ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the histories of both Malta as a country and the English involvement in the Mediterranean. Malta’s place in the center of the Mediterranean made it a valuable strategic and economic location. While many civilizations claimed sovereignty over the islands before the British, the most recent and longest rulers were the Knights of St. John, an anachronistic Crusading order whose funding was mostly erased by the turmoil of the French Revolution. English ambitions in the Mediterranean were always focused on trade and strategic concerns, and their history in the region was punctuated by commercial ventures and (often short-lived) colonial acquisitions. The two stories operate on mostly parallel lines with little intersection but provide important motivational context when they eventually do connect.
