Malta Napoleontic occupation 1798-1800

Abstract

For 268 years (1530-1798) Malta had been ruled by the Knights of St. John. When, at the close of the 18th century, Napoleon was planning the conquest of the world he determined to use Malta as the starting point of his Expedition to Egypt, and thence to India, to shatter the British power in the East. On the 9th June 1798 Bonaparte, with an overwhelming naval and Military force, appeared off the Island and on the flimsiest of pretexts, attacked it. The timidity of the Grand Master, the treachery of most of the Knights, and several other circumstances greatly favoured his plan, and within three days of his arrival, the island which his expert eye had discerned as "la place plus forte de l'Europe", was in his hands.