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The history of Menorca began being written during the Bronze Ages, which lead to the passing of the phoenicians, carthaginians, and romans. Menorca's history also makes a great part of the Mediterrenean history. Romans roamed around this land, and the arabs and the christians followed. Today Menorca is a balearic island that lives off tourism. From it's beginings it was the object of numerous cultural attacks, civilizations and countries that wanted to gain control due to it's strategic geographical location.

The first thing that we must mention of the island of Menorca is it's great strategic geographical location which has seen many diverse civilizations settle there and then leave. This has defined the island as an open air Mediterrenean History Museum.

We start writing the history of this island, the second in size in the Balearic archipelago, in the Bronze Ages. During this time, they began building and constructing in different locations of the island, very similar to the existing sites in Mallorca, Sardinia, or Malta. Through this era, the phoenicians arrived with their maritime commerce, and then the greeks and carthaginians.
The Carthaginians were the creators and founders of cities such as Ciudadela, which they named Jamma, or Mahón, the capital of the island and whose original name was Maghem. Both cities dating back to the VII century b.c.

In the year 123 b.c. the island was concquered by the Roman Empire, in which they remained in power until the begining of the V century, when vandals and then the byzantines settled in these lands. In the V century it was the arabs who settled on this island, more specifically in the begining years of this century.

The muslim denomination in the island took effect until the XIII century, in 1229 when Jaime I the concquerer brought back the christian faith to the island, causing it to become a part of the Aragon Crown. Alfonso III of Aragón, Jaime II El Justo, and Jaime II of Mallorca, who in 1295 signs the Agnani Treaty. This island begins to form part of the Kingdom of Mallorca under the ruling of Jaime III. Shortly after the kingdom of Mallorca disappears and the island becomes a part of the Crown of Aragón.

From this point there were 2 sides to the coin. One of splendor and maritime commerce and the other the decadence after the XIV century. Specifically, the XV and XVI centuries became tough time in which the island suffered a down hill slope due to the battles of the rich vs. the poor, the catalan revolution against Juan II and various other attacks. In 1535 the turks destroyed Mahón and a few years later Ciudadela. These two situations left the island greatly damaged. Still today you can see remains of the battle with the Turks in the Obelisco which conmemorates the battle of 1158.

Luckily history continues, and that takes us to the XVIII century when the island was taken by the French after the 7 year war. A few years later, after the Treaty of Paris was signed the island was returned to the ruling of the british, and then was taken again by the french. The island went back and forth until finally the Treaty of Amiens in 1802 declared the island to be under the spanish ruling.

During the civil war, Mahón was faithful to the Republic and the democratic government, not like the balearic capital, Mallorca, which allied with the subdelegates.

Starting in the 60's and 70's, Mallorca changed it's lifestyle, from agriculture and fishing, to tourism. Today it is it's most significant source of income.