"In the 15th century the conquest and subsequent colonisation of La Gomera by the Spanish established a lordship regime on the island in the person of Hernán Peraza the Elder, who was the first in a series of twelve lords to rule the insular territory. The despotic rule and enslavement policy of his successor Hernán Peraza el Mozo faced tenacious resistance by the natives, leading even to his death by the hands of an aboriginal warrior HAUTACUPERCHE in the year 1488.
Following this event there was ruthless repression carried out by the ruler of Gran Canaria, Pedro de Vera, who executed many Gomerans or sold them as slaves, introducing a proper feudal regime on La Gomera..
The importance of La Gomera in navigation was based on its status as one of the main ports of call for Atlantic shipping, as was shown by Christopher Columbus himself in 1492 on his voyage to discover America..
..at the beginning of the 19th century with the elimination of the feudal lordship, and the landowners sold their property to private citizens representing the agricultural middle class..this process yet did not solve the penury of the Gomeran farmer, who continued to work as an underprivileged sharecropper for the landowners.
This condition led many of them to choose emigration as the only way out of the harshest way of life and working.. The scarce population left on the island continued farming traditional crops like potatoes, maize, vegetables, etc. .. soon after in the second half of the century the crisis of domestic agriculture resulted in a mass emigration to Venezuela and Tenerife, leaving La Gomera with only 15,000 inhabitants.
Since 1970s the unexpected boom of tourism and construction industry, aided by the creation of a regular ferry link between San Sebastián and Los Cristianos in 1974, has consolidated the growth of southern tourist resorts like Playa Santiago and Valle Gran Rey, leaving rest of La Gomera in a state of indeterminacy and agricultural decadence."
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Website: http://www.autolarueda.com/dnn/en/Gomera/Historic/tabid/147/Default.aspx
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on Feb 19, 2008
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