1918-1939 History of Northern Africa Canary Islands, since 1975





Canary Islands, 1939-1975



During World War II, Spain remained neutral and the Canary Islands Spanish. In 1940 Spain began construction of a large military base at Las Palmas, which was viewed by U.S. President Roosevelt as a potential "German springboard" for "aggression upon the Western Hemisphere" (NIYB 1941). In 1942 the Allies decided to treat Spain as a neutral nation.
In 1941 the Canary Islands fish & fish product export to the Spanish mainland doubled (as compared to that of 1940 (NIYB 1942), further rising in 1942, reflecting the worsening food supply situation in the European continent. The islands' chief crop was coffee, followed by maize, millet, sugar cane, manioc, fruits, vegetables, tobacco, cotton, indigo and castor oil (NIYB 1944). After World War II, Falangist Spain under Generalissimus Franco was an international outcast, a situation which had an adverse effect on the Canary Islands' economy.
From the 1960es onward, the economy was liberalized and banana exports increased. The tourism industry also took off, becoming the islands' prime source of revenue.



EXTERNAL
FILES 		History of La Palma, from ing.iac.es
The Canary Islands, from Infoplease
Historia Canarias, in Spanish
DOCUMENTS
REFERENCE Article : Canary Islands, in : Americana Annual 1940 p.107, 1943 p.123, 1944 p.127, 1945 pp.134-135, 1946 p.147, 1947 p.120, 1957 p.134 [G]
Article : Canary Islands, in : New International Year Book Events of 1940 p.113, 1941 p.102, 1942 p.115, 1943 p.102, 1944 p.104 [G]



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted on May 22nd 2001, last evised on April 3rd 2007

Click here to go Home
Click here to go to Information about KMLA, WHKMLA, the author and webmaster
Click here to go to Statistics