Palma, the economic and cultural center of Majorca, is a lovely base for exploring the island's many picturesque and bustling beaches. A former Moorish kasbah or fortified city, Palma's old town is a charming maze of narrow streets that's a pleasure to explore on foot. In the Middle Ages it was first conquered by the Arabs, who called it Mayurqa Madina and in 1229 by Jaime I, king of Valencia and Aragon, becoming an important commercial city. Palma saw its dark age in the 16th century, when it had a significant demographic decline caused by attacks by Turkish and Berber pirates and plague epidemics. It will last until the 18th century, when Felipe V changed the government making Palma the capital of the Balearic Islands. Later, Carlos III entered into a free trade pact with the Indies, an agreement that had a huge and positive financial impact on the island.
The city became a tourist destination in the 1950s and tourist numbers have steadily increased over the next half century. Palma is an active commercial and cultural center of Majorca and more than half of the island's population resides in this autonomous region of Spain's Balearic Islands.