Mallorca is the largest island of Spain, and is part of the Balearic islands archipelago. It’s been inhabited since before the middle ages, and in fact there are traces of habitation from the Paleolithic period (6000-4000 BC) that have been discovered in caves near Soller.
Mallorca has quite an interesting and varied history in fact, with invasions from various quarters through the years, and occupation by a number of different groups. This has led to the wonderfully diverse culture that the island has today.
The Romans came to Mallorca in 123 BC, and the island flourished under Roman rule, during the time of their occupation, the towns of Pollentia (now Alcudia) and Palmaria (now Palma) were founded.
Roman occupation continued until 426 AD when the Vandals (An East Germanic tribe from whom the word vandalism derives) sacked the island. Their occupation didn’t last long however, and in 534 AD the Byzantine Empire conquered Mallorca and it became part of the province of Sardinia. The Vandals had tried to do away with Christianity, but with the entrance of the Byzantines Christianity made a return and many churches and religious buildings came into being.
The Byzantine part of Mallorca’s history has left a lot of evidence around the island, such as mosaics found in the oldest parts of the Cathedral in Palma which began it’s life as a paleo-Christian temple.
Muslim raids on the island began probably around 700 AD, and from here until well into the 1400’s Mallorca felt the hand of many different peoples from the Moors, to the Taifa, Pisans, Catalans, and Almoravides and more. Finally, Majorca was re-captured by the Spanish, and because of it’s position and the many attacks which came from the Barbary corsairs of North Africa, many coastal watchtowers and fortified churches were erected. Despite this, in 1570 things were so bad that King Philip II of Spain was considering completely evactuating the Balearic islands. However, this didn’t happen, and the Spanish continued to Rule in Mallorca from that time forwards.
In 1716 the Nueva Planta decrees made Mallorca part of the Spanish province of Baleares. Things were now finally feeling much more stable in this part of the world.
In 1891 the main source of the islands income came from its vineyards, and when a disease decimated this, the island went through a period of severe decline, and for a few years witnessed a large emigration of islanders to mainland Spain and beyond.
Today Mallorca’s income mainly comes from the tourist trade, and has done since the 1950s. The boom in this tourism has caused significant growth for Palma as the islands capital as well as for many other areas around the island. In 1960 the island received around 500,000 visitors, in 1997 this figure had reached over 6,500,000 and in 2008 the Palma de Mallorca Airport had over 22,500,000 passing through, with another 1.5 million reaching the island by sea.