Page 41 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Mallorca, Menorca & Ibiza

THE HIST OR Y OF THE BALEARIC ISLANDS  39

Menorca in 1276 before community. In
being deposed by Menorca, the rivalry
Alfonso III, was an between Ciutadella and
altogether more Maó ended in armed
enlightened ruler. conflict. The economic
He and his successors position of the Balearic
presided over a “Golden Islands was worsened
Age” that saw great further by the discovery
advances, including and colonization of the
the building of the Americas at the end
Castell de Bellver and of the 15th century,
Palau de l’Almudaina, which shifted the hub
the establishment of a of European trade to the
weekly market in Palma shores of the Atlantic
and the reintroduction Ocean. This downturn
of gold and silver led, in 1521, to a bloody
coinage to stimulate revolt by peasants and
trade. The next ruler of Painting of Saint George slaying the dragon, craftsmen in Mallorca,
the archipelago was by Francesca Comesa which ended in the
Jaume II’s son, Sancho, slaughter of many
who built a strong fleet to defend the of the nobility and their supporters.
islands against pirates. After his death, in Throughout the 16th and 17th centuries,
1324, control passed into the hands of his there were frequent pirate attacks. Many
nephew, Jaume III, whose two-decade of the islands’ fortifications date from this
reign also marked a period of great period including Eivissa’s surviving
prosperity. The “Golden Age” came to an defences and Maó’s Fort San Felipe.
abrupt end in 1344 when an Aragonese
conquest, led by Pedro IV, landed on
Mallorca and took it in only a week.
The islands of Menorca and Ibiza soon
suffered the same fate.
Decline and Fall
Now part of the kingdom of Aragón,
the Balearic Islands found themselves to
be outside major politics. The economy
soon suffered as a result of high taxes
and in 1391 Mallorca was the scene of Painting of the port in Palma de Mallorca, now at the city’s
an uprising by the poorest parts of the Museu Diocesà

Gothic rosette from a museum
in Palma, Mallorca
1521 Armed insurrection 1531–1558
of peasants and craftsmen Devastating raids by
Turkish pirates
1350 1400 1450 1500 1550

1391 Insurrection of
the poor in Mallorca 1479 Unification of Aragón and Castile
Barbarossa, the conqueror of Maó in 1535

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