Malta's history owes much to its location - near many of the major Mediterranean shipping routes but still tucked out of the way. This remoteness has resulted in relatively long periods of isolation dispersed with often violent periods of occupation.
The oldest aspect of Malta's history dates back to around 3,600 years BC and is evident in its legacy of Megalithic temples that dot the island. At around 800 BC the Phoenicians colonised the island before the Romans made it part of their empire in 208 BC.
Malta boasts two serious celebrity visitors from its ancient days. Firstly in the shape of Odysseus who stayed on Gozo on his way back from Trojan wars and secondly, and perhaps more importantly for modern western culture, St Paul the apostle who as tradition has it was shipwrecked here in 60AD and proceeded to convert the islanders to Christianity.
Following these years of upheaval the island enjoyed several hundred years of peaceful isolation until it was again invaded by Arabs in 870AD. These invaders exerted a heavy influence on the island culture, introducing citrus fruits and cotton as well as corrupting the language, and stayed for the next 220 years until Norman invaders from Sicily arrived in 1090AD.
In 1530 the Emperor of Spain gave the island to the Knights of the Order of St John of Jerusalem, a group of displaced European aristocrats formed during the Crusades, who set about improving the islands fortifications. These improvements turned out to be extremely fortuitous and were completed just in time to fend of an invasion of 30,000 Turks in 1565.
More turmoil was to come in the shape of Napolean in 1798 and it was the British who eventually saw off the French and established Malta as a British colony in 1814. However being under the British wing threw up its own set of problems and Malta became a priority target for the Axis powers during the Second World War.
Soon after the war however, Malta started to move towards independence achieving full autonomy by 1964 and becoming a republic in 1974. Today the island enjoys a booming tourist economy as well as trade and light industries and is a full member of the European Union.
