Maltese imperial mentalities : subjecting the Maltese mind to imperial rule

Abstract

By the inter-war period the political considerations at the Colonial Office together with the naval and military requirements in the Mediterranean had come to dictate the fortunes of an ever growing number of families on the island. The demise of the commercial and local manufacturing sectors in the immediate pre-World War I years, checked the development of serious alternatives to the Dockyard or the fleet as employment centers and the majority of the population came to be fully dependent on the ability of the imperial authorities to provide direct and indirect employment or its living.