The island of Malta is rich in history. Here are the highlights.
6th millennium BC: The habitat of the cave of Ghar Dalam, near the southern coast
of Malta, is the oldest evidence of human presence in the archipelago remained
unoccupied to the Paleolithic era.
5th millennium BC: Groups from Sicily, under the Neolithic culture Stentinello-Molfetta
landed in the archipelago and smuggle agriculture and livestock still
rudimentary. Onset of hamlets formed oval-shaped huts.
End of 5th Millennium: Appearance of votive statuettes and gray pottery incised called Skorba I
and II (identified on the site of an archaic religious complex).
-4000 -3500
BC: Autumnal megalithic sanctuaries submitting the plan lobed feature of
Maltese architecture (Zebbug).
-3500 -3000
BC: Sanctuary Ggantija (Gozo) and Hal Saflieni Hypogeum (Malta)
-3200 BC:
Sanctuaries Mnajdra and Hagar Kim in the southwest of Malta.
-3000 to -2500: Temple of Tarxien (south of Malta) The Chalcolithic civilization which
is the origin of the Maltese megalithic architecture characterized by its
curvilinear structures and trilithons colossal - thirty buildings are identified, five of which are particularly well preserved - is all the more
impressive as these achievements have been mobilized on very long periods population
certainly does not exceed, at the time, ten thousands of people. The discovery
of obsidian from Lipari Islands, Pantelleria also shows the importance of maritime and commercial relations in the central Mediterranean in those days.
Statuettes of mother goddesses and figuration’s astral and animal testify the
existence of a complex religious universe.
-2500 To
-2000: The new entrants cause the collapse of the brilliant megalithic
civilization sanctuaries, along gradually generalizes the use of bronze. From
-1600, architecture reduces to build simple dolmens.
Invaders
destroy ancient shrines and even use the ruins of the temple of Tarxien
cemetery as incineration (culture necropolis Tarxien)
2nd millennium BC: Second culture of the Bronze Age, identified from the site of
Borg in-Nadur
End of the 2nd Millennium:
Culture identified from the site Bahrija iron. It is full expansion to the
arrival of the first Punic settlers in the ninth century BC The Arab
invasion in the installation of the Knights of Rhodes
869 Ahmed,
the son of the Emir of Tunis aghlabide, arrives in Malta, where it is held in
check by the
Byzantine
garrison. It takes the arrival of reinforcements from Sicily, conquered from
827 to the archipelago fell to the Arabs in August 870.
10th and 11th centuries: Malta becomes a valuable basis for the Saracen pirates, who
leave for launch raids on the coasts of the Christian territories.
Mid 11th century: Byzantine failed attempt to reconquer the island.
1090:
Master of Sicily for five years, the Norman Count Roger, son of Tancred Hauteville,
seized Malta where Muslims, however, remain three times as many Christians.
Material remains of the Arab presence are rare, but it has left many traces in
the names and the Semitic origins of Maltese explain no doubt that the use of
Arabic quickly became the public during the four centuries Muslim
presence.
1095-1154:
Reign of Roger II, which brings together in one all Malta, Sicily and South of Italy. The
destinies of Malta now depend heavily on those of neighboring Sicily familiar
with the successive rulers of the Normans, Swabians, Angevins and Aragonese.
1240:
Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen - son of Constance of Sicily and Henry VI,
grand-son of Roger II - decides to expel Muslims from the archipelago Maltese;
but they may remain converting.
1268: Death
of Conradin, son of Frederick II, heir of Naples and Sicily. He was beheaded on
the order of Charles of Anjou, brother of St. Louis, whom Pope Urban IV donated
Sicily. Angevins
override the Swabians.
1282: The
"Sicilian Vespers" chase the French island and Malta where the
install troops of Peter III of Aragon. The destiny of the island are now linked
to two centuries and half those of Spain.
1385:
Muslim Razzia. Christian response against fleets Djerba in 1388.
