Survival of the gaunche kingdoms

The age of European colonization arguably began before the discovery and conquest of the Americas but with the conquest of the Canary Islands. The Guanches a somewhat mysterious people fought European lords and the Spanish crown off and on for nearly a 100 years before they were subdued about the same time the conquest of the new world was picking up.

hhttps://www.google.com/amp/s/mathildasanthropologyblog.wordpress.com/2008/03/10/the-guanches-of-the-canary-islands/amp/

ttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conquest_of_the_Canary_Islands

These peoples were eventually subdued by Spain and lost to history.

How can we have the Guanches survive?
 
The age of European colonization arguably began before the discovery and conquest of the Americas but with the conquest of the Canary Islands. The Guanches a somewhat mysterious people fought European lords and the Spanish crown off and on for nearly a 100 years before they were subdued about the same time the conquest of the new world was picking up.

hhttps://www.google.com/amp/s/mathildasanthropologyblog.wordpress.com/2008/03/10/the-guanches-of-the-canary-islands/amp/

ttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conquest_of_the_Canary_Islands

These peoples were eventually subdued by Spain and lost to history.

How can we have the Guanches survive?
There is no way in my mind for them to survive as a completely distinct people or nation.

Especially given the fact that they have no history of metallurgy and were basically seen as savages.
 
The age of European colonization arguably began before the discovery and conquest of the Americas but with the conquest of the Canary Islands. The Guanches a somewhat mysterious people fought European lords and the Spanish crown off and on for nearly a 100 years before they were subdued about the same time the conquest of the new world was picking up.

hhttps://www.google.com/amp/s/mathildasanthropologyblog.wordpress.com/2008/03/10/the-guanches-of-the-canary-islands/amp/

ttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conquest_of_the_Canary_Islands

These peoples were eventually subdued by Spain and lost to history.

How can we have the Guanches survive?

If they can manage a sustained contact with they mainland since a period long before the Age of Exploration (Phoenicians, Mauretanians, Romans and Andalusians are all known to have had intermittent contact IOTL, but it was pretty marginal) the tech and culture exchange might be enough for them to retain a chance at integrating into a wider "civilizational system" (either Islam or Christianity) on more equal terms (think the Baltic peoples or the Maldivians) without complete destruction. Their culture would be deeply changed but they may keep their language and some traditions, perhaps even their own script (they appear to have had one, though this is, AFAIK, controversial). This assumes sustained naval activity in the Eastern Atlantic though, which in turn might easily cause mich bigger changes. They have very little chance of survival with a late POD.
 
I think their survival is verging on ASB territory but if there was somehow a competing interest from another established power then maybe that may confuse the situation or put the conquistadors off their stride.

There are legends regarding some islanders worshipping an image of Mary that had washed up on the shore, miraculously crying tears of blood before the military incursions had even begun. My point is that if missionaries had already converted the island to Catholicism then invasion wouldn't have had the excuse of subjugating and converting heathens to the true faith.
 
If they can manage a sustained contact with they mainland since a period long before the Age of Exploration (Phoenicians, Mauretanians, Romans and Andalusians are all known to have had intermittent contact IOTL, but it was pretty marginal) the tech and culture exchange might be enough for them to retain a chance at integrating into a wider "civilizational system" (either Islam or Christianity) on more equal terms (think the Baltic peoples or the Maldivians) without complete destruction. Their culture would be deeply changed but they may keep their language and some traditions, perhaps even their own script (they appear to have had one, though this is, AFAIK, controversial). This assumes sustained naval activity in the Eastern Atlantic though, which in turn might easily cause mich bigger changes. They have very little chance of survival with a late POD.

Yeah, that's my idea for how this might work (I made a thread the other week about the Guanche being Christianised). I think what you need is the Roman Empire going after Mauretania in the second century (although in theory, I think the Romans could do it as late as the early 4th century). By Mauretania, I mean the substantial part of modern Morocco that remained unconquered. Maybe pull one of the four British legions and use it to conquer the place, or Trajan goes for Mauretania instead of Dacia--the strategic value is apparent in that it extends the Roman frontier in Africa to the Sahara as well as protects the important frontier city of Volubilis. In any case, I think Mauretania solidly under Roman control would likely increase Roman interaction and trade with the Canaries. They probably wouldn't be conquered, for the same reason Ireland wasn't. I think you'd see a major change in the society of the Canarians before long after the Roman conquest of Mauretania, and they'd develop a more complex civilisation. If the Christianisation of Rome isn't butterflied, then it's probable a St. Patrick type figure would evangelise the islands.

They'd still be disunited and there would likely never be a united Canarian polity barring a "great man of history" stepping in, but the islands would be much more important on the global stage. Even if they're conquered by outside powers (a post-Roman state in Iberia or North Africa, etc., which is likely), then a lot of Guanche culture and their language would survive, and at worst I think it would end up like Irish in modern Ireland versus English, with most modern Canarians TTL speaking a Romance language but in rural/remote parts some speaking an ancestral Canarian language. Modern Canarians would identify with many parts of Guanche culture, even if they barely speak the language.
 
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