Read the film · Part 3 · 10:00

Tenerife Fights Back

A failed invasion in 1494, a renewed campaign and the end of independent rule in 1496. Tenerife’s terrain, rulers and resistance lead into Juan Dara’s later appearance in the record.

The story, scene by scene.

The onscreen text is reproduced below. Select a timestamp to open that scene in the film.

0:00 ↗

Tenerife · 1494

The invasion fails

In 1494, Tenerife defeated the invading army.

Picture: Costa El Sauzal · Tenerife · modern coastal footage

S1: First Acentejo defeat and withdrawal

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First Acentejo · 1494

A victory that stopped an invasion

At the first battle of Acentejo, Guanche defenders—the Indigenous people of Tenerife—defeated Alonso Fernández de Lugo’s force. The invaders withdrew. A victory had stopped the campaign. It had not ended the struggle for Tenerife.

Picture: Acentejo commemorative mural · photographed 2007

S1: Opening campaign outcome

0:30 ↗

A later document · 1540

A name waiting in the record

Before this story ends, a later record will bring Juan Dara into view. An ordinary lease preserves a striking description of him, decades after the conquest.

Picture: Juan Dana · published study of a later record

S9: Printed p.20 / PDF p.19, author discussion and 1540 instrument

0:46 ↗

Gran Canaria · La Palma · Tenerife

From one island to the next

Gran Canaria fell in 1483. Lugo conquered La Palma in 1492–1493. Tenerife’s campaign began in 1494. Each island had its own people, political history and response to conquest.

Picture: Modern explanatory map · the last three royal conquests

S2: PDF pp.13–14, La Palma and Tenerife chronology; preceding Gran Canaria sequence

1:10 ↗

Tenerife · Before and during 1494

Nine territories, several responses

Tenerife was divided into nine menceyatos: territories governed by rulers called menceyes. Their responses to invasion differed. An agreement with one ruler did not mean the whole island had submitted.

Picture: Bone needle · Guanche museum collection · photographed 2013

S8: Nine territorial units and the limits of reconstructed political geography · S2: PDF p.14, different responses to conquest

1:32 ↗

Taoro · Northern Tenerife

Bencomo of Taoro

Bencomo, mencey of Taoro in northern Tenerife, became a principal resistance figure. He defended his territory’s authority; he did not rule every community on the island.

Picture: Site known as Cueva de Bencomo · modern view, 2018

S2: PDF p.14, Bencomo and resistance · S8: Taoro and the territorial framework

1:54 ↗

Añazo · Aguere · Acentejo

Coast, plain, northern slopes

Añazo lies on the coast near modern Santa Cruz. Aguere is the upland plain at La Laguna. Beyond it, the northern slopes lead toward Acentejo and the valleys associated with Taoro.

Picture: Modern relief · approximate historical place associations

Maps: Map-Places.json and Map-Notes.txt; modern geographical associations

2:24 ↗

The first campaign · 1494

First Acentejo

The first invasion reached the Acentejo region, on Tenerife’s broken northern slopes. Here the defenders forced Lugo’s army to withdraw. The terrain helps explain how an invading force could lose its advantage.

Picture: First Acentejo · 1494 · modern explanatory relief

S4: Official Acentejo heritage description and historiographic battle context

2:56 ↗

Acentejo ravine · Modern view

The ground limits the army

Steep sides and broken ground restrict movement. At Acentejo, the defenders’ knowledge of the landscape mattered. The ground could reduce the invaders’ advantages before their weapons ever settled the outcome.

Picture: Acentejo ravine · modern photograph, 2019

S4: Ravine physical description and traditional tactical interpretation

3:18 ↗

After the first defeat

The resources behind the invasion

Lugo’s expedition had been defeated. Wider resources remained available. He could seek fresh backing and men, turning a failed invasion into another attempt on Tenerife.

Picture: Lugo · idealized image by Isidoro Salcedo, 1868

S3: Printed pp.191–193, rebuilding after defeat

3:36 ↗

Money and external support

Backing makes a return possible

The duke of Medina Sidonia supplied forces for the renewed campaign. Outside support gave Lugo another chance to rebuild after the defeat on Tenerife.

Picture: Campaign support · explanatory diagram after Gambín García

S3: Printed pp.191–192, ducal assistance

3:56 ↗

A renewed invasion force

Backing becomes reinforcements

The duke’s assistance became usable military strength. Fresh troops could replace some of what the first expedition had lost and sustain another attempt on Tenerife.

Picture: Backing → reinforcements · explanatory diagram

S3: Printed pp.192–194, assistance and reinforcements

4:20 ↗

The renewed campaign · 1495

A foothold for the next advance

Lugo rebuilt fortified positions and renewed agreements with allied communities. The returning army consolidated its foothold, giving fresh support a base for the next advance.

