Sardina

History

Sardinia is one of the oldest geological areas of Europe.

Even if the evidence of human presence dates back to the Paleolithic period, permanent settlements appear much later, in the Neolithic Age, around 6000 BC.

The first people to settle in the north of Sardinia, probably come from the Italian mainland, especially from Etruria (modern Tuscany), while those that lived in the central region of the island around the salt lakes of Cabras and St Just are probably arrived from the Iberian peninsula through the Balearic Islands. Settlements based around the Gulf of Cagliari seem to be of different origin.

From 1500 BC onwards, the villages were built around the round tower-fortresses called Nuraghi, which were often reinforced and expanded. The boundaries of tribal territories were often protected by small nuraghi erected on strategic hills, from where they could monitor large tracts of territory. Today about 7,000 nuraghi dot the landscape of Sardinia.

Around 1000 BC the Phoenicians began to visit Sardinia with increasing frequency, probably for the initial needs of a safe haven along the trade routes from the coast of modern Lebanon reaching the Atlantic coast of Europe.

In 509 BC, as a result of their increased importance, the Phoenician settlements were attacked, so they had to enlist the help of Carthage to defend themselves.

The Carthaginians, after a series of military campaigns, succed in the defeat of Sardinians conquering the mountainous interior. For 271 years, the civilization of Carthage flourished alongside the local culture, until 238 BC, when the Carthaginians, as a result of their defeat against the Romans in the first Punic war, had to cede Sardinia to Rome.

Sardinia became a Roman province, though, especially in central areas of Barbagia Roman culture never replace entirely the Sardinian.

Roman domination in Sardinia lasted 694 years, until in 456 AD, the Vandals occupied Caralis together with other coastal cities. About a century later, the island, conquered by Justinian, became part of the Eastern Roman Empire.

The island was divided into districts called merèie, ruled by a judge residing in Caralis and guarded by an army stationed in Trajan Forum.

From 710 onwards, as a result of incursions and attacks by the Moors and Berbers, the judge decided to entrust the provincial civil and military powers to four lieutenants of Cagliari, Torres or Logudoro, Arborea and Gallura. Around 900, this four cities gained independence becoming a state. Each kingdom was governed according to democratic rules, through their own parliament, its laws, language, State emblems and symbols, etc.

Towards the end of the thirteenth three of these four kingdoms ceased to exist: Cagliari and Torres came under the control of the Republic of Genoa, the Gallura became territory of Pisa, while Arborea allied with the house of Aragon against Pisa, managed to resist much longer.

The role of the kingdom of Arborea in Sardinia history is crucial: when the other judges came under the control of foreign powers, the kings of Arborea began to see themselves as the only legitimate defender of the Sardinian government and the interests of Sardinia. Not only waging war against the King of Aragon, who tried to conquer the whole of Sardinia, but also formalizing the legal institutions and policies that were the basis of their statehood and independence.

In 1353 Peter IV of Aragon granted the kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica, a parliament with very limited powers. Also introduced the feudal system in the areas of Sardinia under its control. The kingdoms of Sardinia, however, have never fully adopted feudalism, and the Kingdom of Arborea has kept its parliament called "Corona de Logu".

From 1365 to 1409 a number of Arborea judges succeeded in occupying the whole of Sardinia with the exception of fortified cities of Alghero and Cagliari, which for years have been the only Aragonese domain in Sardinia.

The kingdom of Abrorea sees its end in 1409 following the Battle of Sanluri, against the King of Sicily Martin I of Aragon. The conquest of Sardinia by the Kingdom of Aragon and the subsequent loss of independence also meant the introduction of the feudal system throughout Sardinia. Thus, Sardinia is probably the only European country where feudalism was introduced during a period of transition from medieval to modern times, at a time when feudalism had been abandoned by many other European countries.

In 1479, following the marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, the "kingdom of Sardinia" became Spanish, taking as a symbol of the state's famous Four Moors.

In 1708, as a result of the War of Spanish Succession, the control of the kingdom of Sardinia passed into the hands of the Austrians, who landed on the island.

In 1717, Cardinal Giulio Alberoni, minister of Philip V of Spain, brings the Sardinia back under Spanish control, even if for only one year. In 1718, in fact, with the Treaty of London, Sardinia became the territory of the House of Savoy.

In 1799, as a result of the Napoleonic wars in Italy, the dukes of Savoy left Turin and took refuge in Cagliari for some fifteen years.

In 1847 the Sardinians spontaneously give up their autonomy to join with Piedmont in order to have a single parliament, a single judiciary system and a single government in Turin.

From that moment the Sardinian history coincides with that of the Kingdom of Sardinia under the control of the Savoy, until Italian unification in 1861.