The first inhabitants of Malta came from Sicily, and settled here around 5300 BC. The megalithic temple building phase started circa 4000 BC. The unique megalithic temples, which pre-date England's Stonehenge, were erected between 3600 BC and 2500 BC. However, the civilisation which built them mysteriously collapsed, and Bronze Age settlers moved in.

The Phoenicians, who used Malta's harbour as a centre for their trading activities, arrived in the 8th century BC. The entry of the Carthaginians increased the Island's strategic importance and attracted the attention of Rome. In 218 BC Titus Sempronius Longus captured it for Rome, starting an occupation that lasted more than 700 years.

Christianity was introduced to Malta by St Paul, who was shipwrecked here in AD 60. History is not clear about the later stages of the Roman occupation, but it is generally believed that the fourth and fifth centuries AD were a prosperous era for the Maltese. Once again, ownership of the island changed hands, with the Byzantine Empire taking over in 535 AD. In turn, the Greeks capitulated to the Aghlabid Arab of Moslem in 870 AD. The influence of the Arabs lasted long after the incursion in Malta by the Norman Count Roger in 1091.

A succession of European dynasties ruled the islands until 1530 when Charles V of Spain ceded Malta to the Knights of St John. The best- known event in Maltese history occured in 1565, when the Maltese, together with the Knights, heroically resisted a major Ottoman invasion, popularly known as the Great Siege of Malta.

The knights eventually capitulated to Napoleon in 1798, but the French occupation was very brief. The Maltese, together with British naval forces, ousted Napoleon's Garrison from the island. British rule lasted from 1800 to 1964, when the Maltese islands gained their independence within the Commonwealth.

Malta became a Republic in 1974.