British Malta in the 19th and early 20th centuries building in
Valletta. on a one-pound colonial-era stamp, 1922 In 1800, Malta voluntarily became part of the
British Empire as a
protectorate. Under the terms of the 1802
Treaty of Amiens with France, Britain was supposed to evacuate the island, but failed to keep this obligation – one of several mutual cases of non-adherence to the treaty, which eventually led to its collapse and the
resumption of war between the two countries. Although initially the island was not given much importance, its excellent harbours became a prized asset for the British, especially after the opening of the
Suez Canal in 1869. The island became a military and naval fortress, the headquarters of the British Mediterranean fleet.
Home rule was refused to the Maltese until 1921 although a partly elected legislative council was created as early as 1849 (the first Council of Government under British rule had been held in 1835), and the locals sometimes suffered considerable poverty. This was due to the island being overpopulated and largely dependent on British military expenditure which varied with the demands of war. Throughout the 19th century, the British administration instituted several liberal constitutional reforms which were generally resisted by the Church and the Maltese elite who preferred to cling to their feudal privileges. Political organisations, like the
Nationalist Party, were created or had as one of their aims, the protection of the
Italian language in Malta. In 1813 Malta was granted the Bathurst Constitution; in 1814 it was declared free of the
plague, while the 1815
Congress of Vienna reaffirmed the British rule under the 1814
Treaty of Paris. In 1819, the local Italian-speaking
Università was dissolved. The year 1828 saw the revocation of the right of sanctuary, following the Vatican Church-State proclamation. In 1831, the
See of Malta was made independent of the
See of Palermo. In 1839, press censorship was abolished, and the construction of St. Paul's Anglican Cathedral began. Following the 1846 Carnival riots, in 1849 a Council of Government with elected members under British rule was set up. In 1870 a
referendum was held on ecclesiastics serving on Council of Government, and in 1881 an Executive Council under British rule was created; in 1887, the Council of Government was entrusted with "dual control" under British rule. A backlash came in 1903, with the return to the 1849 form of Council of Government under British rule. The last quarter of the century saw technical and financial progress in line with the
Belle Époque: The following years saw the foundation of the
Anglo-Egyptian Bank (1882) and the beginning of operation of the
Malta Railway (1883); the first definitive postage stamps were issued in 1885, and in 1904 tram service began. In 1886 Surgeon Major
David Bruce discovered the microbe causing the
Malta Fever, and in 1905
Themistocles Zammit discovered the fever's sources. Finally, in 1912,
Dun Karm Psaila wrote his first poem in Maltese. Between 1915 and 1918, during
World War I, Malta became known as
the Nurse of the Mediterranean due to the large number of wounded soldiers who were accommodated in Malta.
Interwar period monument In 1919, the
Sette Giugno (7 June) riots over the excessive price of bread led to greater autonomy for the locals during the 1920s. After Filippo Sciberras had convened a National Assembly, in 1921 self-government was granted under British rule. Malta obtained a
bicameral parliament with a Senate (later abolished in 1949) and an elected Legislative Assembly.
Joseph Howard was named Prime Minister. In 1923 the
Innu Malti was played for the first time in public, and the same year Francisco Buhagiar became Prime Minister, followed in 1924 by Sir
Ugo Pasquale Mifsud and in 1927 by Sir
Gerald Strickland. The 1930s saw a period of instability in the relations between the Maltese political elite, the Maltese Catholic church, and the British authorities; the 1921 Constitution was suspended twice. First in 1930–1932, when British authorities assumed that a free and fair election would not be possible following a clash between the governing
Constitutional Party and the Church and the latter's subsequent imposition of mortal sin on voters of the party and its allies, thus making a free and fair election impossible. Again, in 1933 the Constitution was withdrawn over the Government's budgetary vote for the teaching of Italian in elementary schools, after just 13 months of a Nationalist administration. Malta thus reverted to the Crown Colony status it held in 1813. Before the arrival of the British, the official language since 1530 (that of the handful of educated elite) had been Italian, but this was downgraded by the increased use of English. In 1934
Maltese was declared an official language, which brought the number up to three. Two years later, the Letters Patent of the 1936 constitution declared that Maltese and English were the only official languages, thereby legally settling the long-standing '
Language Question' that had dominated Maltese politics for over half a century. In 1934, only about 15% of the population could speak Italian fluently. This meant that out of 58,000 males qualified by age to be jurors, only 767 could qualify by language, as only Italian had until then been used in the courts. At the time of the Italian declaration of war (10 June 1940), Malta had a garrison of less than four thousand soldiers and about five weeks of food supplies for the population of about three hundred thousand. In addition, Malta's air defences consisted of about forty-two
anti-aircraft guns (thirty-four "heavy" and eight "light") and four
Gloster Gladiators, for which three pilots were available. Being a British colony, situated close to Sicily and the
Axis shipping lanes, Malta was bombarded by the Italian and German air forces. Malta was used by the British to launch attacks on the Italian navy and had a submarine base. It was also used as a listening post, reading German radio messages including
Enigma traffic. The first air raids against Malta occurred on 11 June 1940; there were six attacks that day. The island's
biplanes ability to defend the island was limited due to the
Luqa Airfield being unfinished; however, the airfield was ready by the seventh attack. Initially, the Italians would fly at about 5,500 m, then they dropped down to three thousand metres (in order to improve the accuracy of their bomb-aiming).
