Spanish migrants in the Malta of early modern times : the eighteenth- century connection

Abstract

The following analysis is primarily a study of the relationships between Spain and Malta in a period when the Mediterranean Sea had exited. To use Ferdinand Braudel's words, the 'Grande Histoire'. According to Braudel the two events that most firmly connect the Mediterranean to the passage of modern world history are the Battle of Lepanto (1571) and the invasion of Egypt by Napoleon in 1798. The intermediate period is relatively lacking in major events, as the momentum shifted to developments across the Atlantic and towards Central and Eastern Europe as well as the Orient. Incidentally, these two dates, i.e. 1571 and 1798 are critical years in the history of Malta.