History of Malta

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.