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LIBERTÉ, ÉGALITÉ, FRATERNITÉ – THE FRENCH IN MALTA

Malta in 1798 went into shock. The once overlords of the island principality were overrun by General Bonaparte and his troops. Be it through treason, through sheer force, through the intervention of an intellectual middle class, or maybe a sprinkling of all three, the Directory in France unfurled the tricolore above the ramparts of Malta. To the sound of a marching band, General Bonaparte marched from the marina of Valletta to the Palace. He had acquired for France an impregnable fortress. In a few days, he made deep changes to the administration of the island by installing a puppet government composed of ex-Order of St John knights, Maltese Jacobins, and a number of influential merchants, all of whom believed in the new ideals of Republican France. He introduced modern laws such as freedom of the press, while also instructing for the wholesale plunder of relics and treasures belonging to the Order of St John and the local Church, to finance the revolution and the payment of his troops; a practice he had so earnestly put into play during his fabled Italian campaign.

ArtEfacts

Size

29cm x 20cm

Date

6 July 1798

Location

Malta Maritime Museum, Third Floor

Creator

Bosredon Ransijat, President of the Commission

Reference Code

MMM 005207

Size

28cm x 25cm

Date

1798

Location

Malta Maritime Museum, Third Floor

Creator

General Baron Etienne Brouard

Reference Code

MMM 005208

Size

25cm x 36cm

Date

19 April 1798

Location

Malta Maritime Museum, Third Floor

Creator

General Napoleon Bonaparte

Reference Code

MMM 004769

General Napoleon Bonaparte’s (1769-1821) letter, dated 19 April 1798, instructs General

Size

38.2 x 35cm (framed)

Date

19th century

Location

Malta Maritime Museum, Third Floor

Creator

Alphonse Gerard

Reference Code

MMM 001380

Published in Musee des familles: lectures du soir, June 1869.

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