S5E210 - The Canary Islands and the Birth of Conquest

Before Hernán Cortés set foot in Mexico, the playbook for conquest was written on a small archipelago off the coast of Africa. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the brutal and formative Spanish conquest of the Canary Islands, from the 1402 expedition of Jean de Béthencourt to the decisive wars against the Guanches in Tenerife and Gran Canaria. They uncover how the encomienda system, forced labor, and policies of cultural erasure were first tested on these islands, and how figures like Alonso Fernández de Lugo and Queen Isabella shaped the strategies that would later be unle...