Minorque

Minorque ( Menorca as a Catalan and Spanish; Latin Balearis Minor ) is one of the islands Balearic Islands (Catalan official name of Balears Island, Islas Balearic Islands in Spanish). Minorque ( Menorca ) is a island of the Spanish Archipel of the Balearic Islands, in Mediterranean. It is located at the North-East of Majorque, and is close to the small island of the Surface. It takes its name because of being smaller than the island of Majorque. It was called Nura by the Phéniciens in of the honor their god Baal, meaning l'" island of the feu". Minorque has a population of: 82000 hab. It is located between 39°47' NR and 40°00' NR, 3°52' E and 4°24' E. Its highest point is 358 m above sea level, Monte Toro. The island has many megalithic stone monuments: navetes, taulas, and talaiots.

History

The end of the Punic Wars saw an increase in piracy in the Western Mediterranean. The Roman occupation of the Hispanie marked a growth of the maritime trade between the peninsulas ibériennes and Italian. The pirates benefitted from the strategic place of the Balearic Islands to plunder the Roman tradesmen, by using Minorque and Majorque like bases. The Romans in reaction sent an army in order to put a term at such activities. In 121 before J.C., the two islands were entirely Roman, being later built-in with the province of Hispania Citerior. In 13 before J.C., César Auguste reorganized the provincial system and the Balearic Islands became part of the imperial province of Tarraconensis.

The letter on the conversion of the Jews by a bishop of the fifth century called Severus tells the conversion of the Jewish community of the island into 418 after J.C. After the conquest Moor of peninsular Spain, Minorque was annexed by the Caliphat de Córdoba into 903, which gave him the arabized name of Manûrqa. In 1231, after the reconquest by the Christian forces of Majorque, Minorque became an independent Islamic state, though tributary with the king Jacques Ier d' Aragon. The island was controlled initially by Al Qurashi d' Abû “Uthmân Sa' îd Hakam (1234-1282), and after its death by his/her son, Ibn Sa' îd (1282 - 1287) of Abû' Umar. An Aragonese invasion, carried out by Alfonse III arrived on January 17th 1287, celebrated now like national day with Minorque. The majority of the Moslem inhabitants of the island were controlled and sold on the markets of slaves of Ibiza, Valence and Barcelona. Until 1344, the island belonged to the Royaume of Majorque, state vassal of the Aragon, then was annexed by the kingdom of Aragon, and later with the unified kingdom of Spain. During the 16th century, the Turkish naval attacks destroyed Mahon, and then the capital Ciutadella. Khayr AD-DIN Barberousse took? where it made 6.000 prisoners in 1536.

Captured by the British Navy in 1708 during the War of succession of Spain, Minorque became a British possession. This period saw the capital of the island moving in Mahón, and a naval base to be established in the port of this city. During the War Seven Year old, however, the impossibility of a British naval squadron of raising the head office of Minorque undertaken by the French on May 20th, 1756, involved later a martial court and the execution of the admiral John Byng. This naval battle, the Battle of Minorque, represented the end of the Seven Year old War in the European theater. In spite of this defeat, British resistance persisted in Mahón, but the garrison was forced to capitulate with honourable conditions: possibility of joining Great Britain, on June 29th of this same year. By the Treated of Paris (1763), the island remains British, since Great Britain and its allies had ascending on this war. During the War of independence of the United States of America, the British were demolished second once, by the combination of the French and Spanish forces, which captured the island on February 5th 1782. Minorque was recovered again by the British in 1798, during the Guerres of the French revolution, but was finally and in a permanent way yielded to Spain by the Traité of Amiens in 1802. A history says that the British were been willing to give up the island because Nelson supported Malta, owing to the fact that it would have been more close to Emma Hamilton with Naples. The British influence can still be seen in local architecture.

Dice 1830 and until the years 1845, most of the population of Minorque will emigrate towards Algeria lately conquered by French. They will be the actors of colonization around Algiers. They will specialize in the culture of early products. (Colonial period of Algeria)

This forwarding could not be done without a wearing of support halfway between Toulon (the military port) and Algiers. It was the roads of Maò (Minorque) which was selected to be the strategic port between France and Algeria transforming itself into military hospital and base of supply of the troops.

