Sardinia As A Crossroads In The Mediterranean 3
the Spanish, to accommodation of the Savoy, to the plethora of contemporary
“independence” parties, the Sardinian spirit for autonomy has persisted.1
Another recurrent theme that emerges from this research reflects how the
local inhabitants responded to the ebb and flow of foreigners. Their mutual
relations could variously be characterized as symbiotic or hostile, depending
on the time and place. Sardinians often adapted foreign political structures to
pre-existing local forms of governance. To this day, it is difficult to attribute the
socioeconomic effects on Sardinia, solely to Spanish-Catalan-Aragonese influ-
ence, their predecessors, the Genoese and Pisans, or to something intrinsically
Sardinian. We frequently come back to the question of what “being Sardinian”
truly means.2 Adjectives like “independent” and “proud” are usually attached
to any description.
Nevertheless, Sardinians often accommodated foreign immigration and
investment, and benefitted from this co-existence. After all, continental mer-
chant families who came to Sardinia in the eleventh century for commercial
opportunities, augmented the circulation of goods, helped build infrastructure
along the coasts, and provided services. As the relationship between Sardinians
and the settlers developed, it led to more formal donations, privileges, marriag-
es, alliances, and the construction of churches. This era, from the second half
of the eleventh to the first half of the thirteenth century is considered to be, by
some, the pinnacle of Sardinia during the Middle Ages.
By no means did all of Sardinia’s occupiers cultivate beneficial relationships
with the island, and their exploitation gave rise to periodic cries for indepen-
dence. One of the official reasons cited for why merchant families from Pisa
and Genoa were welcomed by Sardinians was supposedly to protect against
hostilities from Muslim fleets. Ultimately, mercantile reasons for remaining
prevailed. The newfound success of the continental families attracted the
interest of other powers, who sought a share in the opportunity represented
by Sardinia. Tense competition between native Sardinians, foreign families,
the Holy Roman Empire, and the church resulted in Sardinians, once again,
resenting the presence of outside forces that imposed themselves upon the
island. The Pisan and Genoese turned from allies against the Muslims into
1 Eve Hepburn, “The Polarisation and De-polarisation of Sardinian Nationalism,” paper pre-
sented at the conference “New Challenges for Stateless Nationalists and Regionalists. Adapting
to Multi-level, Multi-dimensional Politics in Europe,” University of Edinburgh, 30 November–
1 December 2007.
2 Antonello Mattone, “Insularità e Isolamento” and “Centri e Periferie,” in L’Età Moderna.
Dagli Aragonesi alla fine del dominio spagnolo, eds Bruno Anatra, Antonello Mattone, and
Raimondo Turtas (Milan, 1989), pp. 13–19.