I | INTRODUCTION |
Malta, independent island nation in the Mediterranean
Sea. The country consists of the islands of Malta, Gozo, Kemmuna, and two
uninhabited islets. Malta is a tiny country, covering a total area of just 316
sq km (122 sq mi). Deep channels separate the islands, the largest of which is
the island of Malta. The capital city and leading port is Valletta, on
Malta.
The Maltese islands are the rocky peaks of
limestone mountains that rise from the sea south of Sicily. Sandy beaches break
the rocky coastlines in some places. Washed by warm, clear waters, the islands
are renowned for excellent diving. Summers are warm and dry, thanks in part to
the hot sirocco winds that blow in from the Sahara to the south. Rainfall
and fresh water are scarce, forcing residents to rely on desalinization plants
for a stable water supply.
Malta was home to an ancient civilization.
Prehistoric megalithic monuments dot the countryside. These include extensive
stone temple complexes that predate Stonehenge and the pyramids of Egypt by many
centuries. Much of Malta’s medieval architecture, from Norman cathedrals to
baroque and Renaissance palaces, remains well-preserved. Narrow cobblestone
streets wind through ancient fortified cities. In summer tourists flock to Malta
to enjoy its balmy weather, picturesque cities and countryside, and
archeological riches.
Located in the relatively narrow straits that
separate Sicily and the coast of North Africa, Malta is of great strategic
importance, and the islands have changed hands many times throughout recorded
history. The United Kingdom gained control of Malta in the early 19th century,
making it a British colony. The Maltese people maintained a distinctive national
character and independent spirit, however, and in 1964 Malta became an
independent nation within the Commonwealth of Nations.
II | LAND OF MALTA |
The area of the largest island, Malta, is 246
sq km (95 sq mi); of Gozo, 67 sq km (26 sq mi); and of Kemmuna, 3 sq km (1 sq
mi). The combined area of the uninhabited islets, Kemmunett and Filfla, is 0.3
sq km (0.12 sq mi). The total area of Malta is 316 sq km (122 sq mi). The axis
of the island group runs from Malta in the southeast to Gozo in the northwest,
with tiny Comino in between.
The Maltese islands are low-lying limestone
plateaus. The islands are generally treeless, and the land has a gently rolling
surface. Many of the hills are terraced for farming, giving much of the
countryside the appearance of giant steps. The islands reach their highest point
in southwestern Malta’s Binġemma Hills, which rise to 239 m (784 ft) above sea
level. The best natural harbors are found on Malta. Gozo lacks good
harbors.
Malta has hot, dry summers, and mild, humid
winters. The mean temperature is 19°C (66°F). Average annual rainfall is
modest—about 56 cm (about 22 in)—although in some years rainfall is as low as 25
cm (10 inches). Most precipitation falls between September and May. Malta has no
permanent rivers or lakes. Pressures from farming, industry, and continued
growth in tourism have placed a severe strain on Malta’s scarce water resources.
Today, up to 70 percent of Malta’s water comes from plants that desalinate salt
water.
III | PEOPLE OF MALTA |
The population of Malta (2008 estimate) is
403,532. Malta is highly urbanized, with only about 8 percent of the people
living in rural areas. The overall population density is 1,277 persons per sq km
(3,307 per sq mi), making Malta one of the most densely populated nations in the
world.
The capital and leading port of the country
is Valletta (population, 2004 estimate, 7,137), on the island of Malta. Located
on Malta’s northeast coast, Valletta stands on a rocky peninsula lined by two
natural harbors—the Grand Harbour to the south and Il-Port ta’ Marsamxett to the
north. A well-preserved walled city dating to the 16th century, Valletta is
famous for its palaces and cathedrals, public squares, and imposing defensive
fortifications.
The largest city in the Maltese islands,
Birkirkara, with a population of 22,435 (2004 estimate), is located in central
Malta. But the majority of the people live in the towns and suburbs near
Valletta and its twin harbors. Many villages and towns date to medieval
times.
The people of Malta are predominantly Roman
Catholic, and Catholic religious influences remain strong. Maltese villages
regularly observe the feast days of their patron saints, called festas,
with prayers and much celebration. The people speak Maltese, a language derived
from Arabic. Over time, the language has incorporated a large influx of
vocabulary from other languages, including Italian (particularly the Sicilian
dialect) and English. Maltese is the only Semitic language written in the Latin
alphabet (see Latin Language). Both Maltese and English are official
languages, and Italian is widely spoken. Maltese is generally used in courts and
other official settings and education is conducted primarily in English.
