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Malta History

The island of Malta was colonized by Phoenicians around 800 BC and they lived there nearly 600 years. Malta became the part of Roman Empire in 208 BC. The Romans made Malta part of their empire in 208 BC. Apart from Ulysses' stay on Gozo, the most famous visitor to the island was the apostle Paul, who was shipwrecked on Malta in 60 AD. Tradition has it that he converted the islanders to Christianity, although Biblical and scientific scholars at one time suggested he may have been wrecked on Kefallinía in Greece. Several hundred years of peaceful isolation followed, until Arabs from North Africa arrived in 870. The Arabs exerted a powerful influence on the Maltese, introducing citrus fruits and cotton and warping the language. Norman invaders from Sicily displaced the Arabs in 1090, and for the next 400 years Malta remained under Sicilian sway. In 1530 the Emperor of Spain gave the islands to the Knights of the Order of St John of Jerusalem, in exchange for a rent of two Maltese falcons a year. With fame and power came corruption, and the knights turned to piracy; but by the time Napoleon arrived in 1798, they were too enfeebled to put up a fight. It was the British who aided the Maltese in their fight against the French, and by 1814 Malta was a British colony. Although to a limited extent Malta continued to feel the cultural influe.