Introduction to Malta

All of the ICEX students from Cal Poly are taking an Ethnic Studies class, taught by Dr. Jane Lehr, called Global Engineering. It is a "comparative examination of historical and contemporary engineering institutions in different national contexts" in which Malta is a major case study. Just recently we started reading about Malta. In class we started to discuss what we believe were some of the major people, ideas and events that affected Malta throughout it's history. Some of what we discussed can be found below.

For all of you who don't know, Malta is a small country made up of 3 islands located South of Sicily and East of Tunisia. It has an area of 316 square kilometers which is about 2.5 times the size of San Francisco. With such a small area and a population of approximately 408,000 people, it is the country with the highest population density in Europe and one of the countries with highest population densities in the world. Of the 408,000 people, 98% are Roman Catholic. Malta has two national languages, Maltese and English. The Maltese language is Semitic (meaning that it descended from Arabic) but also has Italian influences.

Malta has very little freshwater and gets more than half of its drinking water from desalination. It's economy is based heavily on trade. Its location in the Mediterranean Sea makes it a prime transshipment point. This fact has been realized by many groups throughout history making Malta consistently a spot for military contention. It has been attacked or ruled by the Arabs, the Normans, the Knights of Saint John, Napoleon, and Great Britain, among others. Malta won its independence in 1964, joined the European Union in 2004 and in 2008 adopted the Euro .

(Photo taken from Ramon Baile on flickr)