This week’s post will be about the time after the Maltese people lost control
of Gozo until the discovery of the archeological site. In 2000 BC, life came
crashing down around the Maltese people when an enemy came to Gozo, known as
the Destroyers. They dominated the island until roughly 1400 BC, when another group
from in Sicily moved to the island. These Sician held Gozo for five centuries, until
the Phoenicians came who used the island as a staging post for their trade routes.
In 600 BC, the Greeks had a large enough population that they began looking for
new territories to inhabit. The Carthaginians supported the Phoenicians in their
fight against the Greeks for land control in Italy, Sicily and occupied the
island in 480 BC. Under their control the population grew and moved inland on
Gozo and establishing the port known as Grand Harbor. In 218 BC, the last Punic
War was being fought between the Carthaginians and the Romans and the Maltese
people rebelled against Carthaginian rule and declared their loyalty to Rome. The
island prospered under Roman rule and in 117 BC, Gozo was given the official
status of Municipium and
allowed to form autonomous local governments.
When the Roman Empire split in 395 AD, Gozo became occupied by the Goths and
the Vandals until in the 6th century when the island fell under the control of
the Byzantine Empire for the next four centuries. In 836 AD, the Aghlabid Arabs
of North Africa began to raid the island and in 870 AD, Gozo succumbed to Arab
rule for the next 220 years. Under Arab rule the cultural of the island
drastically changed and set the foundation of modern Maltese. In 1061 AD, the Normans
invaded Sicily and defeated the Arab rulers of the Gozo in 1090 AD. Originally
the Arabs still living on the island were allowed to stay. However, in 1122 AD,
King Roger I of Sicily deported them and established a feudal system. The
island became a part of the Kingdom of Sicily and under King Tancred of Sicily;
the islands of Malta and Gozo were turned into a fief under the rule of the
Count of Malta. In 1194 AD, the Swabian dynasty of Hohenstaufens took control
of the islands and the regain became a part of an immense empire stretching
from the north to the south of Europe.
In 1266 AD, at the end of the Hohenstaufen rule of Malta, the islands
briefly passed on to the French House of d'Anjou. This however, while
the Maltese felt protected by the French forces, the ruling government was
never popular. In 1275 when the island was sacked, large revolts against the
French rule lead to the region falling under the rule of the Spanish House of
Aragon from 1284 to 1412. During this time heavy taxes, failing crops, and
raids of the islands by Arab forces lead to dissatisfaction of the Maltese. In
1425, they rose up in revolt against Count Gonsalvo Monroy and in 1428; King
Alphonso gave governmental control of the islands to the Maltese people under Spanish
rule.
In 1522, the Ottoman Empire showed interests in the islands to wage war in
Africa, so in 1530, Charles V of Spain granted the islands to the Sovereign
Military Order of the Knights of St. John in perpetual fiefdom, in exchange for
an annual fee of a single Maltese falcon and to fend off the Ottomans. In 1565,
the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent sent an army of 40,000 to expel the
Knights from the Maltese islands. The population of Malta suffered one of the roughest
and bloodiest sieges in history. However,
The Ottoman defeat started the turning point in Turkish naval domination, and
after the siege the Knights embarked built the new city of Valletta.
The rule of the Knights remained strong until 1798, when the Order saw its
revenues and its prestige decline and with the French revolution of 1789, Napoleon
was able to capture the islands. In 1814, during the Napoleon wars, the Maltese
rebelled against the French occupation of the islands. With Great Britain help
in blockading the islands from French reinforcements with the signing of the
First Treaty of Paris, The islands were declared to be a part of the British
Empire who completed the excavation of the Ggantija ruins in 1827.
Works Cited:
"Maltese." Worldmark
Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life. Ed. Timothy L. Gall and Jeneen
Hobby. 2nd ed. Vol. 5: Europe. Detroit: Gale, 2009. 298-308. Gale Virtual
Reference Library. Web. 22 Mar. 2012.
Quite a spiraling and possibly confusing to many path of occupation. It is indeed interesting to note how the various empires sought the islands as a strategic asset for their grand warfare schemes. It does make me ponder what evidence if any remains of the various military occupations, such as debris from the storage buildings, camps, etc. From the earlier posts about the islands, I had assumed they were not suitable as ports, in particular for larger vessels. It seems that they were however.
ReplyDeleteAnother interesting point is that of how often the mood of the Maltese changed in regards to their masters, occupiers, and trade partners. When it came to revolting against the current foreign influence, I ponder how the planning was carried out, along with the negotiations with other foreign powers for assistance. Was it conducted in secret or along pure political channels? Certainly the methods changed as time progressed. It also brings up the question of what weaponry or tactics did the Maltese employ.
In considering the different economical and political states of the islands occupiers, I also ponder how the islands would have fared without foreign influence. Was it a necessary evil, or was it just fate for the islands to be coveted by so many groups?
The cultural exchanges that occurred on the islands must have been extraordinary, in particular the arrival of eastern ideals. I would assume that there is evidence of such exchanges still present somewhere on the islands.
In the end, a somewhat tragic tale indeed of a people occupied by so many oppressive empires.