1428: King
Alfonso V of Aragon states that the islands of Malta and Gozo are combined to
life to the royal domain. The Maltese had already obtained in 1350, but the
island was erected then county since 1357, in favor of Florentin Nicola
Acciajuoli.
1412, 1422,
1423: New Muslim raids against the archipelago.
1453: Mehmed
II the Conqueror captured Constantinople.
1488:
Ottoman Raid against Malta.
1522: Fall
of Rhodes that must evacuate the Hospitallers of St. John.
1526: Raid
Barbary against Malta. Malta
bulwark of Christendom in the Mediterranean
March 24,
1530: Charles V concludes with Philippe de Villiers de l'Isle Adam, Grand
Master the Order of the Hospital, the agreement Castel Franco (near Bologna) in
which he gives "a fief perpetual, noble and frank cities, castles and
islands of Tripoli, Malta and Gozo, with all their territories and
jurisdictions. "Knights settled in Malta in the autumn following.
1533: The
Grand Master Villiers de l'Isle-Adam enact "statutes and ordinances"
called replace the Sicilian legislation that prevailed in Malta. Institution of
court Castellania
whose inhabitants are now litigants.
1535:
Victorious Expedition of Charles V against Tunis.
1541:
Failed expedition against Algiers.
1546 :Dragut, one of the most famous entered the service of Sultan privateers ravaged
Gozo and seized in 1548 from a ship in the order loaded incomes Italian
commanderies. it fails before the walls of Borgo in 1551, but again plunders
Gozo.
August 1551:
Knights of Marshal Valier abandon Tripoli to Sinan Pasha.
1553-1557:
The Grand Master Claude de la Sengle strengthens the defenses of the island.
August
1557: Jean Parisot de la Valette was elected Grand Master of the Order.
1560: Djerba, taken by Christians is immediately lost again.
May-September
1565: The "big head" of Malta, during which Dragut was killed,
concludes with failure of the Ottomans. The Knights won by the price of heavy
sacrifices victory is hailed in the West.
March 28,
1566: Laying of the foundation stone of the new fortress city named La Vallette,
built on Mount Sceberras care by Francesco Laparelli, Italian architect Cortona.
October 7,
1571: Placed under the command of Don Juan of Austria, half-brother of King Philip II,
the fleets of Spain, Venice and the Holy See, which joined four galleys of
Malta, are victorious at Lepanto the Ottoman fleet.
1592:
Foundation of a Jesuit school in Valletta.
1614: The
Grand Master Alof Wignacourt, also patron of Caravaggio (present in Malta in
1607-1608), built an aqueduct providing water supply Valletta.
1664: The
galleys of Malta join the expedition led against Algiers by the Duke of
Beaufort.
1645-1669:
War of Candia, which concludes in Venice by the loss of Crete. The order of
Malta has
hired eight galleys in the fight.
1760: The
Grand Master Pinto de Fonseca makes the Turks their flagship leads in Malta Christians
mutineers; the time of the fight against the Ottomans is gone.
1768: The
Grand Master decided the expulsion of the Jesuits.
1775: The
order must face a revolt of the Maltese population led by the priest Mannarino.
Another attempt at insurrection took place in 1784. Maltese wish to restoration
of the People's Council deleted during the installation of knights.
1775-1789:
The Grand Master Emmanuel de Rohan-Polduc (to hold office until 1797) to
align its policy with that of France. It is the culmination of a trend emerged
from the late seventeenth century, due to the fact that France provides the
order the majority of its workforce and income.
1780: 65% of
vessels stayed in Malta are French.
1783: The
loss of Minorca encourage the British government to take an interest in Malta.
1785: Knights in Valletta create a Masonic lodge.
From the
French Revolution to the 20th century
August
1789: Abolition of private privileges around a portion of their income, but the
making disposal of the nation of Church property, passed in November, is not
applied to the order, thanks to the intervention of the bailiff Virieu, his
representative in France.
July 30,
1791: A decree fails to reach the French nationality affiliated with a
knighthood settled abroad.
