Chapter 01 · c. 5900 – 2500 BCE
The Temple Builders and Prehistoric Malta
On two small islands a Neolithic people raised some of the oldest monumental architecture on Earth, then vanished, leaving stone temples and an underground city of the dead.
Malta was first settled by farmers crossing from Sicily in the sixth millennium BCE, but it was their descendants who left the islands their most extraordinary inheritance. Between roughly 3600 and 2500 BCE a Neolithic society without metal tools, working with chert, flint and antler, raised a series of monumental stone temples across Malta and Gozo. The two temples of Ggantija on Gozo, whose South Temple was built around 3600 BCE, are among the earliest free-standing monumental structures anywhere in the world, older than the pyramids of Egypt and the stone circle of Stonehenge.
On the larger island the temples of Hagar Qim, Mnajdra and Tarxien display a refined architecture of massive uprights, corbelled chambers and curving apses, while the smaller complexes of Ta' Hagrat and Skorba show how the tradition was handed down across generations. Archaeologists divide the era into successive phases named after these sites, the Ggantija and Tarxien phases among them, and the buildings yield evidence of animal sacrifice, spiral-decorated pottery and corpulent figurines often interpreted as deities of fertility or of the dead.
The most haunting monument is underground. The Hal Saflieni Hypogeum, cut on three levels into the soft limestone of what is now Paola, was a subterranean necropolis in which the remains of some 7,000 individuals were found, many of their bones coloured with red ochre. Among its treasures is the so-called Sleeping Lady, a small clay figure of a reclining woman about five thousand years old. Then, around 2500 BCE, the temple-building culture disappeared, for reasons still debated, leaving the stones to a new and less monumental Bronze Age population.
“The temples of Malta rank amongst the oldest free-standing buildings in the world, raised by a people who had neither metal tools nor the wheel.”
— On the megalithic temples
Turning points
- c. 3600 BCECulture & Ideas
- c. 3600–2500 BCECulture & Ideas
The Maltese temple culture flourishes
A Neolithic society raised the temples of Hagar Qim, Mnajdra, Tarxien, Skorba and Ta' Hagrat in successive phases, creating monumental architecture without the use of metal tools.
- c. 3300–2500 BCEReligion
- c. 2500 BCECatastrophe
The temple builders disappear
Around 2500 BCE the temple-building culture came to an end for reasons still debated, and a new Bronze Age population succeeded the people who had raised the great monuments.
See the data
Figures of the era
The temple builders of Malta
Neolithic society, c. 4000–2500 BCE
An anonymous farming people who, without metal or the wheel, quarried and raised the megalithic temples and carved the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum, leaving some of the earliest monumental architecture on Earth before their culture vanished around 2500 BCE.
The Sleeping Lady
Prehistoric clay figurine, c. 3000 BCE
A small reclining clay figure recovered from the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum, traced with red ochre and roughly five thousand years old, widely regarded as a masterpiece of prehistoric art and a possible image of a mother goddess or of eternal sleep.
Chapter sources: The Megalithic Temples of Malta, The Sleeping Lady, Ggantija Archaeological Park
Chapter 02 · c. 800 BCE – 870 CE
Phoenicians, Carthage, Rome and the Coming of Christianity
A natural way-station between Africa, Sicily and the Levant, Malta passed from Phoenician traders to Carthage and Rome, and tradition makes it one of the first lands won for Christianity.
Malta's position in the narrows of the Mediterranean drew the great trading powers of antiquity. Phoenician seafarers used the islands as a station on their routes between the Levant and the western Mediterranean, and by the sixth century BCE the Carthaginians, heirs to the Phoenician world, had clearly established themselves there; coins, inscriptions and Punic-type rock tombs attest to their long presence. The islands lay within Carthage's maritime sphere until the contest between Carthage and Rome decided their fate.
In 218 BCE, during the Second Punic War, Malta came under Roman control and was attached to the praetorship of Sicily. Under Rome the islands prospered: for their first two centuries within the empire the Maltese were allowed to coin their own money, send delegations to Rome and manage their domestic affairs, and the islands were later granted the rank of a Roman municipium. Roman villas, harbours and a Greek-influenced urban culture flourished on what had become a settled, integrated province.
It is to this Roman period that Christian tradition assigns Malta's conversion. According to the Acts of the Apostles, the Apostle Paul was shipwrecked on the island around 60 CE while being taken as a prisoner to Rome, was welcomed by the islanders and their leading man Publius, and stayed about three months, during which Publius and many Maltese were converted. Whatever the precise history, the tradition made Malta one of the earliest Christian communities and rooted on the islands a Catholic identity that has endured for two millennia. Roman rule gave way to Byzantine, under which Malta remained until the Arab conquest of 870.
“After we had reached safety, we then learned that the island was called Malta. The natives showed us unusual kindness.”
