At the strategic heart of the Mediterranean lies a small group of islands.
Their long history is a timeline in
microcosm of that sea as a whole. A flashpoint between two continents, it has been ruled by
Phoenecians, Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, Arabs, Sicilians, a Religious Military Order,
and the British. Today it lives on as a prosperous urbanised and finally independent nation. This is
the ultimate island fortress. This is Malta.
Malta is a small island nation situated in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea,
composed of three main islands and several smaller ones. Occupied and ruled across
the ages by so many of the famous empires and nations in history, it has nonetheless maintained
a culture that is today uniquely Maltese. In this presentation I’ll look at Malta’s history
up to the present, its national organisation and state structure and symbols, its physical
and human geography, and lastly its economy and culture. If you like these country summary videos
then please be sure to hit the subscribe button so you don’t miss future episodes.
The origin of the name of the country is uncertain. The more accepted etymology
is from the Greek word for honey “meli” and the Ancient Greeks, in calling the islands “Melite”,
meaning honey-sweet, may have named them after their possible production of honey.
An alternative explanation may be from the old Phoenician word “maleth” meaning harbour or port,
supposedly named after the islands many natural harbours.
Malta’s long and storied history goes back as far as any in Europe, with megaliths upon the island
confirmed to be dated to at least 3600BC and pottery remains as far back as 5200BC.
One of the more curious remains of prehistoric peoples are the
extensive series of grooves possibly carved by carts in the soft limestone
at the so-called “Clapham Junction” site, named after a busy London railway station.
Phoenician traders colonised the islands around 700BC, using them as a waystation on their trade
routes from the Eastern Mediterranean to the West and beyond into the Atlantic.
After the fall of Phoenicia to Alexander the Great in 332BC, the islands came under
the control of the former Phoenician colony, Carthage. In their wars with the Romans, the
Carthaginians lost then retook Malta, before the islands finally came under Roman rule in 218BC.
Under Roman governance lasting six centuries, Malta enjoyed a fair degree of autonomy as its
own municipium or free town. Following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire
at the beginning of the 5th Century AD, Malta was occupied by first the Vandals and then Ostrogoths,
before being “retaken” for Rome by the surviving Eastern Roman Empire, today known as Byzantium.
The Byzantines would hold the islands for the next three centuries before they fell to the
Arabs in 870 as part of their conquest of Sicily at that time. The Arabs would hold the islands
for another two centuries until they were taken back into Christian hands by the Normans in 1091.
For the next five centuries, Malta passed peacefully between various European dynasties,
especially those of Iberia, and became thoroughly Christian and Westernised.
But in 1530 Maltese history took a more unique path when it was gifted by The
Holy Roman Emperor Charles V to the Knights Hospitaller, a religious Catholic Christian
military order that emerged during the Crusades against the Muslims of the previous centuries,
and who had been expelled from the Greek island of Rhodes by the Ottoman Turks a few years earlier.
Charles’ faith in the Knights proved to well-founded, as only a few decades later, in
1565, Malta was beseiged by 40,000 Ottoman Turks, but under the leadership of their Grand Master
Jean Parisot de Valette and with the assistance of Spain and Sicily, the siege was repelled
successfully, despite being outnumbered more than 4 to 1. Following this siege, the fortifications
of the island were enhanced, especially around the inner harbour, and this new city was named
in honour of the Grand Master that had pushed back the Ottomans, the future capital of Valetta.
This was one of many building projects the Knights undertook during their governance,
and which gives the island today its distinctive architectural character.
They would rule Malta for almost the next three centuries, and because of this association, became
more commonly known as the Knights of Malta. Their reign came to an end, as did so many
changes in Europe, with the Napoleonic wars at the end of the 18th Century. The religious military
order’s possessions in France had been seized in the secular French Revolution of 1789, and
when the revolution’s new leader Napoleon arrived in 1798, the Knights surrendered without a fight.
Only two years later, however, and the occupying French forces were ousted in a local uprising
with the assistance of Great Britain. An international treaty two years later would
have returned the islands to the Knights, but the local populace protested – the Knights had
never really integrated with the locals, and in the latter centuries had become unpopular.