Journalist Mabel Strickland spoke of the Italian bombing efforts as such: "The Italians decided they didn't like [the
Gladiators and
AA guns], so they dropped their bombs twenty miles off Malta and went back." Despite these words, the accuracy of Italian bombers improved after repeated attempts, causing a great deal of devastation to both military and civilian infrastructure in Malta. However, these raids proved ineffective to the Axis siege efforts, as any damage incurred was eventually repaired before a new wave of bombers could launch bombing runs over the islands. By the end of August, the Gladiators were reinforced by twelve
Hawker Hurricanes which had arrived via
HMS Argus. in 1943 On 15 April 1942,
King George VI awarded the
George Cross (the highest civilian award for gallantry) "to the island fortress of Malta — its people and defenders". (The complete citation now stands on a plaque on the wall of the Grand Master's Palace on Republic Street, in the town square of Valletta.) In 1942, a convoy code-named
Operation Pedestal was sent to relieve Malta. Five ships, including the tanker
SS Ohio, managed to arrive in the Grand Harbour, with enough supplies for Malta to survive. In the following year Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill visited Malta. George VI also arrived in Grand Harbour for a visit. During the Second World War,
Ugo Mifsud and
George Borg Olivier were the only remaining Nationalist members of parliament of Malta. Mifsud fainted after delivering a very passionate defence against the deportation to concentration camps in
Uganda of
Enrico Mizzi and 49 other
Italian Maltese accused of pro-Italian political activities. He died a few days later. In 1943, the
Allies coordinated the
invasion of Sicily from the
Lascaris War Rooms in Valletta. Following the
Armistice of Cassibile later in 1943, a large part of the
Italian Navy surrendered to the British in Malta. The
Malta Conference was held in 1945, in which Churchill and Roosevelt met prior to the
Yalta Conference with
Joseph Stalin. The 1946 National Assembly resulted in a new constitution in 1947. This restored Malta's self-government, with
Paul Boffa as Prime Minister. On 5 September 1947, universal suffrage for
women in Malta was granted. That year,
Agatha Barbara was the
first woman elected as a Maltese Member of Parliament.
From home rule to independence commemorating self-government with anti-British and pro-Independence signs in the late 1950s Labour Party club After the Second World War, the islands achieved self-rule, with the
Malta Labour Party (MLP) of
Dom Mintoff seeking either full integration with the UK or else "self-determination" (independence) and the
Partit Nazzjonalista (PN) of
George Borg Olivier favouring independence, with the same "dominion status" that Canada, Australia and New Zealand enjoyed. The 1953 Coronation incident (where, initially, no invitation was sent for a Maltese delegation to attend the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II), temporarily united Maltese politicians. After the MLP's electoral victory in 1955, in December Round Table Talks were held in London, on the future of Malta, namely the Integration proposal put forward by Mintoff. It was attended by the new Prime Minister Dom Mintoff, Borg Olivier, and other Maltese politicians, along with the British
Colonial Secretary,
Alan Lennox-Boyd. The British government agreed to offer the islands their own representation in
British Parliament, with three seats in the
House of Commons, with the
Home Office taking over responsibility for Maltese affairs from the Colonial Office. but owing to a boycott by the Nationalist Party and the Church, only 59.1% of the electorate voted, thereby rendering the result inconclusive. There were also concerns expressed by British MPs that the representation of Malta at Westminster would set a precedent for other colonies, and influence the outcome of general elections. In addition, the decreasing strategic importance of Malta to the Royal Navy meant that the British government was increasingly reluctant to maintain the naval dockyards. Following a decision by the Admiralty to dismiss 40 workers at the dockyard, Mintoff declared that "representatives of the Maltese people in Parliament declare that they are no longer bound by agreements and obligations toward the British government" (the 1958
Caravaggio incident). In response, the Colonial Secretary sent a cable to Mintoff, stating that he had "recklessly hazarded" the whole integration plan. Under protest, Dom Mintoff resigned as Prime Minister along with all the MLP deputies on 21 April 1958. Georgio Borg Olivier was offered to form an alternative government by Governor Laycock but refused. This led to the Governor declaring a state of emergency thus suspending the constitution and Malta was placed under direct colonial administration from London. The MLP had now fully abandoned support for integration (when Mintoff's demands for financial guarantees were not accepted) and now advocated full independence from Britain. In 1959, an Interim Constitution provided for an Executive Council under British rule. While France had implemented a similar policy in its colonies, some of which became
overseas departments, the status offered to Malta from Britain constituted a unique exception. Malta was the only
British colony where integration with the UK was seriously considered, and subsequent British governments have ruled out integration for remaining overseas territories, such as
Gibraltar. From 1959 Malta's British governor started to pursue a plan of economic development based on promoting
tourism and
tax competition, offering very low tax rates on pensions, royalties and dividends to attract British (referred to as ‘sixpenny settlers’) and former colonial pensioners. Malta saw a large influx of Britons from
Rhodesia after 1967. In 1961, the
Blood Commission provided for a new constitution allowing for a measure of self-government and recognising the "State" of Malta.
Giorgio Borg Olivier became Prime Minister the following year, when the
Stolper report was delivered. ==Independent Malta (since 1964)==