Malta

The English name Malta derives from classical Latin Melita, from Latinised forms of the ancient Greek Melítē (Μελίτη), of uncertain meaning, possibly from the Phoenician Maleth. The name Melítē—shared by the Croatian island Mljet in antiquity—literally means "place of honey" or "place of sweetness", derived from the combining form of méli (μέλι, honey or any similarly sweet thing), and the suffix -ē (-η). The ancient Greeks may have named the island this after Malta's endemic subspecies of bees.

Other scholars, however, argue for derivation of the Greek name from an original Phoenician or Punic Maleth (𐤌𐤋𐤈, mlṭ), meaning "haven", "refuge", or "port", in reference to its Grand Harbour and its primary settlement at Cospicua following the rise in sea level that separated the Maltese islands and flooded their original coastal settlements in the 10th century BC. The name was then applied to all of Malta by the Greeks and to its ancient capital by the Romans.

=== Prehistory ===

Malta was first inhabited between 8000 and 6500 BC with the arrival of Mesolithic era hunter-gatherers, likely from Sicily. Neolithic farmers, also originating from Sicily, are thought to have arrived on the islands by around 5400 BC. Prehistoric settlements dating to the Early Neolithic era include the Għar Dalam cave site in the uppermost layers, associated with domesticated animals. The Neolithic population of Malta grew cereals, raised livestock and, like many other European civilisations, worshipped a mother goddess.

Later, the Maltese started to build megalithic temples. Around 3500 BC, these people built some of the world's oldest existing free-standing structures in the form of the Ġgantija temples on Gozo. Other early temples include those at Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra. These temples are among the oldest free standing megalithic structures in the world, constructed even before the Egyptian pyramids.

After 2500 BC, Malta was depopulated for multiple decades until an influx of Bronze Age immigrants, a culture that cremated its dead and introduced smaller structures called dolmens as tombs. They likely belonged to a different population from the builders of the previous temples. Due to the similarity of these dolmens to small constructions in Sicily, it is presumed that this newer population arrived from there.

Phoenician traders colonised the islands at some time after 1000 BC under the name of Ann (𐤀𐤍𐤍‎, ʾnn) as a stop on their trade routes from the eastern Mediterranean to the Strait of Gibraltar. Their seat of government was at Mdina, and their primary port at Cospicua on the Grand Harbour, which they called Maleth. After the fall of Phoenicia in 332 BC, the area came under the control of Carthage. During this time, the people of Malta primarily produced olives, carob, and textiles.

During the First Punic War, the island was conquered by the Roman general Marcus Atilius Regulus. After the failure of his expedition, the island returned to Carthaginian control, only to be conquered again during the Second Punic War in 218 BC by Tiberius Sempronius Longus, a Roman consul. Malta became a foederata civitas (federated state), meaning that it fell within the jurisdiction of the Roman province of Sicily and was exempted from tribute.

Punic influence, however, remained in the islands. Local Roman coinage, which ceased in the 1st century BC, indicates the slow pace of the island's Romanisation, as the last locally minted coins bear inscriptions in ancient Greek and Punic motifs, showing Maltese resistance toward Greek and Roman culture. The Roman period also introduced highly decorative mosaic floors.

In 395, when the Roman Empire was divided for the last time at the death of Theodosius I, Malta and Sicily fell under the control of the Western Roman Empire. As that empire declined during Europe's Migration Period, Malta was conquered or occupied a number of times. In 454, the islands were subdued by the Vandals and the Ostrogoths (Germanic tribes) in 464. In 533, Belisarius, a Byzantine general, and his army went to conquer the Vandal Kingdom in North Africa, and reunited the islands under Byzantine rule. Little is known about Byzantine Malta: the island depended on the theme of Sicily and had Greek governors and a small Greek garrison. Although the bulk of the population continued to consist of the old Latinised dwellers, Malta's religious allegiance oscillated between the pope and the patriarch of Constantinople. Byzantine rule introduced Greek families to the Maltese collective. Malta remained in the Byzantine Empire until 870, when it was conquered by the Arabs.

Malta became involved in the Arab–Byzantine wars, and its conquest is linked with the Muslim conquest of Sicily that began in 827 after Admiral Euphemius killed Constantine V. The Muslim chronicler and geographer Ibn ʿAbd al-Munʿim al-Ḥimyarī recounts that, in 870, following a violent struggle against the defending Byzantines, the Arab invaders—first led by Halaf al-Hadim and later by Sawada ibn Muhammad—pillaged the island, destroying the most important buildings and leaving it practically uninhabited until it was recolonised by the Arabs from Sicily in 1048–1049.