Instead, the Maltese requested protection from the British, under the condition that they could not
later cede the islands to any other power, but instead to hand the islands back to the locals.
In the closing stages of the Napoleonic wars, Malta was passed to the British Empire
as a colony in the Treaty of Paris in 1814. Malta’s position in the heart of Mediterranean
served British interests greatly, as it became a resupply station for ships passing through
the Suez Canal from 1869, on their way to British India. For the next century and a half of British
rule, the relations between them and the locals was mixed, with autonomy given in 1921 and then
revoked in 1933, for instance, over local protests regarding the imposition of the English language.
It was during World War II, however, that, perhaps Malta’s greatest hour came.
Surrounded on all sides by the Axis powers of Germany and Italy, the islands withstood
relentless bombing from enemy air attacks throughout the war. Perhaps the most famous
incident was on 9 April 1942, when the dome of the Rotunda of Mosta was pierced by a German
Luftwaffe high explosive bomb which then failed to detonate. 300 people were in the church at
the time a waiting the evening mass. No one was injured, and the locals hailed it as a miracle.
Despite six years of bombing, the islands held. To honour the bravery of the people of Malta during
this time, they were collectively given the George Cross, the British Empire’s highest civilian
decoration, and normally only given to individual acts of bravery. The Maltese wear this award with
pride in their flag and coat of arms today. In its heroic defence during that very modern war, Malta
continued its tradition as an impregnable island fortress from past centuries into recent history.
Britain eventually honoured the terms of their protectorate with the Maltese people in 1964,
handing back the islands to the locals when Malta became an independent state. In 1987 a neutrality
clause was included in its constitution, guaranteeing geopolitical non-alignment. However,
Malta today is a republic within the British Commonwealth, as well as a member of the European
Union. These last two concepts, being in the EU and Commonwealth, but also non-aligned, may sound
paradoxical, and this is because of the polarised struggle between the two main political parties of
Malta since independence. The centre-left Labour Party which favours Maltese non-alignment and
independence geopolitically, contrasts with the centre-right Nationalist party favouring alignment
with the West and which was instrumental in the push for Malta to joining the EU, a stalemate
that was finally settled by a relatively close referendum just before its accession in 2003.
The unicameral (single house) parliament of 65 members, elected for five year terms,
is modelled on the British Westminster system. While the the elected President is head of state,
that is a largely ceremonial role with executive power coming from the prime minister,
who is the leader of the largest political party in parliament.
Malta has the highest voluntary voter turnout of any country in the world.
In terms of local government, Malta is divided into 68 local councils that deal with typical
municipal and city issues. The majority of these are within the greater Valetta area in
this highly urbanised island nation. In the Cato Institute’s latest Human
Freedom Index, Malta scores well, being ranked 24th most free country overall.
The Flag of Malta is a white and red bicolour, with the George Cross top left.
The red and white colours were once believed to be from Roger of Sicily who conquered the islands
from the Arabs in 1091, but this has been recently debunked as a myth. The red and white colours of
the Knights of Malta are the more likely source of the colours. The coat of arms depicts the flag on
a central shield with the fortifications of the island acting as a crown, while wreaths of olive
and palm leaves flank each side. The bottom ribbon reads “Republic of Malta” in the Maltese language.
Malta is situated in the central Mediterranean in the strategic narrow gap between the island of
Sicily and the North African coast of Tunisia, at a latitude of 36°N. The three inhabited islands,
Malta, Gozo and Comino account for virtually all the total land area of 315km2 (122 sq mi). The
road and ferry journey of 53km from the north-west to south-east extreme would take about two hours.
The base of the islands is limestone, a water permeable rock that accounts for
the complex of inlets and natural harbours that, with the island’s strategic position
have made it such a desirable base among sea powers. The local buildings, cut from
the pale rock produce the lightness of colour that dominates the city of Valetta as a whole,
along with providing white-sand beaches between cliffs that otherwise dominate the coastline. The
preponderence of cliffs around the island further enhances the islands’ ability to act as fortress.
The climate is Mediterranean in the Koppen system, with hot dry summers and mild wet winters.
With more than 3,000 hours of sunshine per year, it is one of the sunniest places in Europe.
