political landscape.
Picture: El Hierro · modern landscape · regional context
S7: Historia, paragraph beginning No existía una administración centralizada
Los Picachos · Telde, Gran Canaria
At Los Picachos, water carried above the ground in a channel dropped onto a mill wheel. Surviving pillars and archaeology reveal how moving water supplied power to the sugar works.
Picture: Los Picachos sugar works · Telde, Gran Canaria · remains photographed 2026
S8: Annex Descripción, paragraphs on pilastras, acequia and rueda de molino
The sugar works · sixteenth century
An ingenio was a whole production complex: cane fields, milling equipment, boiling and purging rooms, storage and water tanks. Sugar for sale emerged from connected stages of work, not from the field alone.
Picture: Sugarcane · modern botanical photograph · Hawaii, 2005
S8: Annex Contexto Histórico, paragraphs beginning Hemos de entender and Por ello
The sugar economy
Sugar works employed skilled specialists, wage workers and enslaved people. Mainland Africans were trafficked to the islands for forced labor. The industry’s wealth depended on work performed under radically unequal conditions.
Picture: Los Picachos · detail of surviving structure · modern photograph
S8: Annex Contexto Histórico labor paragraph and Justificación paragraph on tráfico/comercio de personas
Canaries and European markets · early 1500s
Demand came from ports including Seville, Genoa and Antwerp. Sugar cultivation expanded, with specialist workers arriving from Madeira. The crop connected island fields to skills, investment and customers beyond the archipelago.
Picture: Modern explanatory map · markets and Madeira
S3: PDF20, Caña de azúcar paragraph
Land, labor, ships and power
An imperial economy links conquered territory to distant authority and trade. Here, land grants, controlled water, coerced labor and export markets joined together. Ownership and political power shaped who could benefit.
Picture: Jaume Olives · portolan chart · 1550
S7: S7 conquest/colonization and privilege paragraphs; S8 Contexto Histórico and forced-labor paragraph · S8: S7 conquest/colonization and privilege paragraphs; S8 Contexto Histórico and forced-labor paragraph
Portuguese carracks · painting, circa 1540
A contemporary painting shows large merchant carracks: deep hulls beneath tall masts and broad sails. Ocean commerce required vessels able to carry people, stores and cargo over long distances.
Picture: Portuguese Carracks off a Rocky Coast · c.1540 · period shipping context
S9: Museum catalogue, first paragraph and central armed merchant carrack description
A different detail · circa 1540
Look along the central ship’s side: guns fire a salute. Merchant cargo and armament could share the same hull. Ships carried commerce, but also the capacity to use force.
Picture: Gun salute · detail of c.1540 painting · Royal Museums Greenwich
S9: Museum catalogue, central foreground ship and salute paragraphs
Tenerife · 12 September 1540
Pedro Hernández leases Juan Dana sixty-five young goats. The published instrument calls Juan conquistador; its business is livestock.
Picture: Published source excerpts · Los Ara
S4: Printed p20 / PDF19, dated12 September1540 quotation
Canary Islands · pastoral life
Goats were already part of island life before European conquest. Herding supplied food and useful materials. Alongside sugar exports, households still depended on animals, cultivation and local work.
Picture: Goats at Anaga · Tenerife · photographed 2016
S2: S2 PDF14, Ganadería; S3 PDF20, Ganadería y pesca · S3: S2 PDF14, Ganadería; S3 PDF20, Ganadería y pesca
A modern aside
The empire has expanded. Someone still has to count the fucking goats.
Picture: Goat detail · Anaga, Tenerife · editorial aside
Editorial: Original editorial joke, not historical quotation
19 November 1549
The study dates Catalina Sánchez’s testament to this day. She leaves a house plot to her son Juan Perdomo.
Picture: Published source excerpts · Los Ara
S4: Printed p20 / PDF19, paragraph before1540 quotation
13 March 1550
Juan’s will places him in Realejo de Taoro and says Catalina has died. He requests burial at Nuestra Señora de la Concepción.
Picture: Published source excerpts · Los Ara
S4: Printed p20 / PDF19, final paragraph before section3
The next generation
Antonia de Ara appears among their children. The next film follows her own recorded decisions, as the household story continues.
Picture: Published source excerpts · Los Ara
S4: Printed p20 / PDF19, children in Juan’s will; printed p21 / PDF20, Antonia discussion · SeriesPlan: Printed p20 / PDF19, children in Juan’s will; printed p21 / PDF20, Antonia discussion
The Canary Islands: Conquest and Survival · Part Four
A film by E = MC³. Historical sources and image credits accompany this film. Next: Courts, Corsairs and Survival.
