The Northern defences 1530-1798

Abstract

A glance at the material written on Maltese Military History would quickly establish the Capital City as, not only the focal point, but indeed the only object in the various historians' field of vision. Such an approach to Maltese Military History not only denies the socio-economic factors that influenced and limited the purely military aspects, but also ignores the technological changes and developments, which were incorporated in the strategies and tactics of Mediterranean warfare of the d:ay. The most comprehensive approach to the 'outer defences', is to be found in A. Mifsud's 'La Militia e le torri antichi di Malta', though, in many ways, it lacks coherence, unity, and sometimes, precision. Nonetheless, it is better than the three recently published books by Q.Hughes, on Maltese and Foreign military history. Besides basing his facts on secondary and rather 'unqualified' sources, Hughes fails to put the Maltese fortifications in their proper historical context. The three books are, in many ways, unreliable, though the treatment of the developments of European architectural history is somewhat useful. The Northern part of Malta, and its Defences, provide for the historian, a series of interesting reflections on the problem of defence, and also on the physical, financial and technical limitations, not only of the Maltese Islands, but also of the system of Mediterrenean warfare at sea and on land. What follows in this work, is, by no means, complete. Indeed, the archives at the Royal Malta Library do not furnish us with the complete sources and facts. This is due partly to the negligence and disorganisation that distinguishes this library as a whole, and partly to the fact that many of the relevant documents and publications have gone 'missing'. The major difficulty confronting the student, however, is the frustrating prospect of finding whole sections torn out of important manuscripts and relevant plans, maps and drawings performing disappearing acts and officially referred to as 'missing'. All this makes it very difficult for the student to discern which works were actually finished or begun, and which were planned but never, or only partly, finished. On the other hand, the jumble up series of maps, drawings and plans available have been 'removed' from the manuscripts without the necessary scientific references needed to discern their origin, date and enumeration. The aim of this work is to offer a new approach to establish new connections and to pose different questions on Maltese Military History as a whole, questions which are in themselves a reflection of the history of the islands. Of course, much of the relevant material cannot be even located, and so cannot be collected, classified and analysed. And before ~ the material is examined a total complete picture cannot be drawn. Problems connected cannot be solved, new aspects are only partially revealed. In the words of Henri Pirenne, the historian opens the way; he does not close it.