Invasion of Minorca

The island of Minorca in the Mediterranean Sea has been invaded on numerous occasions; this page provides a basic list.

*Carthaginian invasion, some time before 252 BC- the name Mahón (now Maó) appears to be of Carthaginian Punic origin
*Roman invasion, led by Quintus Caecilius Metellus, 123 BC- the name Minorca is of Latin origin
*Vandal invasion, "circa" AD 427
**(Vandal domination was ended by Byzantine conquest of their mainland power centres)
*Norman invasion, or raiding, around 859, causing great damage to Byzantine churches etc.
*Moorish invasion, 903, introducing Islamic culture to the island
**The Moors accepted Spanish domination by Jaume I of Aragón in AD 1231-2; however:
*Spanish invasion, 1287-1288, by Alfonso III of Aragón, led to the Moorish population being held to ransom or enslaved, and Christian culture becoming dominant again. [Parpal i Marquès, Cosme "La conquesta de Menorca, el 1287, per Alfons el Liberal", Barcelona, Rafael Dalmau (1964)]
**(In the 16th century, the island was the target of vicious raids by Barbarossa, 1535, and Mustafá Pialí, 1558, who between them destroyed Maó and Ciutadella)
*French "intervention", 1707, after the islanders could not agree which side to take during the War of the Spanish Succession (little military action needed)
*British and Dutch "intervention", 1708, to reverse the above choice of side (no military action needed)- British sovereignty was confirmed by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713
*French invasion, 1756, during the Seven Years' War; British garrison forced to surrender following Royal Navy withdrawal in the Battle of Minorca
**France was obliged to hand the island back to Britain at the end of the war, in 1763
*Spanish and French invasion, 1781; on this occasion, during the British Colonial War of 1775-83, the British garrison resisted a siege for over five months, before succumbing to disease
*British invasion, 1798, during the Napoleonic Wars
**Britain handed Minorca back to Spain under the Treaty of Amiens, 1802, having chosen to keep Malta as a Mediterranean base instead [Sloss, Janet [http://www.bonaventura.co.uk/exitintro.html Exit Britannia: Britain’s Last Conquest of Menorca 1798-1802] , Tetbury UK, Bonaventura Press (2002)- accessed 2007-12-17]

References

*Principal source: [http://www.menorca.org/historia.htm Historia de Menorca] , menorca.org- accessed 2007-12-17