Malta and the British Empire
Malta's 'Britishness' today
When I switched on my tv on friday afternoon the image of Queen Elizabeth II immediately appeared on my screen. Apparently her majesty, her husband Philip Duke of Edinburgh as well as their son Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, had returned to Malta. The occasion for the queen's visit to this tiny island was a meeting of the heads of government from across the Commonwealth.
Malta officially became part of the British Empire in 1814 and regained its independence in September 1964. That means that they were under British rule for almost 150 years. However, if one travels to this historic island today they will immediately sense the aftermaths of the British Empire.
When I was in Malta in June 2015 I noticed that it is not only bilingual street signs which can be found there but also left-hand traffic. Moreover, most citizens still speak English as their mother tongue. There is only a small percentage of inhabitants who are able to speak the original language Maltese. This became pretty obvious to me when I had a walk through Malta's capital city La Valetta. You can find English language schools wherever you go and a lot of students from abroad actually come to Malta to improve their English language skills. The fact that Maltese children wear school uniform was also very striking. Furthermore, the post boxes as well as telephone boxes which can be seen in the streets of Malta look similar to those British ones. During my holiday I also had the impression that you can figure out which buildings were built by British people as their archictecture leads back to the British building structure.
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