Education is free and compulsory for children between the ages of 5 and 15. The
University of Malta, founded by Jesuits in Msida in 1592, provides
university-level education.
Nationally, the Maltese celebrate the
Imnarja, a harvest festival held in June during the Feast of Saint Peter
and Saint Paul, and the Regatta on September 8, which celebrates Malta’s victory
over the Turks during the Great Siege of 1565 and Malta’s resistance to Axis
bombing during World War II. However, the largest celebration in Malta occurs in
mid-February during the festival of Carnival. Cultural influences dating to
Malta’s colonization by Britain remain strong. Soccer is the national sport. As
in Britain, people drive on the left side of the road.
IV | ECONOMY OF MALTA |
Malta has few valuable raw materials and a
small domestic market for its products. For many years, the chief activity
driving Malta’s economy was servicing the military bases maintained by the
United Kingdom. The decline of British military spending in the late 1950s, and
Malta’s independence in 1964, led to new initiatives to diversify the economy.
Efforts to promote tourism and foreign investment in a variety of newer
industries proved largely successful, and Malta’s economy expanded briskly in
the 1990s, although the country experienced a period of weak economic growth
following the global economic slowdown in 2001.
In May 2004 Malta became a full member of the
European Union (EU). Malta’s annual budget deficits remain high by EU standards,
however, and the nation has undertaken measures to reduce public expenditures.
In 2006 Malta’s gross domestic product (GDP) was $6.4 billion.
Dry-dock facilities in Valletta were expanded
in the 1970s, and ship construction and repair became a leading industry. Other
important industries include textiles, electronic goods (especially
semiconductors), food processing, printing and publishing, tobacco products,
furniture, and pharmaceuticals.
Since the 1970s, tourism has become the
fastest growing and most important sector of the economy. Today, tourism
generates about one-third of Malta’s annual GDP. In 2006 the country had 1.1
million visitors, with many tourists arriving on cruise ships that dock in
Valletta’s Grand Harbour. Due to its favorable location, Malta is also a
transportation center with well-developed port facilities.
Maltese farmers grow a wide range of crops,
although agriculture remains of limited economic importance. Most of Malta’s
crops are cultivated on terraced slopes. The principal crops include wheat,
barley, potatoes, tomatoes, melons, a wide variety of vegetables, citrus fruits,
and flowers and seeds. Some poultry (see fowl), rabbits, cattle, goats,
and sheep are raised. Because the population is dense and the soil is generally
poor, Malta must import most of its food. Just 2 percent of the labor force is
employed in the agricultural sector.
Malta is heavily dependent on trade for
imports of food, energy, and raw materials. Manufactured goods are exported. In
2002 exports earned $2.1 billion, and imports cost $2.8 billion. In January 2008
Malta adopted the euro, the currency of the EU, as legal tender,
replacing the Maltese lira.
V | GOVERNMENT OF MALTA |
Until 1974, Malta was a constitutional
monarchy with a parliamentary form of government. The head of state was the
British monarch, represented in Malta by a governor general. Under the amended
constitution of 1974, Malta became a democratic republic with a president
serving as head of state. The president is appointed by the Maltese parliament
to serve a term of five years.
The head of government is a prime minister
appointed by the president from among the members of the House of
Representatives, a single-chamber parliament composed of 65 members. Members of
the parliament are elected for five-year terms by universal adult suffrage on
the basis of proportional representation. The prime minister, who is assisted by
a cabinet, is usually the leader of the majority party in parliament. The tenure
of the prime minister and cabinet (also called the government) depends on the
support of the House of Representatives.
Malta’s two major political parties are the
conservative Nationalist Party (Partit Nazzjonalista-PN) and the
democratic socialist Malta Labour Party (MLP).
Malta is a member of the United Nations (UN),
the Commonwealth of Nations, the World Trade Organization (WTO), the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Council of
Europe, and the European Union.
