Human life in Majorca is later than other places. For years, it was thought the island was populated around 4000 BC. However, this date is no longer valid as it is based on erroneous analyses. Although they disagree on the definite date, current pre-historians argue the date of population precedes 4000 BC, somewhere around 2000 BC.

Likewise, there is no certainty as to the origin of the first inhabitants. Different hypotheses explain that the first inhabitants may have come from other places in the Eastern Mediterranean as well as from the Iberian Peninsula.

From this moment onwards, a native culture started to develop, with continuous additions of new groups of foreign origin. Its zenith came during the so-called Talayotic period, approximately from 800 to 123 BC. This period’s main characteristic is the construction of cyclopean monuments, with large rocks placed one on top of the other.

The Talayotic period ended with the Roman conquest in 123 BC, triggering a fairly intense and progressive Romanization process. The Romans built the cities of Palma and Pollensa, introduced Latin and even established the Balearic Islands as a province of the Empire. It is during this period that the islands underwent Christianisation.

When crisis broke out in the Roman Empire, in the 5th century, Vandals took over the Balearic Islands, which became part of the ephemeral Vandal Kingdom. In the early 6th century, during Emperor Justinian’s reign, Byzantines eradicated that state and incorporated the archipelago to the Byzantine Empire. There are few historical facts regarding this period. So few, in fact that it is not clear whether the islands were still under Byzantine control when conquered by Muslims in 902.

Between 902 and 1229, the Balearic Islands, then known as the “Eastern Islands of al-Andalus”, were part of the Islamic world. Broadly speaking, their history follows the difficulties the Cordovan state went through. First, they were incorporated to the caliphate of Cordoba (902-105). Upon its collapse, after a brief period of independence under Mugatil, they became part of the Denia taifa (1015-1076), under emirs Muyahid and Ali. When the continental part of this taifa was occupied by the taifa of Zaragoza, the islands became independent again under al-Murtada (1076-1093) and Mubashir (1093-1115). Between 1114 and 1115, Majorca was plundered during the Pisan-Catalan raid. In 1115, the Almoravides settled the island and formed an independent government together with the Banu Ganiyya clan after having been expelled from al-Andalus by Almohades. Finally, in 1203, the Almohades occupied the island.

In 1229, the island underwent a drastic change. Majorca was conquered by the troops of James I and converted into a Christian kingdom and incorporated into the Crown of Aragon. The native population, of remote origins with specific immigrant contributions, and previously converted to Islam, was replaced by a new mainly Catalan population. They integrated in every aspect of the Catalan culture (politics, economy, arts, linguistics, etc).

Upon his death, James I turned the Majorcan kingdom, as well as the Northern Catalan counties (currently under French control) and the city of Montpellier, into an independent Catalan-Aragonese Crown, which had three kings; James II (1276-1311), Sancho (1311-1324) and James III (1324-1343). In 1343, the Catalan-Aragonese monarch Peter the Ceremonious started the occupation of the Majorcan kingdom, which collapsed upon James II's death in Llucmajor (Majorca) in 1349, while he was trying to regain his throne.

From that moment, the islands once again became part of the Crown of Aragon. It is worth mentioning that, throughout the 13th and 14th centuries, the island enjoyed great economic strength based on the mercantile sector. This was interrupted by wars and crises in the second half of the 14th and 15th centuries. One of the most direct consequences were the large-scale social uprisings, such as the 1391 attack on the Jews, leading to the decline of the island’s powerful Jewish community and its subsequent total eradication in 1435. Another uprising was that of the foreign peasants against the ruling city oligarchy during 1450-1452, and the 1521-1523 Germanía, a true class-clash process closing the Majorcan Middle Ages.