The history of Gozo from the early middle ages to modern time

Abstract

Though hardly twenty six square miles in area, the little island of Gozo, some four miles to the north-west of Malta, has its own particular history to boast of, parallel to that of Malta and that of Sicily but not so identical that it has not had its own individual story to tell. 1 In general outline, one might certainly think that there was little to differentiate the history of the two main Maltese islands. They normally changed foreign domination in the same way and pretty much at the same time, Arabs following Byzantines, Normans that of the former, then the Suabians, the Angevins, the Aragonese, the Order of St. John of Jerusalem or Rhodes, the French, the British and finally independence. 2 The main geographical factors influencing one have influenced the other, whether climatological, telluric or geopolitical. In broad outline the main cultural currents influencing both islands have been the same. For most practical purposes, consequently, there is little to distinguish culturally a Gozitan person from a Maltese one.