The history of Mallorca is very old since the island has been inhabited way back in the Paleolithic period. The first inhabitants of Mallorca came from the sea and lived in natural caves along the coastline. The next group of settlers decided to settle further away from the sea and built dwellings from immense stones. Their dwellings of which there were around a thousand of them recorded are called talaiots.

When the Phoenicians, Greeks, and Carthaginians started migrating from Central Asia to the west they found Mallorca and traded with the people there although the Carthaginians settled and occupied the islands. This continued until 123 BC when the Romans under the command of Quintus Caecilius Metellus arrived and set up colonies all over the island. Of the cities they built the most important, which is Pollentia (now Alcudia) and Palmaria (now Palma), still have some remaining structures which are tourist attractions nowadays. The Romans also introduced olive cultivation, viniculture, and salt mining. To this day the olive groves in Mallorca are quite a site to behold and remain to be one of the many sites tourists love to visit.

Mallorca became Christianized after it was conquered by the Byzantine Empire and declared to be part of Sardinia in 534 AD. This was true until Muslim “visitors” from North Africa started attacking Mallorca around 707 AD and the Moors conquered it in 902 AD. The Moors left a legacy of improved irrigation for agriculture and let Mallorca flourish.

Mallorca was then ruled by one conqueror after another until King James I of Aragon and Catalonia annexed the island and conquered the Moors. On his demise in 1276 the island was divided into two with his son James II declared as king of the Kingdom of Mallorca. The Kingdom flourished under his rule but again lost its independence in 1344 when King Peter IV of Aragon incorporated the island back into the Crown of Aragon.

Now Mallorca is part of the Kingdom of Spain but along with the rest of the Balearic Islands has their own autonomic government and local administrative bodies.