The Port of Mahón in the Balearic Islands, allegedly founded by Mago, still bears his name today. (The local egg sauce that is now consumed all over the world is called mayonnaise, named after the city.)

From Mahón, Mago leads a campaign to invade Italy (this time by sea) with fifteen thousand men in early summer of 205 BCE.

The army sails from Minorca to …

In 418 also, Severus, the bishop of Minorca, claims to have forced five hundred and forty Jews to accept Christianity upon conquering the island.

This first record of Jews on Minorca is also the first case of Jews being forced to choose between conversion and expulsion.

Barbarossa had managed to Tunis escape for the harbor of Bône, where a fleet was waiting for him. From there, he had sailed to the Balearics and sacked the port of Mahón, where he takes as many as six thousand captives and brings them as slaves to Algiers.

The Franco-Ottoman fleet, following their victory at Ponza, enters the waters of Majorca on August 13, 1552.

The Ottomans resist pressure from the French to send their fleet further west, perhaps for personal reasons of the commander or due to the continuing war with Persia.

The victory gives the Ottomans better facility to attack Sicily, Sardinia and the coasts of Italy for the next three years.

The Ottoman fleet begins in July to ravage the Balearic islands.

The Ottoman force consists of fifteen thousand soldiers on one hundred and fifty warships.

The Ottomans, after repulsing an attack on Mahón, ...

Minorca, invaded by Britain's Royal Navy in 1708 during the War of the Spanish Succession, temporarily becomes a British possession.

Britain takes possession of Minorca in 1713 under the terms of the Article XI of the Treaty of Utrecht.

Minorca in this period sees the island's capital moved to Port Mahon under the governorship of General Richard Kane, and a naval base established in this town's harbor.

British Admiral Thomas Mathews in 1742 had sent a small squadron to Naples to compel King Charles, later the King of Spain, to remain neutral.

It was commanded by Commodore William Martin, who refused to enter into negotiations, and gave the king half an hour in which to return an answer.

The Neapolitans were forced to agree to the British demands.

In June of that year, a squadron of Spanish galleys, which had taken refuge in the Bay of Saint Tropez, had been burnt by the fire ships of Mathews' fleet.

A Spanish squadron has meanwhile taken refuge in Toulon, and is watched by the British fleet from Hyeres.

The Spaniards on February 21, 1744 (N.S., 10 February O.S.) put to sea in company with a French force.

Mathews, who had now returned to his flagship, follows, and an confused engagement takes place on February 22, in which the Bourbon navies defeat the British off the coast of Toulon.

The Spanish, still on the defensive after a day of fighting, neglecte to capture the defenseless Marlborough, though they retake the Poder, which had previously surrendered to the British.

The Franco-Spanish fleet now resumes their flight to the southwest, and it is not until February 23 that the British are able to regroup and resume the pursuit.

They again catch up with the enemy fleet, which is hampered by towing damaged ships, and the unmaneuverable Poder is abandoned and scuttled by the French.

The British have by now closed to within a few miles of the enemy fleet, but Mathews again signals for the fleet to come to.

The Franco-Spanish fleet is almost out of sight on the following day, February 24, and Mathews returns to Hyeres, sailing thence to Port Mahon, where he arrives in early March.

The French land fifteen thousand troops under the command of the Duke of Richelieu on the western shore, spreading out to occupy the island before Byng arrives off Minorca.

Despite having considerable intelligence of the strength of the French fleet at Toulon that has been designated for the invasion of Minorca, the ships allocated to Byng are all in a poor state of repair and undermanned.

When Byng and his fleet, now numbering thirteen ships of the line (having been reinforced by ships of the Minorca squadron that had escaped the island), arrive off Minorca on May 19, they find the island already overrun by French troops, with only the garrison of St. Philip's Castle in (Port Mahon) holding out.

Byng's orders are to relieve the garrison, but a French squadron of twelve ships of the line and five frigates, commanded by the Marquis de La Galissonière, intervene as the afternoon is wearing on.

The two fleets position themselves, and ...

...battle is drawn up on the morning of the following day.

Facing twelve French ships of the line, Byng forms his twelve largest ships into a single line of battle and approaches the head of the French line on a parallel course while maintaining the weather gage.

He then orders his ships to go about and come alongside their opposite numbers in the French fleet.

However, the poor signalling capability of the times causes confusion and delay in closing.

Byng's flag captain points out to him that, by standing out of his line, he could bring the center of the enemy to closer action, but he declines because Thomas Mathews had been dismissed for so doing in 1744.

The British van takes a considerable pounding from their more heavily armed French adversaries, while the rear of the line, including Byng's flagship, fails to come within effective cannon range.

During the battle Byng displays considerable caution and an over-reliance on standard fighting procedures, and several of his ships are seriously damaged, while no ships are lost by the French.

Casualties are roughly even, with forty-three British sailors killed and one hundred and sixty-eight wounded, against French losses of thirty-eight killed and one hundred and seventy-five wounded.