19
September 1792: Confiscation of property held around France.
1797 :Election of the German Grand Master Ferdinand Hompesch seeking protection Russian
Tsar Paul Ist who cannot
accept France after the victories that just won Bonaparte in Italy.
December
1797: Mission intelligence Malta Mathieu Poussielgue, secretary of the French
Legation Genoa. It is completed by the time you stay in February 1798 by
Admiral Brueys, in the way from Corfu to Toulon.
June 1798:
The French fleet carrying the army of Egypt appeared before Malta. 12, Bonaparte
obtained in favor of France, a waiver of the order to all its rights
sovereignty over Malta, the boxes are delivered to the French Army. The island
is under the authority of General Vaubois and a civilian commissioner, Regnault
de Saint-Jean d'Angely, assisted a commission of nine members chosen by Vaubois
among known personalities to be favorable to the occupants and responsible to
implement similar reforms to those made in France.
September
1798: The measures taken against the Church and the announcement of the destruction of the fleet French at
Aboukir enough to trigger the revolt led by the notary and Vitale Canon
Caruana. The French were forced to take refuge in Valletta where they meet
besieged.
September
5, 1800: At wits end, General Vaubois is forced to capitulate.
December
1800: The British government informed its representative on site that "Takes
the Maltese nation under his protection."
March 25,
1802: Signing of the Treaty of Amiens, Article 10 provides for the surrender of
Malta the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. These provisions shall not be applied
by England.
15 June
1802: The Maltese National Congress, made during the insurrection of 1798,
published a declaration recognizing the King of England as ruler of the
archipelago and denying him the right to yield to any other power.
May 1803:
The break of the Franco-British-led peace the government in London to reaffirm
claims on Malta.
March 30,
1814: Article 7 of the Treaty of Paris states that "the island of Malta
and its dependencies sole property and sovereignty to His Britannic
Majesty."
1835: The
British recognize the presence, to the Governor, an advisory board whose
members are appointed by the British authorities. They grant in 1839 freedom of
the press.
1849: The
British, worried about the revolutionary turmoil that has spread throughout
Europe, accept to add, the appointed members of the governing council of eight
members elected by universal suffrage census.
1869: The
piercing of the Isthmus of Suez greatly increases the importance of Malta,
which receives twelve thousand ships in the single year 1888. island often
welcomes the fleet British Mediterranean.
1880: Fortunato Mizzi founded the National Party, which emphasizes the defense of the
Italian language.
1887: London
accepts the establishment of a genuine representative system.
1903: The
crisis created by the language question - the British want to give the English
primacy over the Italian - led to the abandonment of the reform of 1887 and the
return to the regime established in 1849.
February-June
1919: Following the formation of an informal national assembly, riots The blood flows in Valettta but on May 27, 1921, the British Government accepts new Maltese constitution.
Parliament consists of two chambers may legislate on local issues.
1932: Exclusion of Italian primary schools and courts, but the National Party wins
the election.
1936: The
British Governor abrogated the constitution, Malta becomes a Crown Colony, but
the Legislative Council is restored in 1939.
1941-1942:
Malta is at the heart of the air and naval battle for control of the
Mediterranean for the supply of Axis troops engaged in Libya and British forces Egypt. The
island receives 14,000 tons of bombs, but his fierce resistance finally
successful when the Allied landings in North Africa from November 8, 1942
completely reverses the situation in favor of the Anglo-Americans.
1947: Malta
gets a status of self-government implemented from 1950 through between the
British colonies and territories under the Commonwealth.
September
21, 1964: Proclamation of Independence of Malta, which remains within the Commonwealth.
1979:
Evacuation of the last British forces on the island.
1981:
Arrival of the Labour Party in power. An agreement with the USSR concern the Western
camp. The Maltese government is also close for a time of Libya
Colonel Qaddafi.
1985: Agreements with the Vatican put an end to the crisis born of the measures taken
against religious education, which have a strong reaction in the local opinion.
1987: comes
to power of the Nationalist Party.