Malta was a settlement for Banu Matkud, a vassalised tribal city state of the Berbers, from Misrata during both the Fatimid Caliphate and the Aghlabid dynasty. It is uncertain whether this new settlement resulted from demographic expansion in Sicily, a higher standard of living in Sicily, or the civil war that broke out among the rulers of Sicily in 1038. The Siculo-Arabic language from Sicily was adopted on the island, eventually evolving into the Maltese language.

The Normans attacked Malta in 1091 as part of their conquest of Sicily. Their leader, Roger I of Sicily, was welcomed by the Christians, who came out from Muslim rule. Malta became part of the new Kingdom of Sicily, which also covered the southern Italian Peninsula. The Catholic Church was reinstated as the state religion, with Malta under the Archdiocese of Palermo, and some Norman architecture sprang up around Malta, especially in its previous capital, Mdina.

Because of the strategic importance of the islands, they were particularly coveted, and it was during this time that the men of Malta were militarised to fend off attempted conquest. King Tancred made Malta a fief and installed a count of Malta in 1192. The early counts were privateers of Genoese ancestry.

The kingdom passed on to the German Hohenstaufen dynasty from 1194 until 1266. As Emperor Frederick II began to reorganise the Sicilian kingdom, Western culture and religion started to exert their influence more intensely. Malta was declared a county and a marquisate, but its trade was destroyed and for a long time it remained solely a fortified garrison.

A mass expulsion of Arabs occurred in 1224, and the entire male Christian population of Celano, Italy in Abruzzo was deported to Malta in the same year. In 1249, the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II decreed that all remaining Muslims be either expelled from Malta or compelled to convert. In 1266, the kingdom passed to the French Capetian House of Anjou, but high taxes made the dynasty unpopular in Malta, due in part to Charles of Anjou's war against the Republic of Genoa, and the island of Gozo was sacked in 1275.

Malta was ruled by the Catalan House of Barcelona, the ruling dynasty of the Crown of Aragon, from 1282 to 1409, which aided Aragonese Malta in the Sicilian Vespers in the naval battle in Grand Harbour in 1283. Relatives of the crown ruled Malta until it formally passed to the Crown of Aragon.

Early in the Aragonese ascendancy, the sons of the monarchs received the title Count of Malta. During this time, much of the local nobility was created, but by 1397 the bearing of the title of count reverted to a feudal basis with two families fighting over the distinction. This led King Martin I of Sicily to abolish the title, but it returned a few years later. The Maltese, led by the local nobility, rose up against Count Gonsalvo Monroy although they voiced their loyalty to the Sicilian Crown, which impressed King Alfonso V of Aragon to the extent that he did not punish Malta, and chose never to grant the title to a third party, moving it back under the crown's control.

On 23 March 1530, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V gave the islands to the Knights Hospitaller under the leadership of the French Philippe Villiers de L'Isle-Adam, for which they had to pay an annual tribute of a Maltese falcon. These knights, a military religious order also known as the Order of Saint John and later as the Knights of Malta, had been driven from the Greek island of Rhodes by the Ottoman Empire in 1522. The Knights ruled Malta until 1798. During this period, the island's strategic and military importance grew as the Knights' efficient fleet launched attacks from this new base, targeting the shipping lanes of the Ottoman territories around the Mediterranean.

Led by the French Jean Parisot de Valette, the Knights withstood the Siege of Malta by the Ottomans in 1565 with the help of Portuguese, Spanish, and Maltese forces. After the siege, the Knights increased Malta's fortifications, particularly in the inner-harbour area, where the new city of Valletta was built.

The Knights' reign ended when Napoleon captured Malta on his way to Egypt during the French Revolutionary Wars in 1798. From 12 to 18 June 1798, Napoleon resided at the Palazzo Parisio in Valletta. He reformed Maltese administration with the creation of a government commission, 12 municipalities, a public finance administration, abolition of feudal rights and slavery, and freedom to all Turkish and Jewish slaves. On the judicial level, a family code was framed and 12 judges nominated.

