Study-Unit Description

Study-Unit Description


CODE HST1056

 
TITLE Twentieth-century Maltese History in Context

 
UM LEVEL 01 - Year 1 in Modular Undergraduate Course

 
MQF LEVEL 5

 
ECTS CREDITS 4

 
DEPARTMENT History

 
DESCRIPTION This study-unit traces and discusses the development of Maltese history through the twentieth century and beyond. The first part, leading to the Second World War, can be seen as a continuation and progression of the British colonial period, where everything was ultimately subject to the overriding needs of Britain, which continues to make use of Malta as an instrument of its foreign and defence policy in the Mediterranean. The post-Second World War decades are then characterized by the national urge to transform the unequal relationship with, and diminish the total dependence on, Britain until independence is ultimately achieved.

Independence entailed the developmental challenges of economic viability and the attendant search for partners in the world, as Malta develops a foreign policy all of its own, navigating in a fast-changing international context, and seeking its vocation in the Mediterranean and in Europe. Specific issues to be discussed in detail include the ups and downs of constitutional development and the rooting of democratic culture, the fast-changing relationship with Britain, the changing shape of political-religious relations, the drive towards modernization and secularization, the pains of breaking free from colonial dependence, the various facets of post-colonial challenges, the foreign policy dialectic between Mediterranean and European focuses, and the breakthroughs achieved that enabled Malta to establish itself as a viable sovereign nation-state.

Study-Unit Aims:

• To demonstrate the relevance of history to the understanding of the Malta we live in and instill in students the notion that history is a living process;
• To help students evaluate the meaning of historical events with the benefit of hindsight;
• To help students deal with sensitive and often contentious issues in a balanced and impartial manner, and train them to understand the dialectic nature of historical development.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Knowledge & Understanding
By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

• identify and connect the knowledge acquired with comparable contemporary situations;
• relate the complex processes of historical development critically, beyond simplistic and often partisan presentations;
• prescribe a thorough understanding of Malta’s evolutionary challenges and place them within a broader international context.

2. Skills
By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

• review and approach in a critical manner historical sources;
• demonstrate the ability to establish a historical fact;
• describe potentially controversial or delicate political issues in a detached and impartial manner;
• locate national history within broader international developments.

Main Text/s and any supplementary readings:

Main Texts:

• D. Fenech, Responsibility and Power in Inter-war Malta: Book One, Endemic Democracy, (Malta, 2005).
• D. Fenech, ‘The Strangeness of Anglo-Maltese relations’, Journal of Mediterranean Studies, Volume 23, Number 1, 2014.
• V. Mallia-Milanes (ed.), The British Colonial Experience, 1800-1964, (Malta, 1988).
• J. M. Pirotta, Fortress Colony: the Final Act, 1945-1964, (Malta, 2017), (4 vols.).

Supplementary Readings:

• D. Fenech, ‘Divorced from political reality: the new limits of Ecclesiastical power in Malta’, Round Table, 101(3).
• H. Ganado, Rajt Malta Tinbidel, (Malta, 1977).
• Keesing’s Record of World Events (all years).
• E. Mizzi, Malta in the Making 1962-1987: an Eyewitness Account, (Malta, 1995).

 
ADDITIONAL NOTES This study-unit is solely offered to Undergraduate Diploma in Maltese History in Context students.

 
STUDY-UNIT TYPE Lecture

 
METHOD OF ASSESSMENT
Assessment Component/s Sept. Asst Session Weighting
Examination (2 Hours) Yes 100%

 
LECTURER/S Dominic Fenech

 

 
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It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2024/5. It may be subject to change in subsequent years.

https://www.um.edu.mt/course/studyunit