Mahón

Mahón, seaport, south-eastern Minorca, Balearic Islands, western Mediterranean Sea. The capital of the Spanish island of Minorca, Mahón (also known as Maó) lies near the end of a long narrow harbour that is 5 km (3 mi) long and 0.8 km (y mi) wide. The town is an important Spanish air and naval base and the harbour can provide anchorage for a large fleet. Two forts guard the port entrance and the surrounding low hills provide a strong defensive position, with the town forming an amphitheatre about the anchorage. Local industry is dominated by the defence forces with naval yards and machinery workshops, but wine, cheese, cattle, shoes, and iron are exported.

Mahón was founded by settlers from the city of Carthage (to the south-east in modern Tunisia) and named Portus Magonis after Mago, brother of the Carthaginian general Hannibal. It was captured by the Romans under Scipio Africanus the Elder in the Second Punic War (218-201 bc). The Moors held Mahón from the 8th to the 13th century, when it was taken (along with the rest of the Balearics) by the king of Aragón. In the 16th century it was twice captured by pirates from the Barbary Coast (known as corsairs). In 1708 the British occupied Mahón using it as a base from which to keep watch on the French navy, berthed at nearby Toulon, in France. The British retained Minorca in the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713 (see Peace of Utrecht) and they fortified Mahón, renaming it Port Mahón. French forces occupied the port from 1756 to 1762, and the British held the island from 1763 until 1782 and again from 1798 to 1802. The Spanish held Mahón from 1782 to 1798 and it was finally ceded to them in 1802 under the terms of the Treaty of Amiens. Population (1996 estimate) 21,884.