Picture: Los Roques · Tenerife · modern coastal footage
Credits: Production credits; soundtrack credit to be supplied by root score manifest
Evidence behind the story
S1
Jesús Duque Arimany / Museos de Tenerife
Opening nine-territory discussion; Paragraphs En cualquier caso and Sin ir más lejos
Full relevant institutional web text read on2026-10-22
S2
Zebensui López Trujillo; reviewed by Antonio Tejera Gaspar and Francisco García Talavera; Gobierno de Canarias digital edition,2020
PDF11, Organización territorial y política; PDF14, Ganadería
Original published PDF downloaded and text extracted; complete PDF11 visually inspected; PDF14 pastoral text inspected
S3
Zebensui López Trujillo; reviewed by Roberto J.González Zacalaín; Gobierno de Canarias digital edition,2020
PDF9, Incorporación de La Gomera; PDF16, Datas de Repartimiento; PDF20, Caña de azúcar and Ganadería y pesca; PDF24 glossary, Data
Original published PDF downloaded and extracted; complete PDF9,16,20 rendered and visually inspected
S4
José Antonio González Marrero
Printed18/PDF17,18September1501 grant; Printed19/PDF18,22January1501 grant; Printed20/PDF19,12September1540 lease; Printed20/PDF19,19November1549 and13March1550 testament summaries; Printed21/PDF20, Antonia follow-on
Held published PDF freshly extracted, printed18–23/PDF17–22; complete printed18–20/PDF17–19 visually reread on2026-10-22
S5
Real Academia Española / Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española
fanega de puño / fanega de sembradura; fanega de tierra
Definition page read on2026-10-22
S6
Elías Serra Ráfols, editor; Instituto de Estudios Canarios,1949; second edition1996
25November1502, entries286–291; Printed51–52; manuscript folios37r–37v as indicated by edition
Published volume downloaded, extracted; complete printed51–52/PDF84–85 rendered and visually read on2026-10-22
S7
Gobierno de Canarias, Portal de Transparencia
Prehistoria, paragraph on distinct cultures; Conquista/colonización, paragraphs on realengo/señorío, cabildos and privilege
Relevant full institutional text read on2026-10-22
S8
Cabildo Insular de Gran Canaria; Boletín Oficial de Canarias045/664,6March2023
Anexo: Contexto Histórico; Anexo: Descripción, pilastras, acequia and wheel position; Anexo: Justificación, forced labor and African trafficking
Published institutional HTML annex read in full relevant sections on2026-10-22; HTML is not the signed official PDF
S9
Royal Museums Greenwich / National Maritime Museum, Caird Collection
Object details: circa1540; Central foreground armed merchant carrack and gun salute paragraphs
Museum catalogue inspected, including date, ship types, salute and debated voyage identification
Maps
Geographic and historical-context graphics resolved by root; each must retain modern/approximate labeling
SeriesPlan
Editorial continuity and next-episode preview, not independent historical proof
Editorial
Modern authored transition or humor; never historical dialogue
Credits
Root resolves final soundtrack and visual credits
Pictures, maps and footage
Historical documents, later illustrations, modern photographs and explanatory maps retain their own dates and source attributions.
Unknown artist
circa 1540date QS:P571,+1540-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902
Public domain
Fujnky
2008-07-11
dronepicr
2019-04-26 19:02
Diego Delso
2022-01-06 18:28:22
Jaume Olives
1550
Public domain
Manolo P
2 February 2012, 13:43:42 (UTC)
Ramón Pérez Niz
2012-04-06 10:31:49
Forest & Kim Starr
2005-03-07
Llez
2024-01-22
Michal Klajban
2016-12-15 02:41:56
José Antonio González Marrero
Records dated 1501,1540,1549,1550
Published study excerpts; underlying manuscripts not pictured
Edition by Elías Serra Ràfols,1949
1502 / published 1949
Historical record transcription excerpts
Original cartography; Natural Earth base
Natural Earth public-domain geographic base
Treyntaarrobas; CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons.
2026
2012-12-13
Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net).
2020-10-12
The soundtrack
LSDREAM - ACTIVATE (Space Wizard Remix). Edited and mixed for the film.
Track & artist ↗Liquid Stranger - Psychonaut (AstroLizard Remix). Edited and mixed for the film.
Track & artist ↗Sara Landry - Legacy (Xtrica Bootleg Remix). Edited and mixed for the film.
Track & artist ↗Lu.Re - It Girl Dub. Edited and mixed for the film.
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