The inhabitants of Minorque were spectators of the conquest of Algiers and will be thus thereafter actors of colonization. It thus developed an active trade between Minorque and the new colony which constantly maintains many vessels transporting of the passengers. They listen to with interests the news brought back by the French soldiers taking part in the conquest. Many mahonnais embarked on these ships and benefitted from it to settle already with the accesses of Algiers (Kouba, Hussein-Dey) to cultivate fruit and vegetables (their speciality). They found in the gardens given up by the Moors of the cultures very close to those which they had left in their island, even processes as the irrigation by the norias that they knew from time immemorial them them same to have learned from the ancestors of these Moors.

This exodus is explained by the economic depression why knows the island since 1810 because of bad harvests. The island of Minorque is small and the ground is stony, ungrateful, arid and uncultivable because of the winds of the “tramuntana” and the dryness due to the lack of rain. With that a great mortality of the cattle is added, particularly of the animals with horns, private of pastures. The port activity of Mahò and Cuitadella is reduced, little industry thus finally little work… Moreover families are also numerous…

Under the second Republic, immigration minorquine in Algeria was highly encouraged. The visas of the passports were delivered with the proviso of having a certificate of good morality and of being in good health. The young women were particularly required by the French administration to go to settle in what one called the “possessions of North Africa”. Indeed the deficit as women in the new colony brought to support the passage of young women. The news of those already parties in Algeria is encouraging: work is proposed with those lately unloaded and a better prospect for marriage is offered to the women who decide to cross the step.

Assiduity with the work of these mahonnais is reported in an article of Akbar of 1854: “When in Mahonnais, unless you do not pass by there Sunday, seek it in the dwelling, neither in the neighborhoods, nor even less in one cabaret, it is with the fields with all its wire, working under the burning sun with this assiduity and this perseverance in which there is not a true farmer. ”

During the Spanish Civil war, Minorque remained faithful to the Republican Spanish government, whereas the remainder of the Balearic Islands supported the nationalists. She did not see of combat, except the air raid by the Italians of the Corpo Truppe Volontarie. Much Minorcains was also killed while taking part in the invasion missed by Mallorque. After the nationalist victory in 1939, the British navy helped with the evacuation of some political refugees.

In October 1993, Minorque was indicated by UNESCO like Réserve of biosphere.

In July 2005, the inscription of the island to be the twenty-fifth member of the international association of the plays of island was approved.

Language

The local derivative of the Catalan is called Menorquí: the grammatical differences with the Catalan are tiny, and the differences exist most of the time only in the pronunciation. As with the majority of the dialects of the Balearic Islands, the most remarkable difference is the use of the article " le" , where Menorquí employs l'" es" for the masculine and " sa" for the female one instead of the Catalan " el" and " la" , a form which was historically employed in the current province of Girona, in Catalogne, from where many people repopulated the islands. There are also some English words dating from the occupation: grevi , xumaquer , boinder or " xoc" derived from gravy , shoemaker , bow window and chalk .

Food

A typical product of the archipelago is the sobrasada, kind of saussisson to the spiced chopped pig (heritage of the Arab occupation to the Middle Ages). The flao is a typical dessert of the archipelago also: it is a blank with the ewe's milk. A prolonged presence of the British is seen in the taste of Minorcans for the gin (Genièvre), thus during the festivals in the honor of patron saint of a city, the islanders mix it with bitter lemon to make Pomada. Moreover, the Queso de Mahón, a typical cheese of the island is rather popular outside the island.

Traditions

Another product typically minorquain is a particular type of shoes, Abarcas, manufactured starting from rubber (tires) for the sole and of goatskin for the shoe.

Geography

Its principal city is Maó (or Mahón) from which the Mayonnaise would come.

Culminating point: Mount Toro, 358 meters.

Typically Mediterranean, very rocky landscape: many creeks, accessible sometimes only by boat or from long hours of walk. They make the happiness of the tourists as well majorquains as foreign.

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