Malta

An island belonging to Great Britain, situated in the Mediterranean, 54 miles from the Sicilian coast, and about 200 from Cape Bon, on the African coast. It is strongly fortified around the capital, Valetta, which was built by the Knights of St. John. Malta was colonized by the Cart hag in i ans about 500 B.C. , and as early as the first Punic war it was plundered by the Romans, but did not come finally into their po e ion until 242 B.C. During the 5th century it fell succe ively under the sway of the Vandals and Goths. The Romans, however, regained it under Belisarius in 533 A.D. , and kept po e ion of it till it was conquered by the Arabs in 870. In 1090, Count Roger of Sicily drove out the Arabs, and established a popular council for the government of the island. Charles of Anjou, after overrunning Sicily, made himself master of it; but after a time, the houses of Aragon and Castile succe ively held the island. Subsequently, the emperor Charles V. took po e ion of Malta, and in 1530 granted it to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, from whom the Turks had recently captured their great stronghold at Rhodes. The knights raised by degrees the stupendous fortifications, and, moreover, spent their large income in beautifying the island in every way. Meanwhile they rendered ince ant services to Christen dom in the chastisement of the ferocious Barbary pirates. To revenge these acts, the Turks brought immense forces against Malta in 1557, and again in 1565. The siege in the latter year was carried on by the sultan Solyman himself, with the flower of the Ottoman army; but the grand master, La Valette, opposed a heroic resistance, and he was forced to re-embark, with the lo of more than 25,000 of his best troops. The defenders lost 260 knights and 7000 Maltese soldiers; and their gallantry was the theme of admiration throughout the world. After this siege the knights built Valetta. In 1571, they, with the Maltese, behaved most courageously at the battle of Lepanto, where the Turks lost 30,000 men. Though waging perpetual war with the Turks, the knights continued in po e ion of Malta until 1798, when it surrendered to Napoleon, and received a French garrison. In 1800 it was blockaded by a British squadron, and was forced to surrender to the English, in whose po e ion it has remained as a dependency.