Picture: Backing → reinforcements → foothold

S3: Printed p.193, fortification and renewed pacts

4:42 ↗

Gran Canaria and Tenerife

Guanarteme crosses into this story

Fernando Guanarteme, the former ruler of Gáldar introduced in Part Two, participated alongside Lugo in Tenerife. Indigenous islanders took different sides. The war cannot be understood through a single division between two peoples.

Picture: Gran Canaria and Tenerife · modern geographic context

S6: Official report of Guanarteme’s Tenerife participation

5:04 ↗

An epidemic remembered as modorra

A crisis beyond the battlefield

The conquest accounts also remember an epidemic called modorra. Sickness weakened Guanche communities during the campaigns. Its pressure extended beyond fighting, into the households and work that sustained resistance.

Picture: La Victoria highlands · modern view, 2017

S5: Specialist museum interpretation of later epidemic accounts

5:26 ↗

Food · care · resistance

Illness reaches the work of living

When illness took workers and caregivers out of daily life, food production and care suffered together. Hunger could deepen the crisis. Resistance depended on people being able to sustain themselves.

Picture: Leather bag · Guanche museum collection · photographed 2013

S5: Consequences for labor, care, food and vulnerability

5:46 ↗

La Laguna plain · 1495

Open ground at Aguere

Aguere’s open plain gave mounted forces more room. The renewed army could use advantages that broken ravine country had restricted during the first campaign.

Picture: La Laguna plain · modern panorama, 2015

S3: Printed p.194, Aguere and scope for mounted forces

6:14 ↗

Aguere · 1495

Bencomo’s death

Historical accounts place Bencomo’s death at Aguere. The resistance lost the ruler of Taoro. This was a distinct battle on the plain, before the later Castilian victory at Acentejo.

Picture: Aguere · 1495 · modern explanatory relief

S2: PDF p.14, Aguere and Bencomo’s death

6:36 ↗

The second battle · 1495

Acentejo again

The campaign returned to the Acentejo region. This time the Castilian force won. Keep the two encounters separate: the first invasion failed in 1494; the later campaign gained ground in 1495.

Picture: Second Acentejo · 1495 · modern explanatory relief

S1: Aguere followed by La Victoria de Acentejo in the renewed campaign

7:08 ↗

1494 → 1495

The same island, a changed campaign

The first campaign ended in withdrawal. The later one passed through Aguere and a second Acentejo victory toward the north. The defenders’ first success had not decided the whole war.

Picture: 1494 and 1495 · matched modern relief

S1: Campaign sequence and advance after renewed battles

7:30 ↗

Tenerife · 1496

1496: independent rule ends

By 1496, the conquest had ended Tenerife’s independent political rule. The menceyatos no longer governed as independent authorities. Their names remained part of an island whose people now faced a different political order.

Picture: Taoro and the northern valleys · modern explanatory relief

S1: Year-level conquest endpoint · S8: Independent institutions end while territorial terminology continues

7:48 ↗

The society after conquest

Power over people’s lives

The new society included surviving Indigenous islanders, European settlers and enslaved people. Conquest changed who held power over labor and movement. The end of fighting left people living with its consequences.

Picture: San Pedro coast, Los Realejos · modern view, 2012

S7: Population composition, Indigenous survival and enslavement

8:06 ↗

Control after the conquest

The next contest: land and water

Land and water were redistributed under the new authorities. For surviving islanders and incoming settlers, access to resources would shape the society taking form after conquest.

Picture: Santa Cruz coastal panorama · modern view, 2012

S2: PDF p.17, redistribution of land and water

8:24 ↗

12 September 1540

Forty-four years later

Forty-four years after the conquest, a lease dated 12 September 1540 brings us to Juan. The campaign has ended; the written record now follows an ordinary transaction.

Picture: 12 September 1540 · published transcription

S9: Printed p.20 / PDF p.19, date of the instrument

8:42 ↗

Juan Dana · Juan Dara in our research

A name, and a designation

The transcription names Juan Dana; the study discusses him as Juan Dara. Beside his name stands conquistador—a participant in the conquest. The designation survives inside an everyday legal transaction.

Picture: Juan Dana, conquistador · published transcription

S9: Printed p.20 / PDF p.19, quoted designation

9:04 ↗

An agreement about a living

Sixty-five young goats

The transaction concerns sixty-five young goats. Pedro Hernández leases them to Juan. After armies, rulers and battles, the record brings us back to practical business: animals, agreements and a living.

Picture: Sixty-five young goats · published transcription

S9: Printed p.20 / PDF p.19, Pedro Hernández lease and cabrillas

9:26 ↗

Part Four · Back to 1501

Next: Water Is Power

The next part returns to 1501, closer to the conquest, to follow the land-and-water grants. The story turns from the armies that took Tenerife to the people building lives afterward.

Picture: Santa Cruz harbor chart · published 1875

SeriesPlan: Established Part Four plan: 1501 land-and-water grants

9:46 ↗

The Canary Islands: Conquest and Survival · Part Three