History of Menorca * a guide to the history of Menorca or Minorca * Menorca telephone numbers * weather and maps * last minute villas and apartments * holidays in Menorca * (Minorca) * last minute flights * car hire * travel insurance * weather * maps
Principle dates
4,000BC 400BC
Prehistoric Period -Settlement by people from mainland Spain and the eastern Mediterranean.
400BC 903
Classical Period 400BC Carthaginians landed led by Magon
(Hannibals brother). 123BC Conquered by Rome, province of
Balearis Minor formed. Interrupted by a period of Vandal rule in
the 5th century.533 Vandals rule overthrown by Byzantines.
903 1492
Spanish Menorca founded. 903 Captured by the Moors. 1287
Conquered by Alfonse 111, restoration of Christianity. Catalan
becomes the official language.1349 incorporated in Aragon. 1492
Aragon united with Castile and Granada to form Spain as we know it.
1535 1708
1535 Turkish pirate Bardarossa attacks and sacks Mahon. 1558
Turks attack and sack Ciutadella. 3,000 taken as slaves to
Constantiople.1706 split by civil war during the Spanish War of
Succession.
1708 1756
1708 British Dutch force took the island without a shot being fired,
beginning the first British domination. 1713 British rule confirmed by
the Treaty of Utrecht.
1756 1763
1756 French Duke of Richelieu welcomed in Ciutadella with 20,000
troops. British withdrawal. Admiral Byng executed for failure to
defend the island. 1763 the Treaty of Paris returns the island to the
British.
1763 1782
Second period of British domination.
1782
French Spanish force captured the island for Carlos 111 of Spain
after a 6 month siege.
1798 1802
Third period of British domination.
1802
Menorca returned to the Spanish crown by the treaty of Amiens.
1936 1939
1936 population rose up against the military commander when he
declared support for the Nationalist cause. At great loss of life they
regained the island for the Republicans. Menorca was the last place
in Spain to fall to Franco.
