The island of Menorca is the southernmost place in Europe where gin (the alcoholic beverage) is produced.
Gin is a drink from the British tradition, and so is almost exclusively produced in countries of the English-speaking world.
Why, then, is Menorca an exception? Because Menorca was ruled by Britain for almost a century, from 1713 to 1802.
This happened as a result of the Spanish War of Succession, in which the two independent entities that had the same monarchy fought for who should be the next king. On one side, Castille wanted Philip V of the house of Bourbon, and was helped by its ally France, which was also ruled by Bourbons.
On the other side, the kingdoms that formed the Crown of Aragon (the Kingdom of Mallorca, València, Catalonia, and Aragon itself) refused the Bourbon rule that would make one single dynasty have absolute power over most of Europe, and whose kings were known for their absolutism and centralism. Instead, they proposed as king the Archduke Charles of Austria, brother of the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, and who had promised to respect each kingdom’s political independence, languages, laws, and traditional institutions.
If France and the Hispanic monarchy (the two largest empires in the world at the time) united, they would form a universal and undefeatable empire. For this reason, France’s rivals (the UK, the Netherlands, and Portugal) joined the war in favour of Charles of Austria. But after some years of war, Charles’ brother suddenly died, and thus Charles became emperor. Now, these countries that had joined the war to stop a global empire found that if their candidate Charles won, they would have the same problem: now it would be the Hispanic monarchy and the Holy Roman Empire to unite and form a huge empire that would dominate all Europe. So they made a deal with the other side: the Peace of Utrecht (1713). As compensation for leaving the war (which meant giving an easy victory to the Bourbons), the Bourbons had to accept to never unite France and Spain, to give lands and colonial privileges to the UK, and to hand two strategic territories in the Mediterranean to the UK: Gibraltar and Menorca.
But the people from the Catalano-Aragonese territories knew that losing that war would mean centuries of repression and imposition of Castille (as it finally did: our languages and traditional laws and institutions were banned and we were forced to replace them with the Spanish ones, our territories stopped being ruled by councils and became ruled by an absolute monarchy and Spanish gobernadores chosen by the monarchy, our universities were closed, etc), so they did not stop fighting, even if it meant fighting alone against the some of the most powerful armies in Europe.
While the Catalano-Aragonese territories continued to fight alone, the British occupied Menorca.
The British occupation of Menorca has left many elements that still persist in today’s culture. Gin, which has become a popular drink, is one of them. The British legacy can also be seen the architecture of some buildings around the island (such as the City Hall of Es Castell, in the photo above), or defence structures such as the Marlborough Fort.
Interestingly, English has also left traces in the Catalan language that is spoken in the island. For example, “escrú” means “screw” (instead of standard Catalan “tornavís”), “ull blec” means “black eye” (instead of “ull morat”), or the expression “quatre mens i un boi” (“four men and a boy”, meaning very few people) instead of standard Catalan “quatre homes i un noi”. Another word, which reflects the British domination of the island, is miledi (from “milady”), a word to call a pale woman, usually an English one.
Nevertheless, the British were more permissive than the Spanish, and allowed Menorcans to still speak their language, Catalan, and keep some of their institutions.
