Malta: Reclaiming the Naval Heritage?

Abstract

This paper responds to three current concerns: military geographies, naval heritage in waterfront revitalisation and heritage tourism with particular reference to small‐island states. Malta is of cardinal interest in all these respects. Formerly the premier overseas naval base of the British Empire, it possesses abundant military heritage resources which derive from a culturally composite historical depth as well as from a territory‐wide geographical breadth. Paradoxically, the reclamation of its pre‐eminent naval heritage has been slow by the standards of peers elsewhere, notably Bermuda. The paper examines the reasons for this, what naval heritage reclamation has been undertaken, what is proposed, why this matters to Malta’s tourism economy and what wider significance this naval heritage has for the cultural/economic landscape. Malta is particularly significant in that it both substantially epitomises evolving postcolonial trajectories and uniquely reflects a pan‐European historical identity, befitting its recent accession to the EU.