History History

In the Balearic Islands, megalithic remains from prehistoric times attest to the very ancient presence of man. In Menorca (Naveta des Tudons), Mallorca (Talaiot de Capocorb, Llucmajor) and Formentera (Ca Na Costa), prehistoric man has left traces of his stay. But it is difficult to know when a human foot first treads the beaches of the Balearic Islands. Historians estimate that man appeared here 4,000 years before our era. He found abundant game on this archipelago, including a species of antelope now extinct, the Myotragus. He was therefore first a hunter and then, quite logically, a breeder and farmer. This civilization finds refuge in caves where archaeologists have found the first pottery and metal objects (between 3000 and 2000 BC). We then speak of pre-talayotic culture.

At this time, trade with the Mediterranean basin began: Greeks, Iberians and Phoenicians made stops in the Balearic Islands to offer their goods. This opening up to the rest of the world at the time led to the first constructions on the archipelago.

The stories of passing sailors feed the local imagination. Descriptions of the first structured cities (Athens and Carthage in particular) influenced the islanders, so that villages were formed as the caves emptied. At the heart of these modest settlements, stone and wooden towers assembled without mortar were erected: these were called talayots. Until now little organized and visibly peaceful, the tribes erected the first fortifications.

These modest defence systems were not enough to stop the Carthaginians who took control of the Balearic Islands in 645 BC. They destroyed the towers, built their own towns and fortifications and above all exploited the riches of the archipelago: the salt marshes and the murex (a carnivorous mollusc from which purple, a highly sought-after dye in antiquity, was obtained). The invaders also took advantage of the remarkable handling of the slingshot by the young warriors of the Balearic Islands. They enlisted them in their campaigns as mercenaries in the Punic Wars that pitted them against Rome from 264 to 146 BC.

It took the Romans only a few years to understand Carthage's interest in the Balearic Islands. In 123 BC, the consul Caecilius Metellus integrated the archipelago into the Roman Empire. He created Palma and traced the traffic routes to Mallorca and Menorca. Nevertheless, the Roman Empire did not leave deep traces of its domination. It must be said that 300 years after it was established, the empire is only a shadow of its former self. Its fall, around 400 AD, plunged the Balearic Islands into a period of retreat.

The archipelago was devastated by the Vandals, and an early Christian civilization survives as best it can during this period.

After the conquest of General Belisarius, under the reign of Justinian, Emperor of Byzantium, the Balearic Islands were integrated into the Eastern Empire in 553. In the 7th century, the Visigoths drive out the Byzantines, but it is the Moors who quickly become the masters of the place.

The Arabs made their first incursions as early as the 7th century, without any real invasion. In spite of some looting, they sought above all to trade, taking advantage of the privileged position of the islands on the main maritime routes. Charlemagne tried to re-establish lasting Christian domination over Mallorca, but his efforts are reduced to nothing in 902, when the Caliph of Cordoba, Issam al-Jawlani, effortlessly seized the archipelago. When he died in 1031, several Moorish overlords of Spain succeeded one another and maintained tolerant relations with the Christians. Although today few remains are visible, the cultural, technical (especially in agriculture) and architectural contributions of the Moors are at the origin of a revival of the archipelago.

The islands remain Muslim lands, but for the first time in centuries they become an independent kingdom. Between 1113 and 1114, Ramon Berenguer, Count of Barcelona, very attracted by the geographical situation of the Balearic Islands, at the crossroads of the Mediterranean trade routes, joined forces with privateers from Pisa to occupy Palma. Dragging on, the conquest gave the Muslims time to reorganise and the attempt to re-conquer failed. The archipelago returned to its former situation: Arab domination.

Driven by a true sense of divine mission and taking advantage of the dissensions between the different Arab suzerains of Spain and the Balearic Islands, James I of Aragon uses the pretext of permanent attacks by Arab pirates against merchant ships to try to drive the Muslims out of the Balearic Islands. In September 1229, he sends a powerful fleet. On September 9, the young king (21 years old) won the main confrontation between the two armies. The Moors, however, took refuge in Medina Majorica, the Arabic name for Palma. James I had to wait three months. The city finally fell into his hands and it was the beginning of the kingdom of Mallorca.