— Acts of the Apostles 28, on Paul's shipwreck
Turning points
- from c. 6th century BCEPeoples & Migration
Carthaginian Malta
Following earlier Phoenician use of the islands as a trading station, the Carthaginians were firmly established in Malta by the sixth century BCE, leaving coins, inscriptions and Punic rock tombs.
See the data - 218 BCEWar & Rupture
Malta becomes Roman
During the Second Punic War Malta passed under Roman control and was attached to the praetorship of Sicily, beginning some seven centuries of Roman and then Byzantine rule.
See the data - c. 60 CEReligion
The shipwreck of the Apostle Paul
Christian tradition, drawing on the Acts of the Apostles, holds that Paul was shipwrecked on Malta around 60 CE, welcomed by the islanders and the leading man Publius, and stayed three months, beginning the islands' conversion.
- 1st–2nd century CEPolitics & Power
Roman municipium
Under Rome the Maltese were allowed to coin money, send delegations to Rome and manage their own affairs, and the islands were granted the status of a Roman municipium.
Figures of the era
Paul the Apostle
Apostle, traditional evangeliser of Malta
According to the Acts of the Apostles, Paul was shipwrecked on Malta around 60 CE on his voyage to Rome. The islanders' kindness and his stay of about three months, during which Publius and others were converted, became the founding story of Maltese Christianity.
Publius
Roman official, traditional first bishop of Malta
Described in the Acts of the Apostles as the leading man of the island who received Paul hospitably; after Paul healed his father, tradition holds that Publius converted to Christianity and became the first bishop of Malta.
Chapter sources: Malta: History, Language, Map, People, Feast of St. Paul's Shipwreck (Malta)
Chapter 03 · 870 – 1530
Arabs, Normans and Medieval Malta
Arab rule gave Malta its Semitic language; the Normans bound it to Sicily, and for four centuries the islands were a frontier outpost of the Latin kingdoms of the central Mediterranean.
In 870 an Arab force, part of the Aghlabid expansion out of North Africa that had already taken Sicily, seized Malta from the Byzantine Empire. The Arab period, which lasted more than two centuries, was decisive for the islands' identity in one lasting respect: it gave Malta its language. Maltese descends from the Arabic spoken by these settlers and is the only Semitic language written in the Latin alphabet, a unique survival that still carries the imprint of those centuries even after the islands were drawn back into Christian Europe.
That reorientation began in 1091, when the Norman count Roger I of Sicily took Malta from the Arabs, completing the Norman conquest of the central Mediterranean. The islands became an appendage of the Kingdom of Sicily and shared its fortunes through successive dynasties, the Norman Hautevilles, the Swabian Hohenstaufen, the Angevins and from the late thirteenth century the house of Aragon. A Muslim population persisted under early Norman rule but was steadily reduced, and Malta was progressively re-Christianised and tied ever more closely to Sicily and the western Mediterranean.
For these medieval centuries Malta was a minor frontier territory, governed through feudal lords and a local council, the Universita, and exposed to raids by corsairs from North Africa. Its small population looked to Sicily for protection and trade. This long subordination to the Crown of Aragon and its successors ended only in 1530, when the Emperor Charles V, who as king of Spain also ruled Sicily, granted the islands to a homeless crusading order in search of a new base.
“Maltese, rooted in the Arabic introduced after 870, is the only Semitic language written in the Latin alphabet, a unique survival of Malta's medieval crossroads.”
— On the legacy of Arab rule
Turning points
- 870War & Rupture
Arab conquest of Malta
An Arab force seized Malta from the Byzantine Empire, beginning a period of more than two centuries that would shape the islands' language and culture.
See the data - from 870Culture & Ideas
Birth of the Maltese language
The Arabic of the islands' settlers evolved into Maltese, a Semitic language that is unique in being written in the Latin alphabet and that survives as the national language today.
- 1091War & Rupture
Norman conquest by Roger I
Count Roger I of Sicily took Malta from the Arabs in 1091, attaching the islands to the Kingdom of Sicily and beginning their return to Latin Christendom.
See the data - 13th–15th centuryPolitics & Power
Rule under Sicily and Aragon
As part of the Kingdom of Sicily, Malta passed through Norman, Swabian, Angevin and Aragonese hands, governed by feudal lords and a local council, until 1530.
Figures of the era
Roger I of Sicilyc. 1031 – 1101
Norman Count of Sicily
The Norman conqueror who completed the seizure of Sicily and took Malta from the Arabs in 1091, drawing the islands into the Latin Christian world and the orbit of the Sicilian crown.
The Maltese language
Semitic tongue of Malta
Rooted in the Arabic of the islands' settlers after 870, Maltese is the only Semitic language written in the Latin alphabet. It absorbed Italian, Sicilian and later English influences yet preserves its Arabic core, an enduring legacy of the medieval centuries.
