Phoenicians, originating from city-states in Africa took control of Malta in the early 8c BC, until in 218 BC, during the 2nd Punic War, Roman forces captured the island, overthrowing the Carthaginians. Following the division of the Roman Empire 🔍 in 395 AD, Malta transitioned to Byzantine rule, briefly falling to Vandals ~455 AD but reclaimed by the Byzantians in 535 AD.

Arab 🔍 Muslims then seized control in 870 AD until the Norman invasion of 1091 AD overthrew the Berbers. The Normans (Norse Vikings that had settled on the Frankish coast of Normandy) imposed a feudal system granting fiefs to Sicilian knights integrating Malta into the 🔎 Kingdom of Sicily.

In 1530 AD the Knights Hospitaller†† were given Malta (+ Gozo & Tripoli) by the Holy Roman Empire as a Christian bulwark against Ottoman expansion and they immediately fortified the archipelago's harbors, building forts like St. Elmo e.g. which famously withstood Suleiman the Magnificent's Great Siege of 1565.

The island did fall briefly in 1798 AD to Napoleon Bonaparte - but immediate Maltese rebel uprisings, aided by the British, quickly gave way to de-facto British rule, as a Crown Colony, in 1800 AD. Malta then attained independence from the UK in 1964 as a dominion 🔍 within the Commonwealth 🔍, and finally become a republic 🔍 in 1974, severing all ties to the British Crown.

† One of many mystery societal collapsings ~2500 - 2200 BC like the end of Egypt's Old Kingdom, the collapse of the Akkadian Empire & the Indus Valley (Harappan) Civilization decline e.g. - referred to collectively as the 4.2 ka event., marked by mega-droughts and cooling. With no signs of invasion in Malta ecological changes are the most popular theoretical explanation.

†† Formally Sovereign Military Order of St. John of Jerusalem, the order was given in exchange for an annual tribute (1 falcon) after their expulsion from Rhodes by Ottoman forces in 1522