Maltese history for dummies: the dates you need to know, at a glance

Culture

Need a quick reference before hitting the sites? Look no further... here's a few thousand years of history at a glance.

Lisa Borain

The very beginning

5900 BC The arrival of Stone Age hunter and farmer settlers from Sicily, imprinting a significant prehistoric Neolithic culture marked by Megalithic temples.

viewingmalta.com

The Phoenicians & Carthaginians

800-700 BC The Phoenicians colonise Malta, bringing their Semitic language and culture and inhabiting the area now known as Mdina.

332 BC Phoenicia falls and Carthage controls Malta.

216 BC The Carthaginians are ousted by the Romans with the help of Maltese inhabitants, under whom Malta becomes a municipium (Latin term for town or city).

Yom

The beginning of Christianity

58 AD Paul the Apostle shipwrecks in Malta and brings Christianity to the island within a three-month period.

395 AD The Roman Empire is divided for the last time and Malta (as well as Sicily) fall under the control of the Western Roman Empire.

Olivia M - viewingmalta.com

Vandals, Ostrogoths & Byzantine occupation

454 The islands are subdued by the Vandals (large East Germanic tribe).

464 The islands are subdued by the Ostrogoths (eastern branch of the later Goths).

533 General of the Byzantine empire, Belisarius, reunites the islands under Imperial (Eastern) rule on his way to conquer the Vandals in North Africa.

José Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro

The Arab rule & the Normans

870 Under Byzantine rule, the islands are invaded by the Aghlabids - an Arab dynasty of emirs from Banu Tamim, who ruled Ifriqiya.

1091 The Normans conquer Malta and end the Muslim rule.

1249 The islands are completely re-Christianised.

1409 Malta is formally passed to the Crown of Aragon after being ruled by relatives of the Kings of Aragon.

Mboesch

The Order of Knights of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem

The Order of the Knights of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem

1530 Charles I of Spain gives the Maltese islands to the Order of the Knights of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem in perpetual lease, for which they have to pay an annual tribute of one single Maltese Falcon.

1551 The population of the island of Gozo (approx 5,000 people) are taken as slaves by Barbary pirates and brought to the Barbary Coast in present-day Libya.

1565 The knights, led by Frenchman Jean Parisot de Valette, Grand Master of the Order, withstand the Great Siege of Malta by the Ottomans.

@chrii18

The French rule

1798 Under Napoleon, the French take hold of the Maltese islands.

1800 With the aid of the British, the Kingdom of Naples and the Kingdom of Sicily, the Maltese are able to oust French control.

Gottfried Baumann & Co

The British rule

1815 Malta becomes a British colony, serving as a critical way station for ships and the headquarters for the British Mediterranean fleet.

1915-1918 Malta becomes known as the Nurse of the Mediterranean due to the number of wounded soldiers who were cared for on the island.

David Bruce

World War II

1939-1945 Malta is used by the British to launch attacks on the Italian navy and as a submarine base. It is also used as a listening post, intercepting German radio messages, including Enigma traffic.

Russell, J E (Lt)

Malta's independence

1964 Malta gains independence from the United Kingdom and becomes the State of Malta, with Elizabeth II as its head of state and queen.

1974 Malta becomes a republic.

1979 Malta sees the withdrawal of the last British troops and the Royal Navy from Malta.

National Maritime Museum from Greenwich, United Kingdom