Chapter sources: Malta: History, Language, Map, People, Maltese (people), Roger I, Norman Count of Sicily, History of Malta
Chapter 04 · 1530 – 1798
The Knights of St John and the Great Siege
Granted to a crusading order that had lost Rhodes, Malta became a fortress of Christendom; the repulse of the Ottomans in 1565 and the building of Valletta made the islands famous across Europe.
The Knights of the Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem, founded in the early twelfth century to care for pilgrims in the Holy Land and long established as a sovereign military order on Rhodes, had been driven from that island by the Ottomans in 1522. Homeless for eight years, the Order received Malta in 1530 from the Emperor Charles V, who as king of Spain held Sicily, in return for a token yearly tribute. The Knights made the Grand Harbour their base and resumed their maritime war against Ottoman and Barbary shipping, drawing the hostility of the most powerful empire in the Mediterranean.
The reckoning came in 1565. A great Ottoman expedition sent by Suleiman the Magnificent landed on Malta in May and laid siege to the Knights and the Maltese for nearly four months. The defenders, commanded by the aged Grand Master Jean Parisot de la Valette, held the harbour forts against overwhelming numbers; Fort St Elmo fell only after a murderous defence, and the garrison endured fearful losses before a relief force from Sicily forced the Ottomans to withdraw in September. The Great Siege of 1565 checked Ottoman expansion in the central Mediterranean and made Malta a symbol of Christian resistance.
In the wake of victory the Knights built a new fortified capital on the heights of Mount Sciberras, named Valletta after the victorious Grand Master and laid out from 1566 as a planned Renaissance city of palaces, churches and unrivalled fortifications. For two and a half centuries the Order ruled Malta as a small sovereign state, endowing it with auberges, hospitals, the great conventual church of St John and a baroque culture, until the arrival of a new and irresistible power swept the Knights away.
“The superb leadership of Grand Master Jean Parisot de la Valette prevented Suleiman the Magnificent from dislodging the Knights from Malta in 1565, in one of the most famous sieges in history.”
— On the Great Siege
Turning points
- 1530Politics & Power
- 18 May – 8 Sep 1565War & Rupture
The Great Siege of Malta
An Ottoman army sent by Suleiman the Magnificent besieged the Knights and Maltese for nearly four months; under Grand Master Jean Parisot de la Valette the defenders held out until a Sicilian relief force compelled the Ottomans to withdraw.
See the data - 1566Formation
- 1571–1798Politics & Power
Figures of the era
Jean Parisot de la Valette1494 – 1568
Grand Master of the Knights of St John
Grand Master during the Great Siege of 1565, de la Valette led the defence of Malta against Suleiman the Magnificent's army and, after the Ottoman withdrawal, founded the new capital that bears his name, Valletta.
Chapter sources: Knights Hospitaller, History of the Order of Malta: 1048 to Present, Siege of Malta (1565), Siege of Malta (1565), Jean Parisot de la Valette, Valletta, Malta's historic capital, Hospitallers (Knights of Malta)
Chapter 05 · 1798 – 1939
Napoleon, British Rule and the Naval Fortress
Napoleon expelled the Knights in 1798, but a Maltese revolt and British power confirmed British rule by the Treaty of Paris, turning the islands into a great Mediterranean naval base.
In June 1798, on his way to Egypt, Napoleon Bonaparte demanded entry to the Grand Harbour and seized Malta from the Knights, whose rule, weakened from within and forbidden to fight fellow Christians, collapsed almost without resistance. The French occupation was brief and unpopular: their attacks on church property and treasure provoked a Maltese uprising within months, and the insurgents, supported by the British and Sicilian fleets, blockaded the French garrison in Valletta until it surrendered in 1800. The Knights would never return as rulers.
Malta's status was settled by the wider Napoleonic settlement. The Maltese, having driven out the French, acknowledged British sovereignty subject to a declaration of their rights, and the islands' attachment to Britain was confirmed by the Treaty of Paris in 1814. Malta became a Crown colony, valued above all for its harbours. British investment in the dockyard and naval facilities of the Grand Harbour made the islands one of the principal bases of the Royal Navy and the strategic linchpin of British power in the Mediterranean.
Through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Malta's economy revolved around the imperial garrison and dockyard, and its politics around the slow extension of self-government and recurring tension between Maltese, Italian and British cultural and linguistic loyalties. The islands' position athwart the route between Gibraltar and Suez made them indispensable to the empire, and ensured that when a new general war came to the Mediterranean, Malta would once again find itself in the front line.
“British exploitation of Malta's military facilities dominated the local economy, and the dockyard became the colony's economic mainstay.”
