Trade and pirates

In the sixteenth century the island enjoyed the privilege of trade with America, ranking third after Seville and Antwerp.  Santa Cruz de La Palma quickly became one of the most important ports in the Spanish Empire.  This new source of wealth in turn attracted the pirates who attacked the island to seize the treasures brought from the Indies.

Francois Leclerc and his group of French pirates seized the city in 1553.  They stole everything that was transportable and burned everything that could not possibly be carried.  After that disaster, La Palma had to rebuild the homes, churches and convents of the city as well as create a strong defense.  With these new defenses they repelled the attack by Francis Drake in 1585, who was unable to land.

Trade with America also generated a series of other activities such as shipyards.  Santa Cruz de la Palma has attracted many foreign traders such as Flemish, French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese, giving the town an international air.  The streets with foreign names are still witnesses of that era, such as Street O’Daly (Irish) or Street Vandalism (Flemish).

The decline began in the mid-seventeenth century due to a grant of 1657 that required all ships bound for America to be registered in Tenerife.  In 1778 Charles III opened all the ports of Spain to trade with America.  This prevented the recovery of Santa Cruz de La Palma from the economic crisis in which it was engaged at the time.

Silk, cochineal and bananas
Without the threat of pirates, life on the island continued its quiet way. La Palma grew stronger with each economic crisis it suffered.  Though the island did not possess mineral wealth, La Palma capitalized on the fertility of its land.  After the cultivation of sugar cane and grapes, La Palma started producing honey, silk and snuff.  Since the beginning of the sixteenth century, it began planting mulberry trees and the island became a focus of silk production.

In 1830, Mexicans introduced the cultivation of cochineal, a parasite of Las Tunas that was extracted from carmine.  With the development of synthetic dyes in 1880, the cultivation of cochineal was no longer profitable.  Out of this crisis came banana cultivation, introduced by the two British companies Elder and Fyffes, in 1878.

Poverty
Meanwhile, the common people hardly benefited at all from the wealth that was produced on the island.  Even in the nineteenth century, most of the inhabitants lived in wooden houses with thatched roofs, due to the high costs involved in building stone houses.  A major problem was lack of consumer goods.

Due to the monoculture practiced on the island, there was a shortage of available land on which to grow grain to feed the people. As of the sixteenth century, La Palma had to import grain, and paid very high prices.

The Inquisition issued an anathema on the whole island for several years causing them to not practice any Christian burial.  Poverty in the countryside was so great that many families were malnourished, and the men and women were poorly dressed.  The missionary Juan de Medinilla described these conditions in 1758 in a letter to the bishop, in which he stated that due to lack of clothesc the parishioners should go to Mass in shifts on Sundays and holidays.

Red Week
When the military uprising of 1936 resulted in the Spanish Civil War, the island of La Palma was resistant to the shock and kept the republican legality until July 25, when the gunboat Canalejas came to the city of Santa Cruz de La Palma.  This time period is known as the Red Week.

During the failed military coup on the island a telegraph message from the coup to the military commander Baltasar Gomez Navarro, who was directing the coup in La Palma, was intercepted.  At that time the government delegate Tomas Yanes Rodriguez of the Republican Left was on the island.

When the news hit the Popular Front there was a general strike and popular militias were formed, but the government delegation did not authorize the seizure of military barracks.  When the gunboat Canalejas arrived the Government decided not to offer any resistance and ordered the demobilization of armed militias, being confidendent that the Government would send reinforcements.  The coup failed and legality was restored throughout the State.
It was during this time that the Communist Jose Miguel Perez is highlighted, and in some municipalities such as Tazacorte communist organizations were very important.