Sardinia world (22 centenarians/100,000 inhabitants). Sardinia is the first discovered Blue Zone, a demographic and/or geographic area in the world with an oversize concentration of centenarians and supercentenarians. In 2016 there were 50,346 foreign national residents, forming 3% of the total Sardinian population. The most represented nationalities were: Sardinia's most populated cities are Cagliari and Sassari. The Metropolitan City of Cagliari has 431,302 inhabitants, or about ¼ of the population of the entire island. Eurostat has identified in Sardinia two Functional Urban Areas: Cagliari, with 477,000 inhabitants, and Sassari, with 222,000 inhabitants. Sardinia is one of the five Italian autonomous regions,
Spanish conquest of Sardinia Spanish conquest of Sardinia The Spanish conquest of Sardinia, also known as the Spanish expedition to Sardinia, took place between the months of August and November 1717. It was the first military action between the Kingdom of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire after the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714), and was the direct cause of the War of the Quadruple Alliance (1718–1720). The Spanish troops commanded by the Marquis of Lede and Don José Carrillo de Albornoz, 1st Duke of Montemar, supported by the Spanish fleet, defeated the Emperor's troops easily, and conquered the entire island of Sardinia,