"The Emergence of the Army Medical Services in Malta" Topic

"On 5 September 1800, the Maltese Islands became a British Protectorate. Malta developed into an Island Fortress. Its strategic location in the centre of the Mediterranean, made it an important naval base and staging post for troops en route to the Middle East and India.

The path leading to the British Crown gaining control over Malta started on 12 June 1798, when Napoleon Bonaparte expelled the Order of St John of Jerusalem, that had ruled the islands since 26 October 1530. Napoleon rushed in such radical changes to the civil and religious administration, that he alienated the population. On 2 September 1798, a simmering discontent erupted into an insurrection, forcing the French to withdraw behind the fortifications of Valletta and the Three Cities.

Malta's Achilles heel had always been its inability to feed itself. The island imported as much as two thirds of its annual consumption of wheat and barley from Sicily. Any disruption in the importation of food would inevitably starve the island into submission. In the besieged towns, provisions ran out on 4 September 1800, compelling General Claude Henri Vaubois to capitulate…"
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