VI | HISTORY OF MALTA |
Malta was settled by an ancient farming
people who migrated from what is now Sicily about 4000 BC. The arrival of Copper Age cultural
influences around 3200 BC resulted
in the development of a remarkably complex temple-building civilization. At
first Malta’s megalithic monuments were constructed from slabs of rough-hewn
stone, but eventually structures such as the great temples at Tarxien were
crafted from carefully dressed and fitted blocks of masonry. The temples are
among the earliest known major stone monuments built by humans. The temple
culture went into an unexplained decline after 2400 BC.
By about 1000 BC Malta had become a Phoenician
trading center. In 736 bc the
islands were occupied by the ancient Greeks, who called them the colony Melita,
and later Malta passed successively into the possession of Carthage and Rome
(Roman Empire). The islands prospered agriculturally under Roman rule and
developed an export trade based on textiles and some luxury items. In about AD
60 the missionary Saint Paul was shipwrecked on the islands and, according to
lore, converted the Maltese people to Christianity.
When the collapsing Roman Empire was divided
in ad 395, Malta was awarded to
the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, Empire. Byzantine rule lasted until 870, when
the islands were occupied by Muslim Arabs. The Arabs had a profound influence on
local life. The Maltese language and many traditional agricultural practices
date from this period. A Norman army conquered the Maltese Arabs in 1090, and
Malta was later made a feudal fief of the Norman kingdom of Sicily. Muslim Arabs
continued to form an important part of Malta’s community until the 1240s, when
they were expelled. The islands eventually became part of the kingdom of Aragón,
and when Aragón unified with Castile, Malta was made a possession of imperial
Spain.
A | Development Under the Knights of Malta |
In 1530 Holy Roman Emperor Charles V
granted Malta to a military religious order called the Knights of Saint John of
Jerusalem, later known as the Knights of Malta. The knights used Malta as a base
of operations against the Ottoman Turks (see Ottoman Empire) and the
raiding corsairs of the Barbary Coast, who were upheld by the Turks. The knights
ruled the islands until the 19th century, developing Malta as a center of
commerce.
In 1565 a large Turkish force under
Süleyman I attacked Malta. The greatly outnumbered knights held out throughout
the summer-long siege, which shattered many of Malta’s defensive fortifications.
The knights eventually drove off the Turkish forces with the help of a relief
force from Sicily. Following the siege, the knights built a new capital city,
Valletta, on the rocky peninsula that separates and commands Grand Harbour and
Marsamxett. The city took its name from Jean Parisot de La Valette, who led the
knights against the Turks. The knights fortified Valletta so well that it became
one of the greatest strongholds in the Mediterranean.
The knights were absolutist rulers and
governed the islands with little regard for the inhabitants, who were denied
full membership in the order. The order owned property in many parts of Europe,
and each year a percentage of the income from this wealth was sent to Malta,
where it was used to support the elegant living of the knights and to build
fortifications, equip the navy, and hire soldiers.
The infusion of the funds under the
knights had a profound effect on Malta’s landscape and economy. The knights laid
out numerous towns, including Valletta; built defensive bastions around the
harbors; and ringed the coast with smaller detached fortifications. Shipbuilding
and ship repairing grew in scale and importance, as did secondary industries
such as sail and rope making, metal working, and carpentry. The knights built
palaces, churches, bakeries, hospitals, and armories, and they invested money in
wharves, warehouses, urban property, and agricultural land. Efforts were made to
encourage trade, with Malta’s fleet giving a degree of protection to merchant
vessels. The Maltese found employment as soldiers, servants, craftspeople, and
laborers, and many residents moved to coastal towns. Living conditions in Malta
gradually improved, and the population expanded from about 20,000 in 1530 to
approximately 100,000 in 1798.
B | British Rule Established |
In 1798 a French force under Napoleon
Bonaparte (later Napoleon I) on its way to Egypt expelled the knights. French
rule was so unpopular that the Maltese rose in revolt in the same year. The
Maltese appealed to Britain, and in 1799 British naval officer Horatio Nelson
besieged Valletta and compelled the withdrawal of the French. By the terms of
the Treaty of Paris, in 1814, Malta became a colony of the British Empire.
The British did not begin large-scale
development of military facilities until the 1840s, but Malta rapidly gained
importance as a naval base during the Crimean War (1853-1856) and especially
with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. The growth of dockyard facilities,
particularly at Valletta, eventually provided jobs for 12,000 persons.
