History

The first settlers are believed to have arrived here from North Africa - the word Mahorero (Majorero) or Maho is still used today to describe the people of Fuerteventura and comes from the ancient word 'mahos' meaning a type of goatskin shoe worn by the original inhabitants. They lived in caves and semi-subterranean dwellings, a few of which have been discovered and excavated revealing relics of early tools and pottery. In antiquity, the island was known as Planaria, among other names, in reference to the flatness of most of its landscape.

In the 11th century BC, the Phoenician settlers arrived in Fuerteventura and Lanzarote. In 850 BC, the island was mentioned by Homer in the Odyssey, the Canary Islands as Insulae Fortunatae. Several Spanish and Portuguese expeditions occurred in about 1340 around the island and the island were inhabited by Maurs and were afflicted with European slave holders. In 1405, the French conqueror Jean de Bethencourt took the island and gave his name to the former capital, Betancuria, on the west coast (Puerto Rosario took over the mantle as island capital in 1835). The name of the island itself is believed to have come from Bethencourt's exclamation "Que forte aventure!" ("What a grand adventure"). A less romantic explanation is that the name simply means "strong wind". In 1852, the free trade zone was extended by Isabella II to the Canary Islands. The military rule over the island which began from 1708 dissolved in 1859 and Puerto de Cabras (now Puerto del Rosario) became entirely the new capital.

The Canary Islands obtained the right to self-govern in 1912. In 1927, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote became part of the province of Gran Canaria. By the 1940s the island had an airport (just west of Puerto del Rosario on the road to Tindaya, still visible today). The first tourist hotel was built in 1965 followed by the construction of Fuerteventura Airport at El Mattoral, heralding the dawn of a new era for the island. Fuerteventura, with its 3,000 sunshine hours a year, was placed firmly on the world stage as a major European holiday destination. The summer trade winds and winter swells of the Atlantic make this island a year-round surfers' paradise. Sailors, scuba divers and big game fishermen are all drawn to these clear blue Atlantic waters where whales, dolphins, marlin and turtles are all common sights. Much of the interior, with its large plains, lavascapes and volcanic mountains, consists of protected areas which can be best be explored in a 4x4 or (for the more daring) with a cross-country motorbike.