Cartoteca (Maps)

[Comte Arnau]

Fil per a mapes diversos sobre Catalunya i terres relacionades.
Thread aimed at maps about Catalonia and related lands.
---
Sea trade routes
As a major Mediterranean power, the Aragon-Catalonia commercial routes were important for the whole of Europe. The long sea trade traditions among Catalans pushed into an expansion into all corners of the Mediterranean and even into the Atlantic from the 10th century onwards. This led to a series of routes parting from Barcelona to all known ports (13th century), but five were the main ones:

1. The North-African Route (Algeria, Tunisia, Tripoli...) = gold and slaves
2. The Island Route (Majorca, Sardinia, Sicily...) = salt and wheat
3. The Byzantine Route (east to Constantinople) = cotton, spices and slaves
4. The Overseas Route (Cyprus, Syria, Alexandria...) = spices
5. The Western/Atlantic Route (up to Bruges) = distribution of eastern products all over Europe



Here the Catalan commercial areas among others in Europe such as the Hanseatic, the Genoese or the Venetian.

[Comte Arnau]

La mata de jonc a aquella força que, si tota la mata lligats ab una corda ben forts, e tota la volets arrencar ensems, dic-vos que deu hòmens, per bé que tiren, no l'arrencaran, ne encara con gaire més s'hi prenguessen; e si en llevats la corda, de jonc en jonc la trencarà tota un fadrí de vuit anys, que sol un jonc no hi romandrà. E així seria d'aquests tres reis (de la Corona d'Aragó, de Mallorca i de Sicília), que sientre ells havia devision neguna ne discòrdia, ço que Déus no vulla, fèts compte que han de tals veîns que pensarien de consumar la un ab l'altre. Per què és mester que d'aquest pas se guarden; que mentre tots tres sien d'una valença, no temen tot l'altre podr del món, ans, així con davant vos he dit, seran tots temps sobirans a llurs enemics.
Reed plants have that sort of strength that, if you tie them tight with a string and try to uproot them altogether, even if you try it with ten men, or more, you will not be able to do it. But if you do not use the string, an eight-year-old child will break it all and no reed will remain. And the same would happen to these three kings (Aragon, Majorca and Sicily), might there be any quarrels among them, for such are their neighbours. They must avoid that wrong step. For as long as the three of them are like one, they must not fear any other power in the world. On the contrary, they shall always triumph over their enemies.
(Ramon Montaner's Chronicle, 1325-28)

Fighting for the power in the Western Mediterranean and the conquest of Sardinia, the 1330s were a decade of wars between the Catalans and the Genoese, with the movements (in orange) of the Catalan-Majorcan attack (1331) and the Genoese counterattack (in green, 1332) reflected on the map. The cities in red prepared the Catalan fleet against Genoa, as the Catalans were fed up with the Genoese corsair raids.