Malta's location has given it great strategic importance through history and it has been ruled by a sequence of powers who have exploited this. These have included the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Fatimids, Sicilians, Knights of St John, the French and the British.

In the 16th century Charles I of Spain gave the islands to the Order of the Knights of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem, a military religious order now known as the Knights of Malta. They fought off the Ottomans and developed many architectural and cultural features across the islands.

Napoleon occupied the islands on his way to Egypt in 1798 but the French forces surrendered in 1800 and Malta asked to become a British Dominion. As such it played a vital role in World War II, due to its strategic position.  In 1942 the islands were awarded the George Cross for their heroic resistance to the Nazi siege.

In 1964 Malta gained independence from the UK and in 1974 became a Republic.