Public education was also organised along principles set by Napoleon, providing for primary and secondary education. He then sailed for Egypt, leaving a substantial garrison in Malta.

The French forces left behind became unpopular in Malta, mainly due to their being anti-Catholic. French financial and religious policies so angered the Maltese that they rebelled, forcing the French to depart. Great Britain, along with Naples and Sicily, sent ammunition and aid to the Maltese, and Britain also sent a navy to blockade the islands.

On 28 October 1798, British Captain Alexander Ball completed negotiations with the French garrison on Gozo for a transfer of Malta to the British. The British then transferred the island to the locals that day, and Malta was administered by Archpriest Saverio Cassar on behalf of Ferdinand III of Sicily. Gozo remained independent until Cassar was removed by the British in 1801.

The French General Claude-Henri Belgrand de Vaubois surrendered his forces in 1800. Maltese leaders thereupon gave the main island to Alexander Ball, asking that it become a British dominion, with the Maltese creating a Declaration of Rights in which they agreed to come "under the protection and sovereignty of the King of the free people, His Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland".

In 1814, as part of the Treaty of Paris, which ended the War of the Sixth Coalition, Malta officially became a part of the British Empire. Between 1915 and 1918, during World War I, Malta became known as "the Nurse of the Mediterranean," due to the large number of wounded soldiers who were accommodated there.

On 7 June 1919, the Maltese public rioted in response to a cost-of-living crisis, but British troops eventually managed to suppress the riots with four fatalities. The event, known as Sette Giugno (Italian: the 7th of June) is commemorated every year on that date, becoming one of Malta's five "National Days". Until World War II, Maltese politics was dominated by the Language Question, a dispute over whether English or Italian would be the national language.

Prior to World War II, Valletta had been the location of the Royal Navy's Mediterranean fleet headquarters. Over Winston Churchill's objections, however, the command was moved to Alexandria, Egypt, in 1937 out of fear that Valletta was too susceptible to air attacks from Europe. Indeed, because of its being a British colony as well as situated close to Sicily and Axis shipping lanes, Malta was bombarded by the Italian and German air forces. During the war, Malta played an important role for the Allies. It was used by the British to launch attacks on the Italian Navy and as a submarine base and as a listening post, intercepting German radio messages including Enigma traffic.

The Maltese defence during the second siege of Malta moved King George VI to award the George Cross to Malta collectively on 15 April 1942. Some historians argue that the award caused Britain to incur disproportionate losses in defending Malta, as British credibility would have suffered if Malta had surrendered, as occurred during the Battle of Singapore. A depiction of the George Cross now appears on the flag of Malta and the country's coat of arms.

Malta gained independence as the State of Malta on 21 September 1964. Under its 1964 constitution, Malta initially retained Elizabeth II as queen of Malta and therefore head of state, with a governor-general exercising executive authority on her behalf. In 1971, however, the Malta Labour Party led by Dom Mintoff won the general elections, resulting in Malta's declaration of itself as a republic within the Commonwealth on 13 December 1974. A defence agreement was signed soon after, re-negotiated in 1972, and expired on 31 March 1979 (Freedom Day). Upon its expiry, the British base closed and lands formerly controlled by the British were given over to the Maltese government.

After the departure of the remaining British troops in 1979, the country intensified its participation in the Non-Aligned Movement, adopting a policy of neutrality in 1980. In that same year, three of Malta's sites, including the capital Valletta, were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. In 1989, Malta was the venue of a summit between United States and Soviet leaders George H. W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev, which marked the end of the Cold War. A referendum on Malta's joining the EU was held on 8 March 2003, with 53.65 percent in favour, after which Malta joined the EU on 1 May 2004 and the eurozone on 1 January 2008.

Malta is an archipelago in the eastern basin of the central Mediterranean Sea, some 80 km (50 mi) from southern Italy across the Malta Channel. Only the three largest islands—Malta, Gozo, and Comino— have permanent residences, though Comino is practically uninhabited. The islands of the archipelago lie on the Malta plateau, a shallow shelf formed from the high points of a land bridge between Sicily and North Africa that became isolated as sea levels rose after the last ice age. The archipelago is located on the African tectonic plate.

Malta is the largest of the three inhabited islands, as well as both the easternmost and the southernmost. It also has the largest population, and serves as the country's administrative centre. Gozo is the second largest island, and both the northernmost and the westernmost, as well as more rural. Comino is the smallest of the three islands, lying between the other two.

