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•A Brief History
• A handful of Bronze Age relics has fostered an assumption
that prehistoric settlers inhabited Ibiza thousands of years ago.
Greater evidence of such a people is found on Mallorca and Menorca than
on Ibiza, but one of the Balearics’ most important sites is actually on
the island of Formentera, where the megalithic monument/tomb of Ca Na
Costa has been dated to 2000 b.c.
•Ibiza’s key location between Africa and ancient Iberia made
it a convenient stopover for Mediterranean seafarers, such as the
Phoenician traders, who called the island Ibosim. The Greeks dubbed it
Ebysos, the Romans called it Ebusus, and the Moors, Yebisah.
•The Carthaginians
•A detailed history of the island doesn’t begin until it
became a colony of Carthage in the 7th century b.c. (see also pages
14-15). The Carthaginians originally came from the area comprising
present-day Lebanon, and from their bases in North Africa and what’s
now Spain, they challenged the Roman Empire for domination of the
Mediterranean region. Their interest in Ibiza lay partly in its vast
salt flats, which to this day remain the source of a profitable
industry. They capitalized on the natural resources by using the salt
to cure fish, which they exported to their home country. The
Carthaginians also carried out lead mining and continued to be of
significance up until this century. It is believed that the lead
pellets which were used by the Carthaginian general Hannibal were made
on Ibiza.
•The Carthaginians also considered the island a holy place,
and here in great splendour they buried thousands of their citizens in
a huge necropolis on the Puig des Molins (Hill of the Windmills) below
the Dalt Vila (Old Town) of Ibiza. Under the gnarled olive trees
archaeologists have uncovered a treasure trove of statues, jewellery,
pitchers, tools, and coins, which are now displayed in the town’s two
archaeological museums.
•The Romans
•The Romans never really infiltrated Ibiza, and even after
the defeat of Hannibal in 202 b.c. during the Second Punic War their
influence was restrained. Only with the fall of Carthage in 146 b.c.
did they manage to make inroads, but, as local historians stress, Ibiza
was neither conquered nor annexed by Rome, but confederated, retaining
remarkable autonomy. For centuries to come the old Carthaginian
traditions were allowed to continue on Ibiza alongside the new Roman
way of life. Meanwhile on the Iberian peninsula, Rome was leaving a
decisive imprint on the area’s language, culture, and government, and
particularly in its engineering genius in the construction of roads,
aqueducts, and monuments.
•The Romans also exploited Ibiza’s natural resources. They
exported salt from the southern end of the island and lead from the
mines of Sant Carles, and at the same time extracted a purple dye from
shellfish which was used for imperial cloaks. In addition they found a
moneymaker in an exotic, aromatic sauce of decomposed fish innards.
Called garum, it was considered a great delicacy by Romans and Greeks
alike. (Today it is but a historical footnote; local cooks use nothing
more pungent than a hint of garlic. )
•The Moors
•After centuries of peace and productivity, the year a.d.
426 marked the beginning of an era of strife, violence, and
destruction. Ibiza, along with the rest of what is now Spain, was
invaded and sacked by the Germanic tribe of the Vandals, who occupied
the island and quickly imposed their culture. Centuries of almost
constant repressive foreign rule followed, with the Vandals being
succeeded by the Byzantines, Saracens, and Moors.
•The Moorish conquest of the Balearics was complete by a.d.
903, and except during the periodic outbreaks of violence typical of
that time, the Moors devoted themselves to developing the island
economy and agriculture. However, little evidence remains of that
era — some ceramics in the museum, a few fortifications, a network of
irrigation ditches. For the most part, the Moorish legacy is manifested
in a few local place names, some words in the Ibicenco dialect, and an
indelible influence on the island’s folk music. Indeed, perhaps the
most vivid reminder of the Moors are the dark, brooding eyes of so many
of the islanders of today.
•Christian Reconquest
•The Moors were determined to carry Islam into Europe. To
this end they invaded Spain itself and even reached up into France
until they were beaten by the Frankish ruler Charles Martel in 732. But
after the Crusade of Pisa (see page 19), Islamic power waned, and in
the early 13th century Ibiza was embraced by the Christian Reconquest.
King James I of Aragon authorized the occupation of the islands under
forces commanded by Guillermo de Montgri, a solid Catalonian citizen
with titular ecclesiastical rank. After a few skirmishes, the
Catalonian troops were ready to deal the death blow. One pincer
battered its way through the rebuilt city wall, while the other — so it
is said — infiltrated through a secret passage revealed to the invaders
by the brother of the sheik himself. According to legend the embittered
traitor gave the game away because the passionate sheik had seduced his
wife.
•Thus, violently, in August 1235, both Christianity and the
Catalonian language came to Ibiza to stay. On the mainland, the
Reconquista (Reconquest) continued for another two and one-half
centuries. The Moors suffered a major setback in 1212 at the battle of
Navas de Tolosa in northern Andalusia, but they still clung to the
kingdom of Granada and were only finally evicted from there in
1492.
