The monarchs prepare two new expeditions from the port of Sanlúcar de Barrameda at the beginning of 1478, , one directed towards Elmina and the other, consisting of at least thirty-five ships, with the aim of conquering the island of Gran Canaria.

Prince John of Portugal, aware of the Castilian plans, prepared an armada to surprise his enemies in the Canary Islands.

The Castilian fleet at Gran Canaria is still disembarking its troops when news arrives that a Portuguese squadron is approaching.

The Castilian fleet immediately sets sail, leaving three hundred Castilian soldiers behind.

These troops manage to prevent a Portuguese disembarkation.

The detachment is insufficient to conquer the island and is left inactive until Castilian reinforcements arrive on the island the next year.

The conquest of the Canary Islands has so far been the province of the Castilian nobility in exchange for a covenant of allegiance with the crown.

Isabel and Fernando had in 1476 ordered an investigation into rights of conquest in the Canary Islands, and in the spring of 1478 they send Juan Rejon with sixty soldiers and thirty cavalry to the Grand Canary, where the natives retreat inland.

Earlier threats by Pope Sixtus IV to excommunicate all captains or pirates who enslaved Christians in the bull Regimini Gregis of 1476 could have been intended to emphasize the need to convert the natives of the Canary Islands and Guinea and establish a clear difference in status between those who have converted and those who resist.

The ecclesiastical penalties were directed towards those who were enslaving the recent converts.

This opens a new phase of conquest, in which the Catholic Monarchs command and arm the invading forces.

he funding for the enterprise becomes the responsibility of the Crown and individuals interested in the economic exploitation of the island's resources.

The islands involved, Gran Canaria, La Palma and Tenerife, have larger populations and offered the best economic rewards.

The Guanches of the three islands, but particularly those of Gran Canaria and Tenerife, offer a clear and prolonged resistance to the conquest.

Spaniards from Castile had established Las Palmas de Gran Canaria on Grand Canary Island, the largest of the seven tropical volcanic islands that make up the group.

Maciot de Béthencourt, a descendant of French explorer Jean de Béthencourt, who had received the title King of the Canary Islands from his liege lord, Henry III of Castile, had sold the lordship of Lanzarote to Portugal's Prince Henry the Navigator in 1448, an action that had not been accepted by the natives nor by the Castilians.

Despite Pope Nicholas V ruling that the Canary Islands were under Portuguese control, a crisis swelled to a revolt which lasted until 1459 with the final expulsion of the Portuguese.

The treaty of Alcáçovas negotiated in 1479 settles disputes between Castile and Portugal over the control of the Atlantic, in which Castilian control of the Canary Islands is recognized but which also confirms Portuguese possession of the Azores, Madeira, the Cape Verde islands and gives them rights to lands discovered and to be discovered...and any other island which might be found and conquered from the Canary islands beyond toward Guinea.

The lack of men and materials and internal disputes between the invaders of the Canary Islands has done little to quell the aboriginal resistance in the mountainous interior.

Juan Rejón is dismissed on the orders of the Catholic Monarchs and his place taken by Pedro Fernández de Algaba, who is subsequently executed by order of the deposed Rejón.

The naming of Pedro de Vera as the new governor of the island and the arrest of Juan Rejón puts an end to the infighting in 1481.

A large contingent of reinforcements had been sent from Gomero to Gran Canaria by Diego García de Herrera.

The Guanche leader Doramas was subsequently killed in the Battle of Arucas.

The capture of Tenesor Semidán, king of Gáldar, by Alonso Fernández de Lugo was a decisive factor in the victory of the invaders.

Tenesor Semidán was sent to Castile where he was baptized with the name Fernando Guanarteme and after signing the Calatayud Pact with Fernando the Catholic he became a loyal and valuable ally of the Castilians.

His actions have been interpreted in a number of ways throughout history: some think he was a traitor to the aboriginal cause; while others feel he was an able negotiator who saved many lives.

Guayarmina Semidán, considered to be queen of Gran Canaria, surrenders at Ansite Fortress on April 29, 1483.

On the same day, Chief Bentejuí and his shaman-advisor Faycán commit suicide by jumping off a cliff while shouting Atis Tirma (for my land).

Columbus, anchored off the Canary Isles near the end of his return voyage from the New World, composes a long letter to Luis de Santangel, Treasurer of Aragon, who had given him substantial help in fitting out his expedition.

Columbus evidently intends his announcement of his discovery of the West Indies for the eyes of the king and queen of Spain.

Concerning Hispaniola, he writes of "many spices and vast mines of gold and other metals" and "innumerable people.” The inhabitants, although "well-made men of commanding stature," appear to be "extraordinarily timid" and "so unsuspicious and so generous with what they possess, that no one who had not seen it would believe it.

They never refuse anything that is asked for.

They even offer it themselves, and show so much love that they would give their very hearts."

One sailor, writes Columbus, "was found to have got for a leathern strap, gold of the weight of two and a half castellanos, and others for even more worthless things much more; while for a new blancas they would give all they had, were it two or three castellanos of pure gold or an arroba or two of spun cotton."

Columbus states that he "had to win their love, and to induce them to become Christians, and to love and serve their Highness and the whole Castilian nation, and help to get for us things they have in abundance, which are necessary to us. vThey have no religion, nor idolatry, except that they all believe power and goodness to be in heaven. They firmly believed that I, with my ships and men, came from heaven, and with this idea I have been received everywhere, since they lost fear of me."

The "vast mines" of Hispaniola notwithstanding, the Arawaks "have no iron, nor steel, nor weapons, nor are they fit for them, because although they are well-made men of commanding stature, they appear extraordinarily timid.The only arms they have are sticks of cane, cut when in seed, with a sharpened stick at the end, and they are afraid to use these."

Columbus writes of the native peoples he encounters as being “far from ignorant. They are most ingenious men, and navigate these seas in a wonderful way, and describe everything well, but they never before saw people wearing clothes, nor vessels like ours. In these isles there are a great many canoes, something like rowing boats, of all sizes, and most of them are larger than an eighteen-oared galley. They are not so broad, as they are made of a single plank, but a galley could not keep up with them in rowing, because they go with incredible speed, and with these they row about among all these islands, which are innumerable, and carry on their commerce. I have seen some of these canoes with seventy and eighty men in them, and each had an oar.”

Aside from the gold appropriated from the native peoples, West Indies mahogany begins to be imported for use in fine European furniture.

Construction begins on the Cathedral of Santa Ana in Las Palmas, Canary Islands, in 1500, in the episcopate of Fr. Diego de Muros (d. 1524), dean of Santiago.

He is the third Bishop of Las Palmas.

The architect is Don Diego Montaude, to who the design is credited to him, though he will be succeeded in the post by Juan de Palacio.

On the return voyage, le Clerc and his corsairs plundered Las Palmas on Grand Canary Island and captured a Genoese carrack, seizing an even richer bounty.