Italian irredentism in Malta from the British, Italian, and Maltese perspectives : 1922-1943

Abstract

By examining the phenomenon of irredentism as one of the driving forces of resistance, this study will first introduce the contextual space forged for an Italianate nationalism by British colonialism, and will then look at the Maltese experience of the Risorgimento and how this coloured the interwar period. It shall then see how irredentism was heightened by a colonial inter-imperial contest taking shape in the Mediterranean, reaching its height at a time of unstable Anglo-Italian currents through the 20s and 30s, and how it figured into the understanding of self and patria, finally converging, by the 40s, with the escalation of repression in the face of crisis.