•Booty and Plunder
•Elsewhere, great events were changing the shape of the
world. Under Ferdinand and Isabella, the unity of Spain as the country
we know today was finally achieved, and it was carrying their flag that
in 1492 Christopher Columbus sailed westwards and discovered America.
Soon Spain found itself the recipient of immense wealth in the form of
gold and silver, and the Spanish rulers, eager for more, turned their
attention away from the Mediterranean and Ibiza towards both the New
World and the heart of Europe, where Spanish ambitions rapidly
expanded. Ibiza became a mere backwater, largely forgotten but for
shipwreck or plague.
•The moment that the Spanish monarchs looked the other way,
the daring pirates of the North African Barbary Coast — and
elsewhere — moved in. The Ibicencos fortified the bulwarks and built
additional towers and fortresses throughout to help shield themselves
against enemy incursions. Despite their efforts, however, Ibiza was
menaced by so many hostile flotillas that the locals took the
unprecedented step of forming their own band of privateers. To the
Berbers’ amazement the tables were turned, and it wasn’t long before
the Ibicencos were boarding the enemy’s brigantines on the open seas
and “liberating” the pirates’ booty — even that of the greatly feared
“Pope” (see box). Today an obelisk in Ibiza’s port honours the daring
Corsairs.
•Reminders of the permanent threat posed by pirates can be
found everywhere on Ibiza. In the towns it is notable that the churches
and other focal points from that period were built on an elevated site
to provide lookout posts and early warning systems. In many isolated
regions, meanwhile, last-ditch defences in the form of round stone
towers were built, a few of which are still inhabited today. An unusual
collection of such towers can be seen from the Sant Joan road in a
hamlet with the Moorish name of Balafi, near the village of Sant
Lorenç.
•Political Turmoil
•In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Spain was both
economically weak and politically unstable. It lost its empire in
America and the Pacific, and then in 1923 suffered a humiliating defeat
in Morocco at the hands of local rebels. Under King Alfonso XIII
neither dictatorship nor constitutional government was able to create
and sustain domestic tranquillity, with the result that following
anti-royalist election results in 1931 the king went into exile.
•The turbulence continued under the new republic continued
to be turbulent, however, with bitter ideological divisions between
parties and factions, involving the church as well. Finally, in 1936, a
large section of the army under General Francisco Franco rose in
revolt, claiming the support of the monarchists, conservatives, the
Church, and the right-wing Falange party, the fascist movement which
had been founded in 1933 and which Franco subsequently declared to be
the only legal party in Spain. Opposing him was a collection of
republicans, liberals, socialists, communists, and anarchists.
•The Spanish Civil War became one of the causes célèbres of
the 20th century, with support for both sides being rallied in many
countries outside Spain. In Ibiza several families were torn in their
loyalties between the Republican and Nationalist causes. The bloodshed
lasted three years and cost hundreds of thousands of lives, and almost
every family on Ibiza — not to mention the mainland — was touched by
tragedy. Ibiza, Formentera, and Menorca were all captured by loyalist
forces, who used the islands as a base for their naval operations.
Hardship was compounded with the advent of World War II, even though
Spain stayed neutral throughout the war.
•The shattered Spanish economy inched forward during the
post-war years. For Ibiza the breakthrough came in the 1960s, with the
introduction of wide-bodied jets and a significant surge in tourism.
Following the expansion of the airport, the island entered the big
league of international holiday resorts.
•After the death of Franco in 1975, King Juan Carlos I
restored democracy to Spain. In free elections in June 1977, moderates
and democratic socialists emerged as the largest parties. Ibiza’s new
freedom meant the renaissance of the Ibicenco language and culture
after decades of suppression, and participation in Catalonia’s newly
won autonomy. Free speech and free elections were not the only
innovations: gambling was legalized and nude bathing was sanctioned.
Change swept through Ibiza dramatically, irrevocably, almost
overnight.
•Modern Times
•Since then, the development of Ibiza has continued, and
the island’s fortunes are now almost completely derived from tourism.
Changes on mainland Spain have inevitably been felt on Ibiza also, but
their effect has been largely beneficial. The Socialist Workers’ Party
of Felipe González Márquez was elected in 1982 and his government
committed itself to Spain’s integration into the European Union
(formerly the European Community). As a precondition to admission, the
border with Gibraltar was reopened in 1985 after a 16-year hiatus, and
Spain was admitted to the EU in 1986. In spite of high unemployment and
separatist rumblings, the country’s economic growth rate remained one
of the highest in all of western Europe throughout the 1980s. Although
Ibiza’s popularity as a holiday destination has never waned, the events
of the past few years — Seville Expo ‘92, the Barcelona Olympics — have
ensured its continued success.
