This is a continuation of a very compressed history of Malta. Here’s part one.Now where were we? Okay, in 1530, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V decided to give the islands to the Knights of Malta, and all he asked was a trained bird in return payable once a year. This is where the whole Maltese falcon business comes from. These knights had been wandering around homelessly for a few years and so were presumably delighted to be granted a base in Malta, from whence to attack whichever Ottomans or pirates they might come across. In fact Barbary pirates managed to capture Gozo in 1551 and deposit all 5,000 of it’s inhabitants on the coast of North Africa, (which is where Barbary pirates came from).
The Knights of Malta held off Ottoman invasions (including the infamous and much-celebrated Siege of Malta in 1565) and survived the plague, but were finally beaten by Napoleon in 1798, who was en route to Egypt and managed to take the island by trickery and seemingly almost on a whim. Tricky fellow, Napoleon. The French didn’t last long though, forced to surrender to a Maltese uprising a couple of years later. Not quite ready for independence yet, the Maltese promptly swore allegiance to the British crown and became a member of the British empire. An improvement on previous centuries certainly, finally being able to choose your rulers rather than having them imposed upon you.
Malta stuck with the empire, becoming an important trade route stopping point. And for her valour in World War 2 the British government took the unprecedented step of awarding the entire nation the George’s cross. That’s why said cross appears on the Maltese flag today.
Eventually, Malta decided that it was probably safe enough to step out alone, hostile takeovers of European nations having fallen out of fashion. So the government negotiated independence from Britain in 1969 and became a republic in 1974. Not wanting to rub it in or anything, Malta now has Three national holidays celebrating their extraction from British rule: Independence Day, Republic Day and Freedom Day (when the last troops left).
After a history like that one though, who could argue about taking a few extra days down at the beach…
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“Not quite ready for independence yet, the Maltese promptly swore allegiance to the British crown and became a member of the British empire.” Not entirely correct – the Maltese wanted to be an autonomous protectorate of the British Empire, but the Brits simply colonised us amid the Maltese politicians’ protests. There was even a Decleration of Rights of the inhabitants of Malta and Gozo in 1802 I believe, which served as a petition to the British authorities. We became a protectorate (with no autonomous rule of course, full powers over Malta were granted to British officials) after the French surrendered (the Maltese weren’t invited to the signing of the surrender despite the suffering endured and bravery shown against the French – the French surrendered directly to the British) in 1800, and only became a full Crown colony in 1813 (marked also by Thomas Maitland being made Governor of Malta), and was recognised internationally in the 1814 Treaty of Paris.
Good effort summing up all those year of history into a short, readable text though! 🙂