Part One: Land and Sea

The Maltese Islands, a small archipelago of islands devoid of any natural resources and hammered by the torrid summer heat, should have been relegated to the footnotes of history. Yet, ever since the archipelago was first colonised thousands of years ago, it has never been far from the center of events and has often played a crucial role in the making of history.

The Maltese Islands in the 2nd millennium found themselves in the middle of several divides that marked, or scared, world history. Many of the old divisions have been relegated to history books. However new divisions are shaping up the first years of the millennium. Malta’s role as a catalyst of peace and cooperation in the troubled Mediterranean has never been so important as today. No longer a springboard of death and destruction, Malta today is a springboard of hope and peace.

The Maltese Islands are not large. They barely cover 420 square kilometers (122 square miles) of territory. With a population of just 380,000 inhabitants, they are one of the most densely populated areas in the world. They are not enriched with natural resources. With a typical Mediterranean climate, summers are very hot and dry, and winters are cool with a little rain.

In these conditions, the Maltese Islands would have been relegated to the footnotes of history. Yet, ever since the archipelago was first colonised thousands of years ago, it has never been far from the centre of events and has often played a crucial role in the making of history.

Their strategic situation in the centre of the Mediterranean Sea makes up for all the lack of resources that nature endowed the rest of the globe. Malta, the largest island, and her sister islands of Gozo, Comino, Filfla and other very small islands, are strategically placed in the narrow channel joining the eastern and the western basins of the Mediterranean. Or if you like, a bridge between Southern Europe and North Africa, or between Western Europe and the Middle East.

The Maltese Islands in the 2nd millennium found themselves in the middle of several divides that marked world history. Christian Europe and Muslim North Africa battled each other in the Maltese waters for faith and profit for hundreds of years. The Great Siege of Malta of 1565 is the greatest manifestation of Malta’s role in defense of Christendom. With such a strategic base, the Knights of the Order of St. John provided the sword and shield of European Christendom.

One would argue that the Italian islands of Lampedusa and Pantelleria enjoy the same strategic positioning, but Malta’s assets are far larger than those of the Italian Islands. Malta and Gozo are large enough to hold a garrison and its equipment. Secondly, the Islands possess a magnificent harbour that allowed them to serve as a naval base throughout history.

This reasoning brought Napoleon to Malta in 1798 on his way to Egypt to fulfill his dream of an Alexandrine empire. The same reasoning transformed Malta into an extremely important link for the British chain of naval bases that stretched from England to Australia in the 19th and early 20th century. When the German and the Italians tried to take away the British colony during World War Two, Malta was turned into the most heavily bombed place on earth, but to no avail.

Malta rode the wave that dismembered the British Empire after the Second World War, and gained independence in 1964. Once again Malta found itself in the middle of the divide, this time between the West and the East in the Cold War. Although being a democratic European country, it chose neutrality and non-alignment to stay aloof from the two super-power blocs. The stance worked in Malta’s favour, increasing her standing among the nations. Today Malta’s strategic geographic position is no longer a military concern. The last foreign naval base was closed in 1979 with the departure of the last British forces. Instead of harbouring warships and serving as an ‘unsinkable aircraft carrier’, Malta offers excellent ship building and ship repair facilities, excellent transshipment and bunkering facilities, and attracts over one million and two hundred thousand tourists each year, almost four times the local population.

Many of the old divisions have been relegated to history books. However new divisions are shaping up the first years of the third millennium. Malta’s role as a catalyst of peace and cooperation in the troubled Mediterranean has never been so important as today. No longer a springboard of death and destruction, Malta today is a springboard of hope and peace.

Go to Part 2 of this documentary entitled: Society and Culture

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