Prospect des Königlichen Zollhausses in dem Hafen zu Port Mahon auf der Insul Minorca in dem Mittelländischen

Title

Prospect des Königlichen Zollhausses in dem Hafen zu Port Mahon auf der Insul Minorca in dem Mittelländischen

Description

Representation of the harbour of Mahon in Minorca.

ca. 1770

Artist

Leizelt

Balthasar Friedrich Leizelt, active 1750–1800, was a German artist and copperplate engraver working from Augsburg. Leizelt produced a series of European and American scenic views at a time when pictures of foreign countries and people were popular and designed for use in optical viewers. As is normal for these prints the series title is a mirror image because optical viewers made use of mirrors which reversed the image. The so-called peep box picture.

Historical Description

Menorca was influenced by many peoples: Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, Moors, Spanish, British and French. In 425 the Vandals under Gunderic took possession of the Balearic Islands and with them Menorca. Around 560 they came under the Eastern Roman Empire, from the latter to the Republic of Pisa and in 798 into the hands of the Moors and then - after a Frankish interlude - belonged to the Caliphate of Cordoba. Menorca was reconquered by the Moors in 1287 under Alfonso III, and the entire Muslim population was enslaved. Menorca now belonged to the Crown of Aragon, as did Catalonia. At times, together with parts of Catalonia, they formed an independent state ruled by a collateral line of the Aragonese royal house, the Kingdom of Mallorca. In 1344, Peter IV of Aragon conquered the Balearic Islands. Now the islands were united with the ancestral lands of the dynasty. Finally, through the union of the crowns of Aragon and Castile, they became part of the Spanish monarchy. In 1708 Maó was conquered by the British. The Peace of Utrecht (1713), which ended the War of the Spanish Succession, awarded Menorca to the British Empire. During the Seven Years' War, the island was occupied by France in 1756, but in the Peace of Paris in 1763 it was again granted to Great Britain. After Spain and France entered the American War of Independence, Spanish-French troops conquered the island in 1782. In the Peace of Versailles (1783), Great Britain had to formally return the island to Spain, but from 1798 to 1802 Menorca was again occupied by Britain. In 1833, the Spanish province of the Balearic Islands was established.