Malta and the End of Empire

Malta and the End of Empire
Author: Dennis Austin
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 96
Release: 2023-05-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000857042

Malta and the End of Empire (1971) examines the now-forgotten moment in 1956 when the people of Malta, Gozo and Comino were asked by the British and Maltese Governments to decide whether they wanted full integration with the United Kingdom – a remarkable proposal which ran quite contrary to colonial policy at the time. This possibility of an end to empire by the absorption of a colony into the state system of the imperial power was being attempted by France and Portugal, but this instance was the sole case in British colonial history.

Empires of the Sea

Empires of the Sea
Author: Roger Crowley
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 378
Release: 2008-07-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1588367339

In 1521, Suleiman the Magnificent, Muslim ruler of the Ottoman Empire at the height of its power, dispatched an invasion fleet to the Christian island of Rhodes. This would prove to be the opening shot in an epic struggle between rival empires and faiths for control of the Mediterranean and the center of the world. In Empires of the Sea, acclaimed historian Roger Crowley has written his most mesmerizing work to date–a thrilling account of this brutal decades-long battle between Christendom and Islam for the soul of Europe, a fast-paced tale of spiraling intensity that ranges from Istanbul to the Gates of Gibraltar and features a cast of extraordinary characters: Barbarossa, “The King of Evil,” the pirate who terrified Europe; the risk-taking Emperor Charles V; the Knights of St. John, the last crusading order after the passing of the Templars; the messianic Pope Pius V; and the brilliant Christian admiral Don Juan of Austria. This struggle’s brutal climax came between 1565 and 1571, seven years that witnessed a fight to the finish decided in a series of bloody set pieces: the epic siege of Malta, in which a tiny band of Christian defenders defied the might of the Ottoman army; the savage battle for Cyprus; and the apocalyptic last-ditch defense of southern Europe at Lepanto–one of the single most shocking days in world history. At the close of this cataclysmic naval encounter, the carnage was so great that the victors could barely sail away “because of the countless corpses floating in the sea.” Lepanto fixed the frontiers of the Mediterranean world that we know today. Roger Crowley conjures up a wild cast of pirates, crusaders, and religious warriors struggling for supremacy and survival in a tale of slavery and galley warfare, desperate bravery and utter brutality, technology and Inca gold. Empires of the Sea is page-turning narrative history at its best–a story of extraordinary color and incident, rich in detail, full of surprises, and backed by a wealth of eyewitness accounts. It provides a crucial context for our own clash of civilizations.

Europe and Empire

Europe and Empire
Author: Henry Frendo
Publisher:
Total Pages: 850
Release: 2012
Genre: Group identity
ISBN: 9789993273448

This book is a first sustained effort to render an understanding of Maltese history, especially that of the 1920s and 1930s, from an Italian as well as a British (and naturally a Maltese) perspective. The British National Archives, as the Public Record Office at Kew has come to be known, is a superbly well-organised and relatively easily accessible power-house, where to work is a delight. However, the author was fortunate to have been given permission by Sig. Giulio Andreotti, then Minister of Foreign Affairs, to gain full access to the "Fascist" archive at Palazzo della Farnesina in Rome. When going through the stacks of documents in the late 1980s and early 1990s, its Malta sections clearly had been largely untouched, given the amount of rusty and firmly stuck paper clips and one or two vitally revealing sealed envelopes that he had to deal with, sometimes misleadingly indexed or unindexed. It brought back some memories of earlier delving into hitherto barely looked at papers or enclosures, including photographs, in the 1970s in Portugal Street (before Kew existed), with regard to an earlier period. Given the pivotal role played by Italy no less than by Britain in Malta's modern history, a rendering of Maltese history only or mainly from British sources is unbalanced and does not do it full justice. This is also true the other way round, more so when access to Maltese, English or even French sources is limited for reasons of language or otherwise. Improved Internet access to journal articles and other published sources, recently also made available to members of the academic corps and other researchers by the University of Malta Library, should help lessen breakdowns in communication, naturally always depending on linguistic competences and the right keywords.

British culture and the end of empire

British culture and the end of empire
Author: Stuart Ward
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 254
Release: 2017-03-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1526119625

This book is the first major attempt to examine the cultural manifestations of the demise of imperialism as a social and political ideology in post-war Britain. Far from being a matter of indifference or resigned acceptance as is often suggested, the fall of the British Empire came as a profound shock to the British national imagination, and resonated widely in British popular culture. The sheer range of subjects discussed, from the satire boom of the 1960s to the worlds of sport and the arts, demonstrates how profoundly decolonisation was absorbed into the popular consciousness. Offers an extremely novel and provocative interpretation of post-war British cultural history, and opens up a whole new field of enquiry in the history of decolonisation.

