European colonization and water property rights: the case of the Canary Islands, 1480-1525

Abstract

Colonization of the Canary Islands, driven by the sugar industry, was completed by the first quarter of the 16th century. The documents concerning cession of land and water ownership rights (datas) to the settlers for cane plantations reveal that this distribution took place on the basis of the legal environment affecting the main irrigation holdings of peninsular Spain at that time. Sugar production, which was stimulated by external demand, grew rapidly and soon formed a single «sugarocracy» that went on to control the hydraulic institutions and local politics. As there would have been no sugar industry without water, this “sugarocracy” concentrated hard on eliminating all obstacles that might have prevented the exercise of private initiative in the capitalization of water resources. This process led to a new legal environment that differed from its original pattern based around the concept of a hydraulic system characterized by private ownership and management of water resources.