The Strategic Importance of Malta

The Emperor Napoleon
in His Study at the Tuileries
by Jacques-Louis David, 1812

Located at the geographical center of the Mediterranean Sea, fifty miles south of Sicily, the tiny island of Malta (less than 10% the size of Rhode Island) has for centuries held a strategic importance far greater than its hundred-twenty square mile area might suggest. Catholic to its core – St. Paul himself ministered on the archipelago after being shipwrecked there -- Malta had teetered back and forth at the epicenter of a seemingly endless struggle between Greeks and Romans, Phoenicians and Turks, and Arabs and Spanish for supremacy in the Mediterranean.

In 1551, Barbary pirates landed on Gozo, an island adjacent to Malta, and took the entire population of 5,000 men, women and children back to North Africa as slaves.  Twelve years later, the Knights of Malta, led by Frenchman Jean Parisot de la Valette, successfully repelled an assault by a vast Ottoman fleet that nonetheless succeeded in causing considerable damage to the island and its defenses.  Nor did a treaty between Spain and the Ottoman Empire in the late 1700s bring any sort of reprieve to the long-suffering Maltese people. In 1798, on his voyage to conquer Egypt with his "Army of the Orient," Napoleon Bonaparte seized possession of Malta and left behind a sizable garrison under the command of a trusted commander, General Claude-Henri Belgrand de Vaubois. The general’s mission, Bonaparte publicly declared, was to hold at all costs an island so vital to French interests and supply lines he would rather keep it out of British hands than any village in France.

As profiled in A Call To Arms (Volume IV of the Cutler Family Chronicles to be released in October by the Naval Institute Press.), "Vaubois’s tenure on Malta proved to be ephemeral. Reinforced with weapons and manpower furnished by the kingdom of Sicily, the citizens of Malta, outraged by the French Republic’s hostility to Catholic doctrine, rose up in defiance. Their revolt was enthusiastically supported by the Royal Navy, which blockaded the islands and brought its unique blend of firepower to bear against the French. In 1800, to show their appreciation for British assistance and to protect themselves in the future from would-be molesters, the leaders of Malta formally petitioned the government of King George the Third to grant their island royal dominion status. Sir Alexander Ball, a former British naval officer much beloved by the Maltese, graciously accepted on behalf of His Britannic Majesty. Soon thereafter, Horatio Lord Nelson, Vice Admiral of the Blue and commander-in-chief of British forces in the Mediterranean, declared Grand Harbor at Valletta – one of the finest deep-draft harbors in the world – the new headquarters for the Royal Navy’s Mediterranean Fleet."

In 1803, Lord Neson invited Commodore Edward Preble, commander of the U.S. Navy’s Mediterranean Squadron, to use Valetta as his base from which to wage war against Tripoli.  Preble politely declined the offer, preferring for his purposes the harbor of Syracuse on the island of Sicily.

Postscript:  After playing a significant role during World War II due to its proximity to both Allied and Axis shipping lanes, Malta achieved its independence in 1964, but with Queen Elizabeth II retaining the title of Queen of Malta and remaining as de facto head of State.  A governor-general acting in her interests wielded administrative control over the island.  In 1971, Malta declared itself a republic within the British Commonwealth of Nations, with an elected president as head of State.