Until his death in 1276, the sovereign successfully contributed to the development of the economy of the Balearic Islands. On his death, he bequeathed Mallorca to his youngest son, James II, with the title of King of the Balearic Islands, while the eldest son obtained the Kingdom of Aragon. With this division, the islands became an independent kingdom for the last time in their history. It remained so until 1343, despite pressure from the Aragonese branch of the family to recover the Balearic Islands. These tensions reached a first peak when Sancho, son of James II and without a male heir, appointed his nephew, the future James III, to succeed him, while Aragon claimed the archipelago. The conflict is avoided thanks to the support that France gives to James III but, with the advent of Peter IV of Aragon, the conflict rebounds, and the kingdom of Mallorca is abandoned by the King of France, plunged into the Hundred Years War.

After securing the support of the local population by promising to maintain all their privileges, Peter IV seized the kingdom of Majorca by crushing the army of James III. The latter becomes part of the kingdom of Aragon, and thus of the Spanish Crown, and thus loses its independence. At the same time, the island will lose much of its luster. Subject to new taxes, competing with the promises of the newly discovered New World, the Balearic Islands are no longer the stake of the maritime routes that they have been for centuries. Worse, as in the time of the first Arab incursions, piracy is once again devastating the archipelago. Defenseless and too scattered, the inhabitants of Formentera are even forced to take refuge in Ibiza. Their island was deserted until the 17th century, when a network of watchtowers (still clearly visible today) finally provided protection.

The War of Spanish Succession pitted the Habsburgs against the Bourbons from 1701 to 1716. Philip V was the victor, but the English, although in the camp of the defeated Habsburgs, kept Menorca. The French, under the command of Richelieu, came to dislodge them in 1756. Finally, at the end of the Seven Years' War, France returned Canada, India and Minorca to the English.

Spain did not regain the sovereignty of Menorca until 1802 with the Treaty of Amiens, which returned the Balearic Islands to Spain.

The 19th century was marked by agricultural, industrial and urban development. Mallorca, which was experiencing drought and famine, was equipped with a railway, while almond and vine crops were introduced in Ibiza and Mallorca. In 1837, for the first time, a regular line between the peninsula and the archipelago was put into service. At the same time, it was also a period when poverty forced many islanders to emigrate. Major works in the port of Ibiza at the end of the century will also promote the development of maritime communications.

Archduke of Austria, he was also a great humanist who travelled around the world and returned to Mallorca forever, where he enjoyed many possessions. An ardent defender of the natural beauties and heritage of the Balearic Islands, he wrote several books, the most famous of which is The Balearic Islands, in which he describes the islands in words and images. He was awarded the gold medal for this work at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1878. Die Balearen geschildert in Wort und Bild (The Balearic Islands, description in text and images) is still today a valuable source of information on all aspects of the Balearic Islands: history, geography, fauna and flora, customs, etc. The work is considered the first comprehensive study of the archipelago. It is also thanks to him and his research work that the Balearic Islands have been able to make themselves known elsewhere in Europe. He invited many political and intellectual personalities (his cousin Sissi, his friend Jules Verne...) to come and discover them. His investment in the islands, especially Mallorca, was so important that as early as 1909, the Fomento de Turismo (a body governing the development of tourism) appointed him Honorary President. The French writer Jean-Louis Sarthou has written a book (published in 2013, éditions du Vieux Caroubier) on the emblematic figure of the Archduke Louis-Salvador of Austria. In his book L'archiduc sans frontière, Sarthou tells how Mallorca became the ideal place for this man in search of fulfilment, the right place to promote social and fair tourism. A reading to be recommended.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Mallorca was marked by an embryo of industry. During the Civil War, between 1936 and 1939, the military in Mallorca and Ibiza almost immediately rallied to General Franco, and only Menorca remained loyal to the Republicans until the Second World War.

After years of semi-autarcy, the Spanish government is speeding up the opening process and the first tourists are arriving. Ibiza becomes the Mecca for hippies. Enchanted and amazed, these pioneers are followed by millions of visitors. The 1970s were marked by a veritable wave of tourists from northern Europe - especially from Germany - who took possession of the Balearic coast and the picturesque mountain villages. This tourist invasion transformed the island and affected a population, many of whom, against all odds, still maintain the customs and way of life of a not-so-distant past.

At the beginning of the 1980s, the islands underwent a real revolution with the accession to autonomy and the creation of an autonomous government of the Balearic Islands on 25 February 1983. A Balearic parliament was created. Regularly, since this date, the Balearic voters are called to the ballot box to elect their deputies. A government is formed, headed by a president: Gabriel Canella Fons.

