Malta is a semiarid limestone archipelago of three inhabited islands (Malta, Gozo, and Comino) strategically located in the center of the Mediterranean Sea, 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of Sicily and 140 kilometers (87 miles) east of Tunis. With a 2004 population of 400,000 on a land area of just 316 square kilo-meters (122 square miles), the islands are the second most densely populated state in the world, after Singapore. The Maltese are a mixed stock of Southern European, North African, and other Mediterranean ethnicities.

Given its location and excellent harbors, the Maltese Islands have been a tempting prize to all would-be Mediterranean empire builders. Carthaginians, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Angevins, Aragonese, and Castellans followed each other as rulers over Malta for sixteen centuries. In 1530, the islands were passed over by Charles V (1500–1558) of Spain to the Knights Hospitaller Order of Saint John. Malta was then run by a theocracy until 1798, when the islands were invaded by...