The troops destined to Majorca and Ibiza in the eighteenth century: between precariousness and postponed projects

Abstract

This work assesses some major problems in Majorca and Ibiza after the assignation of a permanent army in their territory, which not only lacked suiting premises but had just hosted troops a few times in the previous three hundred years. The role granted to this territory by the Bourbon state was volatile, leaving it «on standby mode» as will be evidenced in the present analysis. Even though Majorca and Ibiza had belonged to the initial group of eight army intendencies designated by the Monarchy, the number of soldiers was not really high, and the investments made in their defence and the conditions of the troops were ostensibly insufficient. This standby situation was only altered by the passing of troops that were transferred to European battlefields and by strategic movements linked to the conquest of British Minorca, which explains the presence of these armed forces in Mallorca instead of defending the capital or in other areas facing Minorca. Throughout the 18th century, the majority of the army remained in rented dwellings that required continuous renovations to guarantee their habitability. Even worse was the situation at the military hospital located in Palma, where patients were stacked in unhealthy spaces as it happened in all of the Monarchy territories. Two factors helped to perpetuate this: the budgetary limitations of the Majorca army's treasury (increased by frequent agrarian crises and the islands' dependence of imports) and the secondary role of insular regions, even more so in Ibiza's case. Despite the existence of a number of new construction projects realized in the 18th century, none was taken into consideration. It was not until the Spanish confiscations of the nineteenth century that some suiting buildings at Majorca's capital were turned into quarters.