A History of the Maltese Islands
by Mark Busuttil
Since the beginning of History, the island’s strategic position at the heart of the Mediterranean has attracted several civilisations, which in turn followed over 4,000 years of prehistoric ones. It is possible that the Maltese islands once formed part of a land bridge that joined North Africa to Europe. Remains of African animals, for example elephants, were found on archaeological digs in caves on Malta. Another theory states that Malta was only joined to Europe and these animals crossed over from what are now the straits of Gibraltar.
It is thought that as early as 5000BC the first inhabitants crossed over from
Sicily bringing with them a few simple tools, seeds and domestic animals. They
traded between Sicily and its islands for flint and other resources that were
not available on Malta.
A unique dugout system of temples named the Hypogeum and several stone-temples scattered all over the islands are proof of first civilisations and easily date back 7,000 years. Neolithic civilisations were followed by the copper and bronze age ones. Like the Hypogeum, the Temples at Tarxien, Imnajdra and Hagar Qim on Malta date back to the ‘Copper Age’.
On Gozo, at Xaghra, one finds the fascinating Ggantija Megalithic Temples. They are considered to be the oldest free-standing stone constructions in the world. They were built about 3,500 BC, a thousand years before the earliest pyramid in Egypt.
The era between about 2000 and 800 BC is known as the ‘Bronze Age’. In the Bronze Age, Malta probably experienced a cultural shift from the development of long established local cultures to what is believed to be the introduction of cultures by separate colonisations of Malta from elsewhere.
The Phoenicians first reached our shores to establish a first Punic colony in the ninth century BC while venturing to trade within the Mediterranean. At about 600BC, their Punic cousins, the Carthaginians followed until they were in turn, conquered by the Romans in the third century BC.
The Romans invaded from Marsala in Sicily at about 218BC and established the Island as an Imperial Province, giving the ‘Municipium’ status with autonomy for self government. Within the Roman world, Malta had become famous for the production of textiles and honey. The name Malta is possibly derived from the Latin word for honey. The Maltese Islands were governed by the Romans until the division of the Roman Empire over 700 years later, in the fourth century AD.
In the year 60AD, St Paul was shipwrecked on Malta on his way to Rome. His stay here was a short one but of great importance as he converted the island to Christianity and appointed St. Publius as the first bishop of Malta.
Towards the end of the 4th century, Malta was placed under the jurisdiction of the Eastern Roman Empire based in Constantinople, modern day Istanbul.
The Arabs ruled our islands between the ninth and the thirteenth century. They came from various North African countries and drastically influenced our culture and language before being driven out by the Normans some time around 1230AD. Count Roger invaded from Sicily in 1090 but the Arabs were not expelled from Malta for another 150 years.
In the 14th century the Aragonese dominated over the Maltese islands until 1530 when the King of Spain granted the islands on fief to the International Order of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem.
In 1551 Gozo was attacked by the Ottoman Turks and the whole population was taken into slavery. Gozo’s population at the time was about 5000 people and they were all taken to Tarhuna in Libya.
One of the most famous events in our history was the Great Siege of 1565, the victory of which is still celebrated today on the 8th September. With 181 ships and an army of more than 30000 warriors the Ottomans attacked Malta for three whole months. They arrived in July 1565 and were forced back onto their ships in September by a small army of about 8000 men led by only 600 Knights.
The year after the Great Siege in 1566, Grand master La Valette started building ‘Valletta’ the new city. Mount Xebb ir-Ras overlooking both Marsamxett harbour and the Grand Harbour was to become the world’s strongest fortification. Valletta took a hundred years to build and ironically only served an intimidating purpose as it was never attacked until the air raids of the second world war. In fact, a forceful Turkish attack in 1614 was driven off without too much time and effort.
The Knights administered the Islands for 268 years until 1798, when Napoleon Bonaparte drove them from these shores and occupied the country in the name of the French Republic. Napoleon was on his way to Egypt with 54000 troops and took over the island without much resistance. The knights were given 3 days to leave.
Following a brief occupation, the French were forced to surrender after two years of land and sea blockade by combined British, Portugese and Maltese forces. The Maltese revolted against the French and teamed with the British. Nelson placed Captain Alexander Ball in charge of blockading the 4000 strong French garrison in Valletta. The French were starved into surrender and in 1800 the Maltese chose to become part of the British Empire after discussing the option of being led again by the Knights.
In 1814, Malta was confirmed as a British Crown Colony by the treaty of
Paris.
1835 was an important milestone in Malta’s history towards independence, as a first constitution of Malta was established giving the Maltese representation in the islands’ affairs. New constitutions were introduced in 1849, 1887 and in 1903.
A new constitution in 1921 gave the Maltese full self-government but this was suspended twice up to the year 1933.
The next great event in the history of the Maltese Islands was the second world war. Malta was not prepared for this war. For 3 weeks in 1940, three gladiator fighters alone, later nicknamed, Faith, Hope and Charity had the whole of the Italian Air Force to deal with.
In 1942 Rommel advanced on North Africa and Malta was isolated with the nearest allies 2000 miles away in Gibralter and Alexandria. Incredibly, Malta bravely fought on and in April 1942 was awarded the ‘George Cross’ for bravery. The Invasion of Sicily was planned here.
Self-government was only restored in 1947.
Until the 1960s, the Maltese economy depended mostly on the British services and the Naval Dockyard.
In September 1964, Malta attained its Independence from Britain and on Malta’s request, Queen Elisabeth11 of Britain also becomes the Queen of Malta. A number of souvenirs of this era remain scattered all over the Maltese islands. The Maltese had to stop depending on the British Forces and Industry and Tourism were quickly established as the islands’ economical resources.
Ten years after Independence, in 1974, Malta was declared a Republic within the Commonwealth and the last British Forces left Malta on the 31st March 1979.
In May 2004 Malta became a full member of the European Union.