Historical Landmarks

6000–1800BC Neolithic era; tribes settle on the island; first villages built.

4000–3000 BC Ozieri culture.

1800–900 BC Nuragic era; large tower-like structures (nuraghi) built.

800 BC Phoenicians set up trading posts on the island.

7th century BC Greek colonies founded.

6th century BC Carthaginians appropriate coastal regions.

AD227 Sardinia becomes a Roman province.

AD456 Sardinia annexed by the Vandals.

Early 700s Arabs pillage the island, and seize control of part of it in 752.

9th century Documents record a ‘giudice’, a governing figure.

1016 Pisa captures Sardinia from the Muslims.

1323–6 The Aragonese take control of Sardinia, with papal backing.

1383–1404 Reign of Eleonora; she promulgates Carta di Logu (1392).

1479 Sardinia becomes a province of newly united Spain.

1713–1720 Sardinia ceded to Austria, then to Savoy.

1792–1805 Sardinia remains unconquered during the Napoleonic Wars.

1815 Sardinia becomes part of an enlarged Kingdom of Piedmont Sardinia.

1861 Sardinia becomes part of the newly unified Italy.

1943 Cagliari suffers major bomb destruction in World War II.

1948 Sardinia is made an autonomous region.

1960s Development of Costa Smeralda; the island opens up to tourism.

Mid-1990s Last of the Sardinian mines closed.

2005 Four new Sardinian provinces created: Olbia-Tempio, Ogliastra, Carbonia-Iglesias and Medio-Campidano.

2008 Renato Soru resigns as president of Sardinia. American nuclear submarine base at La Maddalena is shut down.

2009 Soru stands for president; loses to right-wing Ugo Cappellacci.

2013 18 people die and 3,000 become homeless as Cyclone Cleopatra hits the island.

2014 Cappellacci is succeeded by Francesco Pigliaru of the centre-left Democratic Party. Matteo Renzi becomes Italy’s prime minister.

2015 Serving his second term, Italian president Giorgio Napolitano retires and is replaced by Sergio Mattarella.

2019 Right-wing coalition wins Sardinia’s local elections.