Mahón, capital and seaport of the Spanish island of Minorca. Minorca is the second largest and easternmost of the Balearic Islands, which lie off the eastern coast of Spain in the western Mediterranean and which collectively form an autonomous region and province of Spain. The city of Mahón lies near the end of a long and narrow arm of the sea that extends inland from the southeast coast of Minorca. The harbor is 5 km (3 mi) long and 0.8 km (0.5 mi) wide and can provide anchorage for a large fleet. The surrounding low hills provide a strong defensive position, and forts guard the entrance. The city is on level ground and forms an amphitheater about the anchorage.
Mahón was founded by the Carthaginians and named for Mago, brother of Carthaginian general Hannibal. It was captured by the Romans under Scipio Africanus the Elder in the Second Punic War (218-201 BC). The Arabs held Mahón from the 8th to the 13th century, when it was taken by the kingdom of Aragón. In the 16th century it was taken twice by the Barbary pirates, who also preyed on European and American shipping in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. In 1708 the British occupied Mahón as a base from which to keep watch on the French navy, berthed at nearby Toulon. The British retained Minorca in the Treaty of Utrecht, part of the peace settlement that concluded the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714), and they set about fortifying Mahón, which they renamed Port Mahón. French forces occupied the port from 1756 to 1762, and the British held the island from 1763 until 1782 and from 1798 to 1802, finally ceding it to Spain in 1802 under the terms of the Treaty of Amiens. Population (1998 estimate) 22,358.
