Faith and Death in their Revolution: New Insights into Malta’s History, 1798-1800

Liam Gauci has studied history at the University of Malta. His undergraduate dissertation focused on food on board eighteenth-century Maltese galleys. In 2011 he finished an MA in history with a thesis entitled ‘The organisation and activities of the Maltese corsairs between 1775 and 1798’. He has been the curator of the Malta Maritime Museum since 2007. His current research focuses on the Maltese corso in the latter quarter of the eighteenth century and its impact on Maltese society.

Gauci is also the author of “In the Name of the Prince – Maltese Corsairs 1760 – 1798”

 

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Sponsored by the Alfred Mizzi Foundation. Malta in September 1798, after three short months of Republican rule, burst into flames; a quasi civil war broke out. A wilting economy, a rise in unemployment, and a defeat of the French Navy at Aboukir in August paved the way for rebellion. The nation, or better yet, the people of Malta, it was believed had been betrayed by France and its Maltese Jacobins: this beacon of freedom was now perceived rotten. Members of the Maltese society, be it the nobleman, be it the rowdy sailor, or the uneducated farmer had a rallying cry. A unification seldom found maybe even till this very day in our country, but once achieved the flames of this cry engulfed the island. Heritage Malta has recently acquired unpublished documents so that they could be preserved for the nation. Such documents are now available for all to be studied and new insights are already being unwrapped. Insights which give us a new outlook of what the people of Malta went through in this most difficult of times.

 

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