Mallorca History

It may be said that the history of Mallorca is as long as its coastline. Were it not for the 5,547km (3,439 miles) of coast, we can be very sure that the island's past, present and future would be very different. Mallorca, like other major islands of the Mediterranean, has attracted a cornucopia of conquerors, invaders, settlers and tourists, who have all contributed to its richness and vital history.

The formation of the Baleares islands is assumed to have taken place around 150 million years ago. At first, Mallorca was joined to the peninsula as an underwater island. One hundred and fortynine million years later, more or less, its present configuration came into being. Scrub forests comprising pine, rosemary, wild olive, lentiscus and dwarf fan palms were the island's main vegetation. Rockrose and lavender predominated in the sierra.

The sparse vegetation supported only a few animals. The smallest were field mice and wood shrews; the largest, the civet cats. Birds, on the other hand, have always been plentiful. Even though their habitat is under constant threat, counting the migrators and a few indigenous species, they number today well over 2,000 species. But of all the non-human species on Mallorca, it is only the pine tree which isn't in decline. As for home sapiens, the present population stands at 600,000, and is increasing at a frightening rate.

Rainfall on the island is slight, varying between 1,400mm (55in) in the mountains to only 300mm (11.8in) on the southern plain. The winds blow principally during the winter and spring, when they are predominantly out of the north (the Tramuntana) and the southwest (the Llebeix). The southeast Sirocco brings with it red sand from the deserts of Africa which, if nothing else, seriously irritates the island's clean-car owners.

For most Mallorcans, history didn't really begin until the Catalans retook the island from the Moors in the 13th century. On the other hand, experts date the first islanders to between 1300 and 1000BC. Even though the earliest people obviously carried on primitive but active trade with others around the western Mediterranean, the quantity of arms found in their early dwellings shows that the island still had a long way to go before becoming the 'Island of the Calm'.

When the the Romans, finally tired of the piracy that was rife in the Baleares, they organized an expedition to conquer and settle Mallorca. in 123BC Quinto Cecilio Metelo conquered the island, and for five and a half centuries Mallorca was subject to the vicissitudes of Roman history. Historians believe that at the time there were two major centers. Pollentia (beside Alcudia) and Palma. After a few centuries more of 'ups and downs' under the successive domination of the Vandals and the Byzantines, the Muslims began 200 years of attacks on the island at the beginning of the 8th century. In 902 the entire archipelago was annexed to the Emirate of Cordoba.

While Roman culture probably had the greatest impact on Mallorcan social patterns, the influence of the Moors was responsible for important advances in the island's agriculture, along with development of the island's crafts and commerce. It is also easy to pinpoint the Moorish contribution to the island's folklore, language and cuisine.