Towards 1300 AD Mallorca underwent crucial changes
that resulted in the emergence of the Talayotic culture . This warrior culture
which survived after Caecilius Metel Quinto (who later would also be called
“Balearicus”), conquered the island in favour of the Roman Republic in the year
123 AD. Due to frequent pirate raids , which had their base on the islands,
Rome decided to seize the archipelago. According to the legend, the Roman
general had to protect his boats with skins of animals, because the slingers'
shots prevented them from landing. It took the Roman legions two years to
submit the islands. After the conquest, the slingers became part of the Roman
auxiliary troops to fight in their special way alongside Julius Caesar in the
conquest of Gaul (the defensive breastplates were not very effective against
the missiles of the slingers).
In the year 425 Mallorca suffered the invasion and
plundering by the Vandals, Germanic people who settled on the island until the
year 534, when the Byzantine general Belisarius ordered to conquer the Balearic
archipelago.
In 707 the first landing of muslims took place. Followed by two centuries of
permanent anxiety, until in 903 Mallorca was left in the hands of the Muslim
dynasty of los Omeyas. The castle of Alaro resisted for eight years, according
to the chronicles, and was the last refuge of the resistance of the rumi
(Christians) during the Muslim conquest. Then came a flourishing phase, during
which Mayurqa Madina, the actual Palma, became a great cultural centre.
In 1115 a Pisano-Catalan squad attacked Mallorca in
an expedition of punishment in retaliation for the pirate raids which were set
up on the island. Medina Mayurqa was looted and destroyed for the first time.
In the absence of Ramón Berenguer III, the Pisan squad fled at the sight of the
Almoravid squad ,which was sent from Africa. The island remained in the hands
of a Almoravid family, the Banu Ganiya, which encouraged piracy against
Christian ships. Then in 1203, the Almohads took over Mallorca. In 1208, the
Almohads appointed Abu Yahya as the governor, who formed a semi-independent
principality, with only a formal submission to the Almohad emir.
Catalan and Aragonese troops of Jaime I the
Conqueror, who arrived on the island in 1229, finally conquered the island for
the Christians. After finally defeating Abu Yahya in the battle of Portopi
(1229) and submitting Mayurka Medina (1230), the resistance ceased in 1231. The
Muslim inhabitants fled to Africa or were enslaved, while the island was
repopulated with Catalans who came mostly from Rosellon and Ampurdan.
The earliest remains found in Mallorca date from
3500 AD. In the Neolithic era, the transitional era before the Bronze Age, the
first objects made of copper made their appearance. The first known inhabitants
of the islands (although of dubious provenance) were the Balearic “honderos”.
In the municipality of Calvia, in Santa Ponsa, is a small mountainous elevation
called Puig de sa Morisca , in which an archaeological site is situated,
covering an area of 35 hectares, with remains of burial caves.
James I established in his will the kingdom of
Mallorca, not only Mallorca , but also the rest of the Balearic Islands:
Menorca (still under the power of a Muslim sovereign, but fiscally dependant
since 1231), Ibiza and Formentera, the counties of Rosellon and Cerdana , and
the territories which Jaime I kept in Occitania (the lordship of Montpellier,
the viscountcy of Carlades and the barony of Omelas). At his death (1276), his
son James II of Mallorca took the throne after he was sworn in under the
so-called Carta de las Franquicias. The independence of the kingdom was short.
In 1349 it was reincorporated to the Crown of Aragon. The death of King James
III of Majorca in the battle of Llucmajor was the end of the Kingdom of
Mallorca. Although his daughter Elizabeth, residing in the castle of Gallargues
near Montpellier, which she was granted by King Charles VI of France,
proclaimed herself Queen of Mallorca until her death in 1404.
At the time
of Charles I , in 1521, there were uprisings similar to those in the kingdom of
Valencia (insurrection of the forans), the rebels reached and encircled the
town of Alcudia, where the nobility of the island had taken refuge. Throughout
the sixteenth century, the island, like the rest of the Balearic Isles and the
Spanish Levante, were attacked and looted by the Turkish and Berber pirates.
During the Spanish Succession War, the island chose in favour of Archduke
Charles of Austria, against Philip of Anjou.
