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https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/15186
Title: | Integration and disintegration : the attempted incorporation of Malta into the United Kingdom in the 1950s |
Authors: | Smith, Simon C. |
Keywords: | Integration proposal, 1956-1958 -- Malta Malta -- Politics and government -- History -- British occupation, 1800-1964 Malta Labour Party |
Issue Date: | 2007 |
Citation: | Smith, Simon C. (2007). Integration and disintegration : the attempted incorporation of Malta into the United Kingdom in the 1950s. The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 35(1), 49-71. |
Abstract: | Existing interpretations stress that challenges to British interests elsewhere in the Mediterranean were central to Britain’s initial support for Maltese incorporation into the United Kingdom. Through a close examination of official British records, this article demonstrates, by contrast, that Britain saw integration primarily as a means of solving the complex constitutional and financial problems which had impeded smooth AngloMaltese relations since the restoration of responsible government in 1947. Equally, the waning of British enthusiasm for integration can be traced to concerns about the costs of the scheme, especially in the face of Maltese insistence on ‘economic equivalence’, rather than to any downgrading of Malta’s importance in the wake of the 1956 Suez debacle. The Maltese premier Dom Mintoff’s insistence on equivalence as the price of integration and Britain’s equal determination to resist such claims provide the key to explaining the scheme’s demise. Ultimately, Malta followed a more conventional path to independence within the Commonwealth by September 1964. |
URI: | https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar//handle/123456789/15186 |
Appears in Collections: | Melitensia Works - ERCPSPIPAMal |
Files in This Item:
File | Description | Size | Format | |
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Integration and Disintegration The Attempted Incorporation of Malta into the United Kingdom in the 1950s.pdf | 255.12 kB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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