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, on British Malta
Turning points
- Jun 1798War & Rupture
Napoleon seizes Malta
On his way to Egypt, Napoleon Bonaparte captured Malta from the Knights of St John, whose rule collapsed almost without a fight, ending two and a half centuries of the Order's sovereignty.
See the data - 1798–1800War & Rupture
Maltese uprising and French surrender
French seizures of church property triggered a Maltese revolt; with British and Sicilian naval support the insurgents blockaded the French garrison in Valletta until it surrendered in 1800.
See the data - 1814Colonisation
British rule confirmed by the Treaty of Paris
Having acknowledged British sovereignty, the Maltese saw the islands' attachment to Britain confirmed by the Treaty of Paris in 1814, making Malta a Crown colony.
See the data - 19th centuryEconomy & Trade
Malta as a naval fortress
British development of the Grand Harbour dockyard made Malta one of the chief bases of the Royal Navy and the strategic centre of British power in the Mediterranean.
See the data
Figures of the era
Napoleon Bonaparte1769 – 1821
French general and later emperor
On his way to Egypt in 1798 Napoleon seized Malta from the Knights of St John, ending the Order's rule. His brief occupation provoked a Maltese revolt that opened the way to British control.
Chapter sources: History of Malta, Treaty of Paris (1814), Malta: Modern history (British rule and independence), Knights Hospitaller, History of the Order of Malta: 1048 to Present
Chapter 06 · 1939 – present
The George Cross Island and the European Republic
Besieged and bombed in the Second World War, Malta won the George Cross for its endurance, then moved from colony to independence, to a neutral republic and finally to membership of the European Union.
When Italy entered the Second World War in 1940, Malta, lying between Sicily and the Axis armies in North Africa, became one of the most heavily bombed places on Earth. For more than two years Italian and German aircraft pounded the islands, whose airfields and submarines harried the convoys supplying Rommel's forces. Cut off and starving, Malta was kept alive only by perilous convoys; the arrival of the battered Operation Pedestal convoy, including the crippled tanker Ohio, in August 1942 was the turning point that broke the siege. In recognition of the islanders' endurance, King George VI awarded the George Cross to the whole island on 15 April 1942, an honour unique in being granted to an entire population and still borne on Malta's flag.
After the war Malta moved gradually toward self-rule and then to statehood. On 21 September 1964 the islands became an independent state within the Commonwealth, at first retaining the British monarch as head of state. Ten years later, on 13 December 1974, Malta became a republic with its own president. Under the long dominance of the Labour leader Dom Mintoff, the islands distanced themselves from Britain: the last British forces withdrew on 31 March 1979, commemorated as Freedom Day, and in 1987 a policy of neutrality and non-alignment was written into the constitution.
Freed of its imperial role, Malta reinvented itself as a small, independent European nation. It built an economy on shipping, tourism, manufacturing and financial services, and pursued integration with Europe. On 1 May 2004 Malta joined the European Union in its largest enlargement, and on 1 January 2008 it adopted the euro, completing the islands' transformation from a contested fortress of empires into a sovereign member of the European family of nations.
“To honour her brave people, I award the George Cross to the Island Fortress of Malta to bear witness to a heroism and devotion that will long be famous in history.”
— King George VI, 15 April 1942
Turning points
- 1940–1942War & Rupture
The siege of Malta
From 1940 Malta, lying between Sicily and Axis North Africa, was subjected to relentless Italian and German bombing and a near-starvation blockade while its forces struck at Axis supply convoys.
See the data - 15 Apr 1942War & Rupture
Malta awarded the George Cross
King George VI awarded the George Cross to the whole island of Malta to honour its heroism and endurance under siege, the only time the decoration has been given to an entire population.
See the data - 21 Sep 1964Independence
Independence
Malta became an independent sovereign state within the Commonwealth on 21 September 1964, ending more than a century and a half of British colonial rule.
See the data - 13 Dec 1974Politics & Power
Malta becomes a republic
Constitutional amendments made Malta a republic on 13 December 1974, replacing the British monarch with a Maltese president as head of state.
- 1 May 2004Politics & Power
Accession to the European Union
Malta joined the European Union on 1 May 2004 in its largest enlargement and adopted the euro on 1 January 2008, completing its integration into Europe.
Figures of the era
King George VI1895 – 1952
King of the United Kingdom
In April 1942 he awarded the George Cross to the island of Malta, declaring that it bore witness to a heroism and devotion that would long be famous in history, the only time the medal has honoured a whole population.
Dom Mintoff1916 – 2012
Prime Minister of Malta
The dominant Labour leader of post-independence Malta who secured the withdrawal of British forces in 1979 and pressed for the islands' neutrality and non-alignment, written into the constitution in 1987.
Chapter sources: George Cross awarded to the island of Malta, Malta: Modern history (British rule and independence), Malta — EU country profile