If the events of March 23, 1530, had not taken place, we would have had no 58th anniversary of our independence to celebrate on Wednesday. We must thank Emperor Charles V for granting our islands to the Order of St John 492 years ago. That decision cut Malta’s umbilical cord with Sicily. It moved from being a remote barren outpost of the Sicilian archipelago and embarked on a new destiny of its own.
On March 23, 1530, the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain Charles V declared that he was granting to the Grand Master of the Order of St John of Jerusalem “in feudal perpetuity, noble, free and unencumbered, our cities, castles, places and islands of Tripoli, Malta and Gozo, with all their cities, castles, places and island territories; with pure and mixed jurisdiction, right, and property of useful government; with power of life and death over males and females residing within their limits, and with the laws, constitutions, and rights now existing among the inhabitants; together with all other laws and rights, exemptions, privileges, revenues and other immunities whatsoever; so that they may hereafter hold them in feudal tenure from us, as Kings of both Sicilies, and from our successors in the same kingdom…”
The 1530 donation meant that Malta was catapulted from a medieval milieu to a late renaissance environment. The Knights were focused exclusively on making Malta their home. For the first time in many centuries, crucial decisions about Malta were taken in Malta itself and people who took those decisions had to live with the consequences of their decisions. They built the islands’ infrastructure and institutions to serve them here in Malta and not some power centre on the continent.
The Knights founded the first educational establishments, notably the University of Malta. They also provided the island-state with defence and security in the turbulent Mediterranean of those days.
At the end of the two-year French interregnum after the departure of the Knights, international diplomacy was directing Malta towards ‘repatriation’ with the kingdom of Naples. That would have been the end of the island-state. Luckily, it never materialised. Malta ended up as a British colony. The British colony ensured that Malta did not revert to being an appendage of the Sicilian archipelago. Although a colony, our country retained an identity of being apart from Sicily, unlike the numerous other small islands making up the Sicilian archipelago.
Fast forward to a century ago. Being apart, we were spared the ravages of the dictatorial fascism of the Mussolini era. That would have been the case had we been reabsorbed within the kingdom of Naples (later part of a united Italy).
We must accept that all the cultures we have interacted with over the centuries have shaped our plural identity- Evarist Bartolo
During World War II, Malta’s lot was cast with the Allies while our neighbour’s lot was with the Axis. We did suffer a two-year siege during that war but the alternative would have been worse. Malta would have suffered an Allies’ invasion within their strategy of taking back Sicily from the Axis.
Intellectual independence
I am aware that the times of the Knights and the British era were not a bed of roses for our people. We were colonised and treated as inferior. The argument here is that the alternatives would have been worse for the survival of the island-state in the context of the times.
Also, we must make peace with our past and accept that all the cultures we have interacted with over the centuries have shaped our plural identity which continues to evolve in contact with others, near and far.
One of the difficulties faced by small countries like ours is that we were governed for centuries by others in their own interests.
We import almost all we need but, surely, we shouldn’t also import how we think, how we feel and how we see ourselves and the world.
Surely, we shouldn’t import our ideas and feelings like we import shoes and clothes. Instead, we need to think and feel with our minds and hearts, in our own interest and for our own good, looking for common ground with others. It’s easy to lower the flag of your former coloniser and hoist your own. It is easy to play your national anthem instead of your old ruler’s.
It doesn’t mean we should retreat into shells like limpets clinging to the rocks with their backs to the world.
Independence today requires a prudent and sensible interdependence.
No island and no country can cut itself off from the world, let alone those like us which survive and thrive in direct proportion to how well we develop our links with the rest of the world.
We can love our country without hating other countries. We can have the kind of national sentiment and love of our country that is inclusive, that doesn’t turn in on itself and feel besieged by the rest of the world.
The kind of nationalism where we withdraw into ourselves and think we are the best in the world also does a lot of harm. It does as much damage as if we think we are inferior to others. The inclusive nationalism of a small country tries not to let bigger countries crush it.
Evarist Bartolo is a former foreign and education minister.