Formentera in the context of "Kingdom of Majorca"

⭐ In the context of the Kingdom of Mallorca, Formentera’s initial inclusion within this realm resulted from a military campaign against which prior power?

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⭐ Core Definition: Formentera

Formentera (Balearic Catalan: [fuɾmənˈteɾə], Spanish: [foɾmenˈteɾa]) is a Spanish island located in the Mediterranean Sea, which belongs to the Balearic Islands autonomous community together with Mallorca, Menorca, and Ibiza.

Formentera is the smallest and most southerly island of the Pityusic Islands group (comprising Ibiza and Formentera itself, as well as various small islets). It covers an area of 83.24 square kilometres (32.14 sq mi), including offshore islets. At the 2011 Census, the population was 10,583; according to the Census of 1 January 2021, it counted 11,891 inhabitants, while the official estimate at 1 January 2023 was 11,389.

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👉 Formentera in the context of Kingdom of Majorca

The Kingdom of Mallorca was an insular realm off the east coast of modern day Spain, which included the islands of Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera. The islands were conquered from the Almohad Caliphate by James I of Aragon, and were integrated in the Crown of Aragon. The king became known as James the Conqueror due to the Conquest of Mallorca.

When James I died in 1276, he divided his territories between his three surviving sons. Peter, the eldest, succeeded his father in the mainland as Peter III of Aragon or Peter the Great. The Kingdom of Mallorca passed to the younger son James, who reigned as James II of Mallorca.

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Formentera in the context of Liber maiolichinus de gestis Pisanorum illustribus

The Liber maiolichinus de gestis pisanorum illustribus ("Majorcan Book of the Deeds of the Illustrious Pisans") is a Medieval Latin epic chronicle in 3,500 hexameters, written between 1117 and 1125, detailing the Pisan-led joint military expedition of Italians, Catalans, and Occitans against the taifa of the Balearic Islands, in particular Majorca and Ibiza, in 1113–5. The commune of Pisa commissioned it, and its anonymous author was probably a cleric. It survives in three manuscripts. The Liber is notable for containing the earliest known reference to "Catalans" (Catalanenses), treated as an ethnicity, and to "Catalonia" (Catalania), as their homeland.

The Liber, which is the most important primary source for the brief conquest of the Balearics, portrays the expedition as motivated by a desire to free Christian captives held as slaves by the Muslims and to curtail Muslim piracy "from Spain to Greece." Christian zeal is stressed no less than civic pride, and the account of the 1113 expedition is prefaced by a history of Pisan–Muslim conflicts in the eleventh century. The Liber is also the earliest source for the raid of the Norwegian king Sigurd Jorsalfar on Formentera, one of the Balearic islands and a hotbed of piracy.

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Formentera in the context of Pityusic Islands

The Pityusic Islands, often referenced simply as the Pityuses (Catalan: Pitiüses [piˈtjuzəs], Spanish: Pitiusas [piˈtjusas]; from the Greek πιτύα pitýa, pine tree), or commonly but informally (and ambiguously) as the Pine Islands, is the name given collectively to the Balearic Islands of Ibiza (Catalan: Eivissa), Formentera, S'Espalmador and other small islets in the Mediterranean Sea.

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