But the downside is a lack of water supply. A densely populated island nation with no
permanent streams in a climate that sees almost no rain for half the year meant that the country
had to embark of a program of desalination of sea water to meet the population’s water needs.
While the natural biome is one of mediterranean scrub of hardy shrubs and grasses, known as
maquis and garigue. Little of this remains with more than two thirds of the country urbanise.
So much of the country is built-up that is has been referred to as a city state.
With a population of just over half a million squeezed onto a small set of islands,
Malta’s population density of 1,600 people per sq km makes it the 5th
most densely populated country in the world. This population is made up mostly of Maltese
natives, with a small minority of British and EU retirees. Malta has two official languages,
English and Maltese. The latter is a rather unique language of Semitic, that is, of Middle Eastern,
origin, being a mix of medieval Romance Sicilian and Arabic. It is the only Semitic
language that uses the Latin alphabet, and the only official Semitic language within the EU.
About 90% of the population can speak Maltese, while 96% can speak English,
62% Italian and 20% French, making it one of the most multi-lingual countries in Europe.
Malta is one of the most religious countries in Europe, perhaps no surprise considering
it was governed by a religious military order for so many centuries. About four
in five Maltese are Roman Catholic, the faith which is also the state religion.
Although the official city limit is relatively small and confined to the harbour area, the
urbanised area of the capital Valetta dominates the main island of Malta geographically and
constitutes the majority of the population. With a GDP of just under $17bn nominal,
the Maltese economy today ranks 131st in the world, but per capita is ranked 24th.
The economy of Malta has changed throughout the millenia according to the whims of the various
polities that have ruled over it. For more than a century as a British colony, the economy of Malta
had depended upon the sea trade and military presence of that power. The British withdrawal
in the 1950s and 60s necessitated a drastic diversification of the economy into new areas.
Today about half of the economy is in services, with banking and software being notable.
The abundant military and religious architecture of Malta, the beaches and rugged coastal scenery,
in combination with so much sunshine make Malta a popular tourist destination with up to three
million visitors hosted each year. The remainder of the economy is in agriculture, fishing and
manufacturing sector that is surprisingly diverse for a small island nation, and which includes
aircraft parts, semiconductors and biotech. The Maltese Lira used to be the currency of
the islands, but joined the Euro in 2008. Maltese culture is primarily European,
being influenced by a succession of European powers that have ruled the island,
although African and Middle Eastern influences remain, particularly in the Maltese language.
The islands neo-classical and baroque architecture, a product of its high point of
artistic development under the Knights in the 17th and 18th Century is Malta’s most visible cultural
face, with the heart of the city of Valetta being a UNESCO world heritage site. At the other end of
its history, the various neolithic temples upon the islands and the necropolis known as the Hal
Saflieni Hypogeum, all dating to before 3000BC, make up Malta’s two other world heritage sites.
Malta’s 3000+ hours of sunshine and famed architecture have made the islands a
popular choice for TV and movie principle photography, including Game of Thrones,
Gladiator, Troy, the Count of Monte Cristo, World War Z, the Da Vinci Code and Popeye.
And what about those most tiny of canines, the Maltese?
Well the breed has been around since antiquity and while the name suggests it may have come
from Malta, we cannot know for certain due to the far distant origin of the breed.
The famed Maltese Cross appears on the ensign of Maltese civilian vessels.
The cross is not unique to Malta, being associated with many religious and military orders across
Europe since the middle ages. But its use by the Knights of Malta cemented its association with
the islands, and for the last few centuries this distinctive symbol is named for Malta.
And what about the famed Knights of Malta? Were they lost to history after losing the
islands during the Napoleonic Wars? Actually no. The religious military order still lives today,
headquartered in Rome, without territory, but regarded as a sovereign entity in international
law. While they may no longer be resident, their mark upon the island was surely the greatest of
all, holding the island against all odds for Europe, and preserved in the architecture of
its streets, churches and fortifications that embody this, the quintessential fortress island.
And that’s Malta. I hope you enjoyed this presentation of its history, geography,
economy and culture. Please like and share this video if you enjoyed it or found it useful, and
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