Minorca (Catalan and Spanish: Menorca; from Latin: Balearis Minor, later Minorica "minor island") is one of the Balearic Islands located in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to Spain. It takes its name from being smaller than nearby island of Majorca.
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Minorca (Catalan and Spanish: Menorca; from Latin: Balearis Minor, later Minorica "minor island") is one of the Balearic Islands located in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to Spain. It takes its name from being smaller than nearby island of Majorca.
Minorca has a population of approximately 88,000. It is located 39°47' to 40°00'N, 3°52' to 4°24'E. Its highest point, called El Toro or Monte Toro, is 358 m/1174 ft above sea level.
History
The island is known for its collection of megalithic stone monuments: navetes, taules, and talaiots, which speak of a very early prehistoric human activity. Some of the earliest culture on Minorca was influenced by other Mediterranean cultures, including the Minoans of ancient Crete. For example the use of inverted plastered timber columns at Knossos is thought to have influenced early peoples of Minorca in imitating this practice.
The end of the Punic wars saw an increase in piracy in the western Mediterranean. The Roman occupation of Hispania had meant a growth of maritime trade between the Iberian and Italian peninsulas. Pirates took advantage of the strategic location of the Balearic Islands to raid Roman commerce, using both Minorca and Majorca as bases. In reaction to this, the Romans invaded Minorca. By 121 BC both islands were fully under Roman control, later being incorporated into the province of Hispania Citerior.
In 13 BC Caesar Augustus reorganized the provincial system and the Balearic Islands became part of the Tarraconensis imperial province. The ancient town of Mago on Minorca was transformed from a Carthaginian town to a Roman town.
Captured by the British navy in 1708 during the War of the Spanish Succession, Minorca became a British possession. The transfer to Great Britain was confirmed under the terms of the Article XI of the Treaty of Utrecht. Under the governorship of General Richard Kane, this period saw the island's capital moved to Maó, and a naval base established in that town's harbour. During the Seven Years' War, however, the failure of a British naval squadron to lift a French siege of Minorca on 20 May 1756 later led to the court-martial and execution of Admiral John Byng. This naval engagement, the Battle of Minorca, represented the outbreak of the Seven Years' War in the European theatre. Despite this defeat, British resistance persisted at Maó, but the garrison was forced to capitulate under honourable terms, including free passage back to Britain, on 29 June of that same year. The Treaty of Paris (1763), however, saw British rule restored, since Britain and its allies largely prevailed in the war. During the American Revolutionary War, the British were defeated for a second time, in this instance by a combination of French and Spanish forces, which captured the island after a long siege of St. Philip's Castle on 5 February 1782. Minorca was recovered by the British once again in 1798, during the French Revolutionary Wars, but it was finally and permanently ceded to Spain by the Treaty of Amiens in 1802. The British influence can still be seen in local architecture with elements such as sash windows.
