History in Minorca

Menorca shares with the neighbouring islands a relationship with all the seafaring peoples of the ancient Mediterranean, occupation of the Muslim civilisation, dominant in Spain until the time of the Catholic Monarchs (15th century), and the conquest and later colonisation by the Catalan-Aragonese Crown. Even then, however, there was a certain independent spirit, and the special circumstances experienced during the 18th century had a big impact on this development, providing the island with its own differentiating traits that would consign it with a secondary role that has, on occasions, been given to it. When the British saw their presence confirmed by the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), they had already been using the Port of Maó as one of their main bases in the Mediterranean for almost fifty years. In fact, the changes of nationality in the 18th century (the British, French and Spanish alternated in governing the island) ended up representing a substantial improvement after the troubled experiences of the 16th and 17th centuries. Years of obscurantism and uncertainty, with internal conflicts and constant attacks from outside led by pirates of all sorts, was later followed by epidemics and famines that decimated the population. It has sometimes been said that if the stamp of successive occupiers on the island has lasted more than at other latitudes, this is due to the more or less pacific adaptation to foreign ways. There still remain place names of Arab origin – rafal or bini, for example, often appear –, or vocabulary and phrases that come from English. It is, however, the maintenance of a non-exclusive identity, to which it returned – according to the level of repression – after each seizure of sovereignty, that has given Menorca its strength against any interference. Made weak by its own insularity, it nevertheless has an extra power of resistance against setbacks. In the past, it was the submission of a highly stratified society to self-governed institutions that enabled it to maintain its cohesion. It should also be mentioned that since its introduction, the use of the Catalan language has never been lost. Catalan is today the official and most commonly used language in the whole Balearic Islands region and is a common link of unity and identity (although the changes in phonetics and lexicon mark differences between the islands and even between one district and another). Returning to that outlined above, the co-existence between troops and civilians of different languages, and even religions during the 18th century was of a very special nature because it had a positive effect on economic matters. It also signified entering into Europe, or the World, as it was seen in those times. Neither should we fool ourselves that these administrations solved all the problems of structural order, but they did change the course of history. Despite the return, with the absolutist Spanish administration, and despite the consequent loss of freedom and return to poverty, causing another of the distinct migratory processes – this time to Algiers and other North African cities –, the Menorcan people were not, and would not be, a silent or defeatist community. When, in the mid-19th century, industrialisation allowed for relative recovery, the new productive methods and the creation of a workers’ movement became the seeds for many changes in the social fabric. The 20th century opened with an authentically democratic and progressive mood, still fearful for the swings of fortune of the economy, but breathing airs of freedom that differed greatly from the tyrannical operations of other parts. Perhaps it is for this reason that the Spanish Civil War had very dramatic repercussions on Menorcan society. These effects had an influence before, during and in a very extended aftermath, a post-war period that would last until 1977, when free elections, the first since the Second Republic, once again marked out the path for the Balearic community to recover their own governmental bodies differentiated by island.