Great Historical Changes of the 20th Century in Ibiza

The last century in Ibiza has seen incredible changes all over the island. As an Easter special report, The Ibiza Sun has summarised some of the great events that have taken place on certain specific dates.

On the 25th April 1904 the king, Alfonso the 8th visited the island & after a trip around the Dalt Villa area he inaugurated the monument that is still standing at the end of the Vara del Rey in Ibiza Town. Around this time, it was interesting to note the high percentage of crimes of passion that occurred in Ibiza & made the national press. Between 1901 to 1905 there were over 20 murders involving knives or guns. This was very high in relation to the population of only 23500 people. The politicians of the day officially put this down to the jealousies that arose during the 'organised courtship' process that was typical to the island. This was called the 'Festeig' & involved the suitors all calling at the girls house at the same time & sitting with the possible future mother in law waiting to take a turn to win the affections of the daughter. This situation created a tremendous amount of one up man ship & competition between the suitors. The frustrations & jealousies that this custom aroused were taken to extreme heights with some suitors apparently killing off their competition! Apart from the high murder rate there was also a note sent to the regional governor in Palma complaining of the high rate of robberies on the island!

However not all was crime, the first cinema arrived on the island on the 21st March 1904. The machinery took several days to install & was set up in the theatre Peyera. Cinema was a real novelty for the islands inhabitants & anybody who was anybody soon became a real 'movie buff'.

The next important date was the 2nd September 1906 when the work on the Port of Ibiza in the form that we more or less know it today was started. The foundations were made of huge blocks of quarried stone, which was extracted, from a quarry that existed near the town called 'Clot Vermell'. They had to build a small gauge railway to get the stone to the harbour area via the Vara del Rey. As of now, the paper work was a problem & to get the port work started it had taken 20 years to get all the papers & permits passed & agreed upon.

Electricity finally arrived to the island in 1907 on the 8th July. The electricity generating station came on line allowing the streets of Ibiza Town to be lit for the first time. In the past they had been totally dark & obscure after sunset with the exception of a few isolated petrol burning street lamps. As the generating station increase in capacity, 2 locally important persons, Abel Matutes & Vicent Boned, had the vision to supply Sant Antoni & the other main towns so that they could also enjoy safer lit streets. After electricity was supplied to the towns for this use, it was later diverted to individual homes & the traditional ways of heating, lighting & cooking began to change to what we know today. Even so there are still parts of the island that do not have direct electricity supplies even now in the year 2001.

Health was & still is a problem on the island. In 1918 over 100 people died of flu after an epidemic, which claimed its first victim on the 24th October. The rest died over the following 2 months & there was a general break down in the running of the island as nearly everyone caught the bug in varying degrees of severity. The local authorities couldn't function as there were too many people off with colds & flu & the very rudimentary health system collapsed as all the staff got sick themselves & couldn't cope!

The next really important date was the 31st July 1919 as on that day alone over 500 young people from Ibiza & Formentera emigrated in one go from the island. The poor economy of the island based on agriculture & the very low-level industry was the reason most emigrated looking for better lives mostly in South America or the Spanish colonies of North Africa. Emigration stayed with the population of the islands right up to the 60's & also increased dramatically in the period of the Civil War in the 30's. The problem for the island was that it was often the most dynamic or intelligent sections of the population that had the vision to emigrate leaving behind a population that was everyday more unsuited to the demands of the modern, fast changing world of the 20th century.

Going back to the civil war, this officially started on the island on the 13th September 1936. Ibiza at that time was republican & was against Franco. In the first year of the war over 200 people were killed. On the 13th, the Italians bombed the town centre & port area of Ibiza at midday killing over 40 persons of which 27 were killed whilst eating in a local restaurant.

At night the local anarchist took revenge on the 150 supporters of Franco who they were holding as prisoners in the Castle prison. These anarchists machine-gunned them all to death despite the pleas from the less radical republican guards to stop. Later in the war a German Battleship, the Deustchland, was attacked in the harbour of Ibiza Town killing 30 sailors & towns folk.

When Franco finally won the war there was an incredibly bloody retribution amongst the locals against those that had supported the republicans. Those that escaped to France were later killed in Nazi prison of war camps when the Germans over ran the country in the Second World War. This particular phase in the history of the island is particularly painful as there were families torn apart by the conflict with brothers fighting against each other for the different sides. It has taken until the present day for certain families to heal the splits created at this time.

It is interesting to note that during the reign of Franco there was very little development on the island or interesting dates to report. Between the 40's & late 50's it was as if nothing seemed to happen!

According to local press reports, the present tourist boom started on the 1st June 1958. This was the date that the airport was opened & with it the life on Ibiza took a 180-degree turn. Unproductive land by the sea suddenly became valuable, as the number of visitors increased spectacularly each summer. Tourist building boomed, fortunes were made & in a period of less than 20 years the island went from comparative total poverty to one of the areas in Spain with the highest income per head.

In the 60's the hippy movement of the day was the problem that the British 'Hooligans' tourists are supposed to be nowadays. The then fledgling tourist industry saw these 'long haired drop outs', as they were described, as bad for the tourist industry. The Hippies were mostly Vietnam War draft dodgers & northern Europeans fed up with the system in their own country & were renowned for their consumption of drugs & free love experiences. In the end 41 were evicted from the island on the 30th September 1968 for drug dealing & immoral conduct. After this, the controversy died down with the Hippies more harmoniously integrating into the local society.

Another important date in the history of the island was the fatal plane crash on 7th January 1972. 104 people died when a passenger plane hit the mountaintop of Sa Talaia in the borough of Sant Josep. First on the scene was local farmer, Jose Ribas, who notified the police. A memorial service was held for all the dead the next day in Sant Josep. Touchwood, since this tragedy, there has not been another air accident in Ibiza.

Our present political system was introduced to the island when the new Spanish Constitution came into force after the death of Franco. What is now the Consell Island Government was formed on the 19th April 1979 giving a certain amount of auto determination to the island. Cosme Vidal Juan was the first President & he was followed at the next elections by Antonio Mari Calbet who represented the PP.Conservative party & maintained power for over 20 years.

It is really strange for us from Northern Europe to realise just how fresh & young democracy as we know it is on the island. For example the first green party was formed on the 29th October 1977. This was the foundation of what is now the GEN ecological & environmental group. It was formed to defend the countryside & coastline against the avalanche of tourist construction that had taken place since the 50's. Over the years this movement has grown in importance & actual Green Political parties have finally made it into power in local government. In 1999 the GEN managed to mobilise over 11000 people in a mass demonstration against the building of a golf course in Cala d'Hort. This was the biggest public demonstration in the history of the island. One of the consequences of this demonstration was the downfall of the ruling PP. Conservatives at the next elections on the 13th June 1999 when the electorate voted in a Left wing Coalition known as the Pacto with a female President, Pilar Costa.

[Courtesy of the Ibiza Sun]

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