Thinking Allowed: Getting to know Malta

We had the pleasure of getting to visit one of the smaller but historically coveted countries of Europe. Seems everyone owned Malta at one point or another: Phoenicians, Romans, Roman Byzantines, Sicilians, North Africans, Spanish, French, and British. What this slightly tumultuous history has led to is a very interesting cultural fusion that is modern Malta. Around every corner are signs of history - citadels, walls, roman baths, crypts, bombed remains... Maltese is a dialect of Arabic - except one influenced by Sicilian - so a Latin alphabet is used. The food has elements of Italian and Greek diets with an odd British twist - pastizzi (the local specialty of a flaky crust filled with pea curry - seem like an unintentional marriage of spanakopita and British pies. There are 359 churches. We had a great time learning about this small but mighty country. It was fascinating. And the beaches were great too. Here are a few things we found interesting:

This is the home of the Knights hospitaller. These knights fortified much of Malta, bringing a period of 'relative' stability. They were as opulent as they were 'kind.' In addition to the large hospital created for injured pilgrims they also built lavish churches, theaters, and residences. They still exist today operating as their own landless country (they have their own passports!) offering assistance to the needy worldwide.

Malta played a major role in WWII. Malta was the most intensely bombed country during the war. The Germans bombed it so thoroughly that they didn't even bother to control it from land. The British invested a lot in resupplying the country. Look at its location on the map - it was in a key position for any British success in the war. The British used Malta as a base for other campaigns and had a secret planning bunker within the capital of Valletta. The entire country was awarded the George Cross for bravery during war. It is hard to divide an award by thousands so they now have the medal on their flag.

Caravaggio lived in Malta. Two of his paintings are located in St Johns co-cathedral .Tova says the paintings are too bloody. Which makes sense as Caravaggio, though a great artist was a violent man whose hobby was dueling. He had to flee Milan due to violence and murder, was kicked out of Rome for violence and murder, finally Naples took him in only to expel him to Malta for the same reason. In Malta, Caravaggio had hopes of joining the Knights hospitaller and as a token of thanks for being accepted into Malta painted a couple of paintings for them. When he was rejected by the society for injuring another knight he fled back to Sicily then Naples to escape his prison sentence. A short but eventful life that produced great violence and beauty.

Malta has its own Hadrian's wall going across it called the Victoria Lines. In the 18th century the British, in an effort to fend of further attacks and conquests of Malta, built a wall across the main island to protect the capital and main harbors. The wall is still there. Unfortunately, it did nothing to protect the country from the attacks by airplane during world war II.

I assigned Aurora the task of writing about Malta's history in brief. She did such a great job that I am posting it here:

Malta is an archipelago made up of three islands in the Mediterranean sea, just South of Sicily. It was first inhabited in 5900 BC. These inhabitants were farmers, but they had bad farming practices, and the soil was soon too degraded to use, so Malta became uninhabitable. Not for long though; in 3850 BC a new civilisation arrived, and stayed until their collapse in 2350 BC. These people are rather mysterious: They built massive stone structures that are now some of the oldest on the planet, and nobody knows why.

So Malta was once again left uninhabited once again. That is, until the Phoenicians arrived in 700 BC. They had control of Malta for 484 years, whereupon the Romans sailed in and easily captured it. The Roman Empire eventually gave it to the Roman Byzantines, who lost it to the Aghlabids in a siege in 870 AD.

The Aghlabids left it alone for about a century, and the population dwindled. So they repopulated it in the early 11th century, only to lose it almost immediately to the County of Sicily in 1091. These new rulers made it their mission to christianise Malta, and succeeded. Although Malta belonged to the Kingdom of Sicily until 1530 (a new record), the Kingdom itself was owned by various countries in Europe and North Africa, and finally by Spain. The Spanish eventually gave up control of Malta (without a fight!) to the Order of St John, also known as the Knight’s Hospitaller. It was still, however, a vassal state of Sicily. Then, in the Great Siege of Malta of 1565, Malta held off the Ottomans for three months before help came, and the Ottomans were successfully defeated. The Order remained in charge until 1798, when the French invaded. After only a few months under their rule, however, the Maltese rebelled, and eventually got rid of them in 1800. Malta then willingly became a British colony, and, as a consequence, a British air base. During WWII Malta was heavily bombed by the Germans and Italians, who were trying to bomb the British forces. In 1942, Malta was awarded the George Cross, an award for gallantry which can be seen on their flag and coat of arms. Yes, flag, for in 1964 Malta finally gained independence, though it is still part of the commonwealth. It joined the EU in 2004.