Studies in local history after 1800 : Żabbar

Abstract

In this thesis, I tried to give a comprehensive picture of the social situation in Żabbar throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, examining as far as possible the various social aspects in the light of the general Maltese situation and at times with particular reference to the Cottonera area which often influenced the locality of Żabbar. I can say that throughout this work I was able to see the general social development that the Żabbar population went through. As a basic source I have taken the Censuses of the Maltese Islands which range from 1851 to 1995. However, as one can see the censuses have their own limits and none was available for the first decades of the nineteenth century. Besides, some censuses vary in context from others thus making it difficult to trace a particular trend throughout. Another problem was created by the 1931 and 1948 censuses which included Marsascala along with Żabbar. In this way, any references in this thesis dealing with these particular years are bound to include both Żabbar and Marsascala. Other primary sources of which I made considerable use were the Blue Books, some useful reports and various issues of The Malta Government Gazette. I also felt the need to interview a number of Żabbar people. Besides, I used also a wide range of secondary sources. I can say that working on this thesis proved very interesting and I am indeed very thankful to the Department of History for encouraging me to take on social history research. At the same time, I hope that this work will help shed some more light on the social history of the southern flank of the Maltese Islands.