Malta has a coarse, hilly environment. There are numerous harbours along the islands' indented coastline. The country's highest point is Ta' Dmejrek, at 253 m (830 ft), near Dingli. Although there are some small rivers at times of high rainfall, Malta has no permanent rivers or lakes. Some watercourses, however, have fresh water running all year round at Baħrija near Ras ir-Raħeb, l-Imtaħleb, and San Martin.

The Maltese archipelago is located on the African plate, on a shallow water continental platform. It lies about 200 km (125 mi) to the south of the subduction boundary between the African Plate and the Eurasian Plate. The mainly sedimentary rocks also consist of a large amount of limestone, which has been used as a material for many buildings on the island.

Malta's climate is Mediterranean (Köppen climate classification Csa), with mild winters and warm summers. Rain occurs mainly in autumn and winter. The average temperature is around 19 °C (66 °F), with 23 °C (73 °F) during the day and 15 °C (59 °F) at night. In the coldest month, January, the typical maximum temperature ranges from around 15 °C (59 °F) during the day and minimum 9 °C (48 °F) at night. In the warmest month, August, the typical maximum temperature ranges from around 31 °C (88 °F) during the day and 22 °C (72 °F) at night. In March and December average temperatures are around 17 °C (63 °F) during the day and 11 °C (52 °F) at night. Snow is rare, although it has occurred.

The average annual sea temperature is 20 °C (68 °F), from 15 °C (59 °F) in February to 26 °C (79 °F) in August. In the six months from June to November, the average sea temperature exceeds 20 °C (68 °F). The annual average relative humidity is high, averaging 75 percent and ranging from 65 percent in July to 80 percent in December. Hours of sunshine duration total around 3,000 per year, from an average 5.2 hours of sunshine per day in December to an average above 12 hours in July.

Over the past century, temperatures in Malta have increased by 1.4 °C (2.5 °F), and the surface temperature of the sea has increased a total of 2 °C (3.6 °F). There has also been rising water and flooding of land and infrastructure. There has been a long-term drying trend, however, with the average annual rainfall being 17 percent lower between 2008 and 2024 than between 1940 and 2024. Malta produces the equivalent of about 4.2 tonnes of carbon dioxide per person, one of the lowest per capita values in Europe.

Malta contains 4.6 sq km (1.8 sq mi) of naturally regenerating forest, characterised by mature trees with a height of 2 to 5 m (7 to 16 ft). The overall area occupied by trees is estimated to be 32 sq km (12 sq mi), which constitutes approximately 1.44 percent of the total land area of the archipelago. The most common indigenous tree species are the willow (Salix alba); poplar (Populus alba); olive (Olea europaea); carob (Ceratonia siliqua); oak (Quericus ilex and Quercus rotundifolia); Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis); laurel (Laurus nobilis); and fig (Ficus carica). The most common introduced trees are eucalyptus, acacia, date palm, and opuntia.

The Maltese islands are also home to a wide diversity of indigenous, sub-endemic, and endemic plants. They feature many traits typical of a Mediterranean climate, such as drought resistance. Endemic plants include the national flower widnet il-baħar (Cheirolophus crassifolius); sempreviva ta' Malta (Helichrysum panormitanum subsp. melitense); żigland t' Għawdex (Hyoseris frutescens); and ġiżi ta' Malta (Matthiola incana subsp. melitensis). Sub-endemic plants include kromb il-baħar (Jacobaea maritima subsp. sicula) and xkattapietra (Micromeria microphylla).

Malta also has multiple species of animals. These include the blue rock thrush, which lives on coastal cliffs, the Maltese freshwater crab, the only endemic decapod, and the Maltese honey bee, which inspired the island’s name.

Phytogeographically, Malta belongs to the Liguro-Tyrrhenian province of the Mediterranean region within the Boreal Kingdom. The territory of Malta belongs to the terrestrial ecoregion of Tyrrhenian–Adriatic sclerophyllous and mixed forests. Malta's biodiversity is endangered by habitat loss, invasive species, and human intervention.