Gabriel Cañellas i Fons was the first president of the Autonomous Community of the Balearic Islands until 1995. After multiple re-elections to this post (1987, 1991 and 1995), he was forced to resign. The year 1995 remains a black date in the history of the Balearic Islands, with the discovery of a huge corruption scandal (the Calvià and Sòller cases) that brought shame on the entire political class. On 15 July, he resigns and is succeeded by Cristòfol Soler.

Resignation of Cristòfol Soler and appointment of Jaume Matas Palau.

European and municipal elections; elections to the new team of the Autonomous Government of the Balearic Islands with an anti-People's Party coalition of all political parties; new president: Francesc Antich, of the Socialist Party of the Balearic Islands, who leads the elections to the Balearic Regional Parliament.

The walls of the city of Ibiza (Dalt Vila) become a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In the month of May, a so-called medieval festival is held within the walls of the old city of Ibiza to celebrate this event.

In the regional elections, the People's Party, led by Jaume Matas Palau, retained the preference of the people of the archipelago by winning the majority of seats in the Assembly.

In the parliamentary elections, Jaume Matas Palau ran for re-election and, although the People's Party (PP) remained by far the largest party in terms of votes with 46%, it lost its absolute majority. His opponent, the socialist Francesc Antich i Oliver, won the presidency by forming an alliance with the regionalist parties and forming a centre-left government.

Like the rest of Spain, the Balearic Islands are affected by the financial crisis and the collapse of the construction sector.

The "Palma Arena" scandal forces Francesc Antich i Oliver to separate from Unió Mallorquina, whose leaders are implicated in this corruption affair, to govern alone without the majority.

The right-wing returned to power in the June 18 elections with an overwhelming majority. José Ramón Bauzà Díaz (PP) is the new president of the Balearic Islands government and has to tackle the problem of unemployment. In the same year, Iñaki Urdangarin - son-in-law of the King of Spain - is under investigation in connection with the Babel affair, which stems from the Palma Arena affair. He is indicted in 2012 for embezzlement of public funds.

At the same time, the crisis is intensifying throughout Spain and particularly in the Balearic Islands, where the unemployment rate will reach 28.5% in spring 2013. The arrival of summer marks a short period of respite, and unemployment falls to 22.5% thanks to seasonal jobs. This is unfortunately a far cry from the figures of the early 2000s, when the Balearic Islands had full employment during the tourist season. In the autumn, a deep social malaise was added to the problem of the crisis: the reform of the education system, implemented by the government of José Ramón Bauzá, threatened the use of Catalan in Balearic schools in favour of English.

In September 2014, the Supreme Court of the Balearic Islands annulled this reform of the education system, deeming it invalid because the University of the Balearic Islands, the competent body, had not been consulted in this decision. As a result, the Minister of Education, Juana Maria Camps, was dismissed and replaced by the Government spokesperson, Nuria Riera. These events followed numerous anti-Bauzá demonstrations demanding her resignation.

In the elections, power changes hands again and returns to the socialists. Francina Armengol becomes the new president of the government.

The Government of the Balearic Islands is introducing a tourist tax on accommodation in order to finance the development of tourist infrastructures and the preservation of the archipelago's natural areas. Tourism, a real economic engine, is experiencing an unprecedented boom since the beginning of the new millennium, accounting for more than 45% of the Balearic Islands' GDP. At the same time, however, inequalities remain, with almost 20% of the Balearic Islands' population still living below the poverty line. The importance of tourism in the local economy also leads to a strong dependence on seasonal activity. Although mass tourism fills the state coffers and boosts the national economy, it would be wrong to underestimate its heavy impact on the environment and quality of life.

The Balearic parliament passes a law banning bullfights with killing.

Pedro Sánchez, a member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), becomes President of the Government of Spain. He succeeds Mariano Rajoy, who resigned following the adoption of a motion of censure.

The Government of the Balearic Islands passes a law setting the CO2 emission target at zero by 2050.

The Covid pandemic19 has not spared the Balearic Islands, causing, as a secondary effect, a sharp fall in tourism in the islands in the summer of 2020.

After two difficult years, tourism on the four islands starts to pick up again in the summer of 2022, although without reaching the very high pre-pandemic levels. in 2023, on the other hand, tourist numbers were particularly high.