The Maltese increasingly demanded
self-government during the 19th century. The British were prepared to encourage
a degree of internal self-government, but Britain wished to retain control over
all matters affecting its imperial interests. Movement toward constitutional
reform was slow. Various constitutions, including one providing for
self-government, were tried and rejected as a result either of friction among
Maltese political factions or of conflicts between civil and imperial
interests.
During World War I, Malta served as a base
for British activities in the Mediterranean. As a reward for its help, the
colony was given a constitution that established a legislature elected by
Malta’s inhabitants. However, political crises resulted in the revocation of the
constitution in 1936. During World War II (1939-1945) political differences were
set aside, and Malta became a key base in the successful Allied struggle for
North Africa. Consequently, Malta withstood heavy Axis bombing raids during the
war. In 1942 British king George VI awarded the colony as a whole the George
Cross for heroism.
C | Independence Gained |
In 1947 full internal self-government was
reestablished in Malta. However, the constitution was suspended in 1959 as a
result of strife between the two major political parties—the Malta Labour Party
(MLP) and the Nationalist Party (PN). A new constitution was introduced in 1961.
The following year, in the campaign preceding the first election under the new
constitution, the MLP called for independence outside the Commonwealth of
Nations. The PN advocated independence within the Commonwealth. The PN won the
election, and their leader, George Borg Olivier, became prime minister.
Malta became independent on September 21,
1964, and a United Nations (UN) member on December 1. Soon after independence
the British and Maltese governments signed a ten-year agreement on mutual
defense and assistance by which Britain undertook to pay Malta $12 million
annually in grants and loans as rent for its military facilities.
D | Mintoff's Government |
In elections in 1971, the Malta Labour
Party (MLP) won a narrow victory, and its leader, Dominic Mintoff, became prime
minister. Early in his administration Mintoff demanded a revision of the 1964
agreement between Malta and Britain. In 1972 the British agreed, with aid from
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), to pay Malta $37 million a year
to lease its military bases until 1979. In subsequent years Malta’s politics
became exceptionally polarized, and Mintoff was accused of strong-arm tactics.
Claiming nonalignment in international affairs, the Mintoff government refused a
further renewal of the lease, and in 1979 British forces withdrew from the
island. Malta and Libya cooperated closely in the late 1970s, but relations were
strained in 1980 by a dispute over oil-drilling rights in Mediterranean waters.
E | After the Mintoff Era |
The MLP enjoyed 16 years of unbroken rule,
until the Nationalist Party (PN) won the 1987 elections by a narrow margin. PN
leader Eddie Fenech-Adami became prime minister. The PN won again in 1992 by a
larger majority, allowing it to continue with privatization measures initiated
in 1987. The win also assured Malta’s continued efforts to align its economy
more closely with the European Community (a forerunner of the European Union, or
EU), to which Malta had applied for membership in 1990. Also in 1990, Malta and
Libya renewed a bilateral cooperation treaty until 1995, and the two countries
retained friendly relations after that time. Ties between the two countries had
strengthened in the late 1980s with the establishment of Voice of the
Mediterranean, a jointly administered radio station. Visa requirements between
the two countries were subsequently abolished.
In 1996 Fenech-Adami’s government called
an election to confirm its mandate to pursue EU membership for Malta. The Malta
Labour Party (MLP) ran an election campaign based almost solely on its
opposition to joining the EU. The MLP narrowly defeated the PN election,
temporarily putting Malta’s EU application on hold. MLP prime minister Alfred
Sant argued that EU agricultural policies would harm Malta’s farmers and that
integration with the EU would conflict with Malta’s postwar tradition of
nonalignment in foreign relations. Voters returned the PN and Fenech-Adami to
power in elections in 1998, however, and Malta was confirmed as a candidate for
EU membership following the EU summit in Helsinki in late 1999.
F | Recent Events |
In 2002 the European Union (EU) formally
invited Malta to join the organization. In March 2003 Malta held a referendum on
EU membership that was approved by nearly 54 percent of voters. Prime Minister
Fenech-Adami called a general election for April during which his Nationalist
Party (PN) won 34 of 65 parliamentary seats; the Malta Labour Party (MLP) took
31 seats. The result was viewed as an endorsement of the previous month’s
referendum approving EU membership. Fenech-Adami stepped down as prime minister
in March 2004 and was replaced by Lawrence Gonzi. Malta became a full member of
the EU on May 1, 2004.
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