According to Eurostat, Malta is composed of two larger urban zones nominally referred to as Valletta (the main island of Malta) and Gozo, with the main urban area covering the entire main island. The core of the urban area, the greater city of Valletta, had a population of 205,768 in 2015. According to Eurostat's data from 2020, the metropolitan region covered the whole island and had a population of 480,134. According to the United Nations in 2017, about 95 percent of Malta's area was urban and growing annually. According to Interreg and the European Commission studies, "the whole territory of Malta constitutes a single urban region". It is sometimes referred to as a city-state, but also sometimes ranked as a city or metropolitan area. With an area of 316 sq km (122 sq mi), it is one of the world's most densely populated countries.

Valetta, built after the Ottoman invasion of Malta in 1565, has been Malta's capital since 1570. When the Knights Hospitaller were removed by the French, Maltese revolt led the British to seize it.

Saint Paul's Bay is Malta's most populous council. Remains of beehouses, thermae, and roads show that it was a part of Roman Malta. Later, the Knights Hospitaller built towers and batteries, such as Wignacourt Tower and Arrias Battery, both of which are still standing today.

Malta is a republic, the parliamentary system and public administration of which are modelled on the Westminster system. The Parliament is made up of the president and the House of Representatives (Maltese: Kamra tad-Deputati). The president is appointed for a five-year term by a simple majority of the House of Representatives. The current president, Myriam Spiteri Debono, was elected on 27 March 2024 by members of Parliament.

The House of Representatives has 65 members, elected for a five-year term in 13 five-seat electoral divisions called distretti elettorali (Maltese: electoral districts), with constitutional amendments that establish proportionality among seats and votes of political parliamentary groups. Members are elected by direct universal suffrage through single transferable vote every five years, unless the House is dissolved earlier by the president either on the prime minister's advice or through a motion of no confidence. Based on election turnout in national lower-House elections from 1960 to 1995, Malta had the world's second-highest voter turnout and the highest for nations without mandatory voting.

Maltese politics has been a two-party system dominated by the Labour Party (Maltese: Partit Laburista), a centre-left social democratic party, and the Nationalist Party (Maltese: Partit Nazzjonalista), a centre-right Christian democratic party, since 1966. The Labour Party has been the governing party since 2013, led by Prime Minister Robert Abela since 13 January 2020.

According to Transparency International, Malta's earlier clean governance record decreased significantly as of 2013, dropping to 65th place in a report published in February 2025. According to International IDEA's Global State of Democracy Indices (GSoD) and Democracy Tracker, however, Malta is in the mid-to-high range on overall democratic measures, but with weaknesses in corruption and civic engagement.

Malta has a two tier legal system, with a court of first instance and a court of appeal. Courts are divided into superior and inferior courts, with superior courts being presided over by judges, and inferior courts having magistrates.

Malta has had a system of local government since 1993, according to the European Charter of Local Self-Government. The country is divided into six regions, each region having its own council to serve as the intermediate level between local and national government. These regions are divided into local councils, of which there are currently 68. The six regions serve primarily statistical purposes.

Each council is composed of councillors: five to 13, depending on the population they represent. A mayor and a deputy mayor are elected from among, and by, the councillors. The executive secretary, who is appointed by the council, is the head. Councillors are elected every four years through the single transferable vote. Due to system reforms, no elections were held before 2012; but since then, elections have been held every two years for an alternating half of the councils.

The Armed Forces of Malta (AFM) have the stated objectives of maintaining a military organisation to defend Malta's integrity efficiently by emphasising the maintenance of Malta's territorial waters and airspace integrity.

The AFM engage in combatting terrorism; fighting illicit drug trafficking; immigrant operations; anti-illegal fishing operations; surveillance of sensitive locations; and search-and-rescue (SAR) services in an area of around 250,000 sq km (97,000 sq mi) extending from east of Tunisia to west of Crete. In 2020, Malta signed the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Malta is regarded as one of the world's most LGBT-supportive countries, and was the first European Union member to prohibit conversion therapy. The country also constitutionally bans discrimination based on disability.

Abortion in Malta is illegal, the only European Union member other than Poland with near-total bans on the procedure. There are no exceptions for rape or incest. On 21 November 2022, the Labour Party-led government proposed a bill that "introduces a new clause into the country's criminal code allowing for the termination of a pregnancy if the mother's life is at risk or if her health is in serious jeopardy", which passed in June 2023 with amendments restricting the exception to situations where the woman's life is at risk.

Amnesty International has criticised Malta for failure to help refugees at sea, detaining refugees, and punitive immigration detention. Malta has not yet established a national human rights organization.