Malta

Malta lies in the central Mediterranean south of Sicily, a small island whose deep natural harbours have given it importance far beyond its size. Its stone towns and fields stand above a coast of bays and headlands. The islands passed through many hands before Charles V granted them to the Knights of Saint John in 1530, after the order had lost Rhodes.

In 1565 an Ottoman fleet landed troops at Marsaxlokk and besieged the knights' fortified positions around the Grand Harbour. Fort St Elmo fell after fierce fighting, but Birgu and Senglea held until relief arrived and the attackers withdrew. The siege prompted the foundation of Valletta in 1566 on the Sciberras peninsula, between the two harbours. Its walls and streets formed a new fortified capital for the order. The knights remained until 1798, when Napoleon occupied Malta on his way to Egypt. Maltese resistance and British intervention followed, and the French garrison surrendered in 1800. The island's harbours had again drawn it into a struggle far larger than its own shores.