Aspects of Maltese society between the two world wars

Abstract

This dissertation deals with the social and economic transformations experienced by the population during the Inter-War Period. It focuses on the conditions of the workers after World War One and how these were improved with the creation of Trade Unions and the granting of self-government. The growth of the population is dealt with in this dissertation as a background to an examination of the living conditions of the workers' families in the 1920s and 1930s. The recurrence of unemployment and poverty, and how these were dealt with through emigration follows. The subsequently different initiatives for emigration are also examined. One important consideration made in this study is that access to primary, and to a lesser extent technical and secondary education, became available to more people, while University education remained out of reach to most of the population. The latent desire and the political aspirations of sectors of the Maltese people to liberate themselves from a 'convent-fortress' situation, defined by its quasi-medieval religiosity and military-dependent economy, also forms part of the focus of this work. This leads to the final argument that economic conditions changed slowly but favourably with the approach of World War Two.