The Great Siege, Malta 1565

The Great Siege, Malta 1565
Author: Ernle Bradford
Publisher: Open Road Media
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2014-04-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1497617308

The indispensable account of the Ottoman Empire’s Siege of Malta from the author of Hannibal and Gibraltar. In the first half of the sixteenth century, the Ottoman Empire was thought to be invincible. Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman sultan, had expanded his empire from western Asia to southeastern Europe and North Africa. To secure control of the Mediterranean between these territories and launch an offensive into western Europe, Suleiman needed the small but strategically crucial island of Malta. But Suleiman’s attempt to take the island from the Holy Roman Empire’s Knights of St. John would emerge as one of the most famous and brutal military defeats in history. Forty-two years earlier, Suleiman had been victorious against the Knights of St. John when he drove them out of their island fortress at Rhodes. Believing he would repeat this victory, the sultan sent an armada to Malta. When they captured Fort St. Elmo, the Ottoman forces ruthlessly took no prisoners. The Roman grand master La Vallette responded by having his Ottoman captives beheaded. Then the battle for Malta began in earnest: no quarter asked, none given. Ernle Bradford’s compelling and thoroughly researched account of the Great Siege of Malta recalls not just an epic battle, but a clash of civilizations unlike anything since the time of Alexander the Great. It is “a superior, readable treatment of an important but little-discussed epic from the Renaissance past . . . An astonishing tale” (Kirkus Reviews).

The Great Siege of Malta

The Great Siege of Malta
Author: Bruce Ware Allen
Publisher: University Press of New England
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2015-10-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 1611688434

In the spring of 1565, a massive fleet of Ottoman ships descended on Malta, a small island centrally located between North Africa and Sicily, home and headquarters of the crusading Knights of St. John and their charismatic Grand Master, Jean de Valette. The Knights had been expelled from Rhodes by the Ottoman sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, and now stood as the last bastion against a Muslim invasion of Sicily, southern Italy, and beyond. The siege force of Turks, Arabs, and Barbary corsairs from across the Muslim world outnumbered the defenders of Malta many times over, and its arrival began a long hot summer of bloody combat, often hand to hand, embroiling knights and mercenaries, civilians and slaves, in a desperate struggle for this pivotal point in the Mediterranean. Bruce Ware Allen's The Great Siege of Malta describes the siege's geopolitical context, explains its strategies and tactics, and reveals how the all-too-human personalities of both Muslim and Christian leaders shaped the course of events. The siege of Malta was the Ottoman empire's high-water mark in the war between the Christian West and the Muslim East for control of the Mediterranean. Drawing on copious research and new source material, Allen stirringly recreates the two factions' heroism and chivalry, while simultaneously tracing the barbarism, severity, and indifference to suffering of sixteenth-century warfare. The Great Siege of Malta is a fresh, vivid retelling of one of the most famous battles of the early modern world - a battle whose echoes are still felt today.

End of empire and the English novel since 1945

End of empire and the English novel since 1945
Author: Rachael Gilmour
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 379
Release: 2015-07-01
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1784991791

Available in paperback for the first time, this first book-length study explores the history of postwar England during the end of empire through a reading of novels which appeared at the time, moving from George Orwell and William Golding to Penelope Lively, Alan Hollinghurst and Ian McEwan. Particular genres are also discussed, including the family saga, travel writing, detective fiction and popular romances. All included reflect on the predicament of an England which no longer lies at the centre of imperial power, arriving at a fascinating diversity of conclusions about the meaning and consequences of the end of empire and the privileged location of the novel for discussing what decolonization meant for the domestic English population of the metropole. The book is written in an easy style, unburdened by large sections of abstract reflection. It endeavours to bring alive in a new way the traditions of the English novel.

Science at the End of Empire

Science at the End of Empire
Author: Sabine Clarke
Publisher: Studies in Imperialism
Total Pages: 206
Release: 2018-09-05
Genre: Great Britain
ISBN: 9781526131386

This book is open access under a CC BY license. This is the first account of Britain's plans for industrial development in its Caribbean colonies - something that historians have usually said Britain never contemplated. It shows that Britain's remedy to the poor economic conditions in the Caribbean gave a key role to laboratory research to re-invent sugarcane as the raw material for making fuels, plastics and drugs. Science at the end of empire explores the practical and also political functions of scientific research and economic advisors for Britain at a moment in which Caribbean governments operated with increasing autonomy and the US was intent on expanding its influence in the region. Britain's preferred path to industrial development was threatened by an alternative promoted through the Caribbean Commission. The provision of knowledge and expertise became key routes by which Britain and America competed to shape the future of the region, and their place in it.

Malta

Malta
Author: University of London: Institute of Commonwealth Studies
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Total Pages: 628
Release: 2006-12-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780112905905

The main purpose of the British Documents on the End of Empire Project (BDEEP) is to publish documents from British official archives on the ending of colonial and associated rule and on the context in which this took place. This publication contains documents which trace British policy towards Malta from the restoration of responsible government in 1946, the attempts at integration and its failure during the years 1954 to 1958, the re-imposition of direct rule from 1958 to 1962, to the achievement of its independence in September 1964 and post-colonial Anglo-Maltese relations during the period 1964 to 1972.

The Great Siege of Malta

The Great Siege of Malta
Author: Bruce Ware Allen
Publisher: ForeEdge
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2017-06-06
Genre: Malta
ISBN: 9781512601169

The definitive battle in the clash of empires that has defined Europe for 500 years