An outline of the socio-economic development in post-war Malta

Abstract

This volume focuses on Malta's socio-economic development from 1945 to the expiry of the Island's Second Development Plan in 1969. Development in the early post-war years in this ex-British fortress colony was difficult to achieve. Extensive war reconstruction works side-tracked development initiatives until the early 1950s. The immediate post-war baby boom aggravated an already acute overpopulation problem that was partly solved by resorting to mass emigration to Commonwealth countries. Many Maltese workers were dependent on UK-Forces employment. Consequently, before the mid-1950s economic growth was negligible in sectors which were unrelated to British imperial interests. After the Suez Crisis of 1956, successive UK government Defence white papers favoured drastic retrenchment, meaning that the Imperial government started discharging Maltese Servicemen by the hundreds. Finally, the implementation of plans for making the Islands economically viable led to independence on 21 September 1964. All these developments are reviewed within the wider context of European post-war decolonization and concurrent politico-economic integration process in Western Europe.