Fortunate Isles Europeanization

Starting in the early fourteenth century, succeeding the rediscovery of the Fortunate Isles, The Europeans would use the many islands to experiment and generate goods for their home countries. The process by which they did this is, is referred to as europeanization. Islands with their own unique flora and fauna were changed by the Europeans to be more like home. They brought their own animals and crops, changed the topography, and enslaved and killed much of the native populations that had lived and thrived on the islands for many centuries. The europeanization of the Fortunate Isles had permanent and unchangeable effects both positive and negative. Many lessons were learned that would be carried over into further expeditions by the Europeans.
Europeans first began to experiment with livestock on the islands in the early 1400’s. Livestock such as sheep, ewes, cows and rams were left on the Azores. On these islands these foreign animals had plenty of food and no predators. Even though these animals were completely foreign to these islands, the conditions were very suitable for the new European livestock. These conditions combined sometimes led to a population reproducing so quickly that they would completely take over the ecosystem. The rabbits of Porto Santo are a perfect example of a newly introduced animal becoming a problem. In the 1420’s Bartholomeu Perestrello left a single female rabbit and her offspring in Porto Santo (75). They were able to reproduce so fast that even with attempts to destroy the rabbits, they were still able to take over the island, so that not a single crop could be sowed. Porto Santo was not the only time that Europeans would set off a population explosion of a newly introduced animal. This mistake was made again with burros in Fuerteventura, rabbits in Australia, and Rats in North America (75). Many of the islands were also used to grow crops. Fertile volcanic soil combined with rainfall made the islands perfect for the Europeans to grow crops that would make them wealthy. Sugarcane and wheat were very popular choices to grow. Europeans soon realized that there was much money to be made with crops on the islands. They sought to maximize the amount they could produce in any way possible, including changing the physical landscape of the islands.
Madeira was a popular island where the Europeans grew crops, however before the island was producing 140 thousand arrobas of sugar annually it was covered in trees.
In order to make room for their livestock and crops they set fire to the island. It was said that the island was in flames for seven years (76). The entire ecosystem of the island was changed so that the europeans could increase their wealth. There was no regard for indigenous species, if it did not lead to more money for the settlers. The entire landscape was also carved and shaped to make conduits for rainwater to travel to the crops. These conduits and tunnels, called Levadas, cover the entire island. Madeira is only 60 km long but it is estimated that there is around 700 km of levadas that cover the island (78). Many of the island's natural ecosystems that had existed for millions of years were being destroyed by the europeans in a matter of decades, yet there was no sign of stopping if it meant that it could make them
rich.
In their quest to get rich even human lives were not put before the dollar.
The fortunate isles were filled with people that migrated from western africa and had lived their for hundreds of years. The native people of the islands known as Guanches were mostly in the way of the Europeans. They were either killed to conquer the islands or used as slaves to work for the settlers. The Guanches were strong warriors and with their knowledge of the land could put up a good fight to resist the Europeans. In the end however, the Europeans were much too advanced for the natives, the primitive weapons of the Guanches stood no chance against the guns and steel weapons used by the Europeans. The battle between the Europeans and Guanches quickly came to an end when the Europeans diseases started to spread among the natives, because they were hidden from the mainland for so long they had never encountered and therefore did not have the immune systems to fight against the many new diseases being brought over (92). The Guanche people were soon brought to extinction by what was called “la peste”, which was guessed by scholars to probably have been typhus or dysentery.
The europeanization of the fortunate isles was the starting point of european colonization.
By the end of the 15th century the europeans had almost completely taken over the islands and made them like home, they were growing their own crops and raising livestock they brought with them. Their expeditions taught them that there was
much money to be made as their crops and livestock could thrive in foreign lands. They also saw how disease and advanced weapons could easily wipe out indigenous populations. The Europeans would go on to take these lesson learned and move to areas across the globe and continue their trend of colonization and europeanization.