Battle of Majorca a seaborne attack on the Balearic Islands seem to have surfaced independently in various Republican militia groups in the days following the joining of Ibiza, Formentera, and Majorca to Franco's Nationalist military rebellion. Already, on July 23, bomber squadrons struck Palma and Cabrera, and on August 1, a Republican expeditionary force from Menorca landed at Cabrera and resisted all efforts to dislodge it. These actions, however, and in particular the Majorca landings, were never approved by the Madrid government and had from the very beginning an air of confusion and improvisation. On August 2, Bayo assembled a column of Barcelona
Conquest of Majorca a combination of economic and strategic factors. Valencia was a rich land that could be used to provide new territory for the population of the Kingdom of Aragon, and Catalonia offered new fiefdoms for the nobility. The king of Castile, Ferdinand III, had tried to take parts of Valencia that were, in principle, reserved for the king of Aragon. Meanwhile, a conquest of the Balearic Islands enabled Catalan and Provence merchants to eliminate competition from Majorcan merchants and also dismantle the Barbary pirates who used Majorca as a safe haven. The taking of the Balearic Islands represented not only a