A Mediterranean Emporium

Situated astride the trade routes of the western Mediterranean, the Catalan kingdom of Majorca has long deserved attention. It was established under the will of King James I of Aragon, who conquered Majorca in 1229, but was ruled from 1276 to 1343 by a cadet dynasty. In addition to the Balearic Islands the kingdom included the key business centres of Montpellier and Perpignan, and other lands in what is now southern France. It was also home to important Jewish and Muslim communities, and was the focus of immigration from Catalonia, Provence and Italy. This book emphasises the major transformations in the trade of the Balearic Islands from the eve of the Catalan conquest to the Black Death, and the effect of the kingdom's creation and demise on the economy of the region. Links between the island and mainland territories, and as far afield as England and the Canaries, are analysed in depth.

Considering the influence of the forms and tectonics of the Mediterranean vernacular on modern architectural practice and discourse from the 1920s to the 1960s.

This book addresses contemporary geographical issues in the Mediterranean Basin from a perspective that recognizes the physical characteristics and cultural interactions which link the different Mediterranean states as a recognisable geographic entity. Sixteen chapters each deal with a major geographical issue currently facing the Mediterranean, each providing an invaluable summary of the extensive but widely dispersed literature relating to Mediterranean issues. Particular emphasis is placed on the interaction between society and environment in terms of environmental management, differential regional development and its associated political, demographic, cultural and economic tensions.

A history of this hub of culture and commerce: “Enviable readability . . . an excellent classroom text.” —European History Quarterly Located at the intersection of Asia, Africa, and Europe, the Mediterranean has connected societies for millennia, creating a shared space of intense economic, cultural, and political interaction. Greek temples in Sicily, Roman ruins in North Africa, and Ottoman fortifications in Greece serve as reminders that the Mediterranean has no fixed national boundaries or stable ethnic and religious identities. In The Mediterranean World, Monique O’Connell and Eric R. Dursteler examine the history of this contested region from the medieval to the early modern era, beginning with the fall of Rome around 500 CE and closing with Napoleon’s attempted conquest of Egypt in 1798. Arguing convincingly that the Mediterranean should be studied as a singular unit, the authors explore the centuries when no lone power dominated the Mediterranean Sea and invaders brought their own unique languages and cultures to the region. Structured around four interlocking themes—mobility, state development, commerce, and frontiers—this book, including maps, photos, and illustrations, brings new dimensions to the concepts of Mediterranean nationality and identity.

A pioneering account of the dynastic struggle between the kings of Aragon and the Angevin kings of Naples, which shaped the commercial as well as the political map of the Mediterranean and had a profound effect on the futures of Spain, France, Italy and Sicily. David Abulafia does it full justice, reclaiming from undeserved neglect one of the formative themes in the history of the Middle Ages.

In British Shipping in the Mediterranean during the Napoleonic Wars Katerina Galani offers a detailed account of Britain’s successful adaptation to economic warfare at sea during the intermittent conflicts of the late 18th century.

Reading crusader fiction against the backdrop of Mediterranean history, this book explains how Iberian authors reimagined the idea of crusade through the lens of Iberian geopolitics and social history. The crusades transformed Mediterranean history and inaugurated complex engagements between Western Europe, the Balkans, North Africa, and the Middle East in ways that endure to this day. Narratives of crusades powerfully shaped European thinking about the East and continue to influence the representation of interactions between Christian and Muslim states in the region. The crusade, a French idea that gave rise to Iberian, North African, and Levantine campaigns, was very much a Mediterranean phenomenon. French and English authors wrote itineraries in the Holy Land, chronicles of the crusades, and fanciful accounts of Christian knights who championed the Latin Church in the East. This study aims to explore the ways in which Iberian authors imagined their role in the culture of crusade, both as participants and interpreters of narrative traditions of the crusading world from north of the Pyrenees.

Conventional scholarship on the Mediterranean portrays the Inner Sea as a timeless entity with unchanging ecological and agrarian features. But, Faruk Tabak argues, some of the "traditional" and "olden" characteristics that we attribute to it today are actually products of relatively recent developments. Locating the shifting fortunes of Mediterranean city-states and empires in patterns of long-term economic and ecological change, this study shows how the quintessential properties of the basin -- the trinity of cereals, tree crops, and small livestock -- were reestablished as the Mediterranean's importance in global commerce, agriculture, and politics waned. Tabak narrates this history not from the vantage point of colossal empires, but from that of the mercantile republics that played a pivotal role as empire-building city-states. His unique juxtaposition of analyses of world economic developments that flowed from the decline of these city-states and the ecological change associated with the Little Ice Age depicts large-scale, long-term social change. Integrating the story of the western and eastern Mediterranean -- from Genoa and the Habsburg empire to Venice and the Ottoman and Byzantine empires -- Tabak unveils the complex process of devolution and regeneration that brought about the eclipse of the Mediterranean.