138-708: Timeline The Italian colonial empire ( Italian : Impero coloniale italiano ), also known as the Italian Empire ( Impero italiano ) between 1936 and 1941, was founded in Africa in the 19th century. It comprised the colonies , protectorates , concessions and dependencies of the Kingdom of Italy . In Africa, the colonial empire included the territories of present-day Libya , Eritrea , Somalia and Ethiopia (the last three being officially named " Africa Orientale Italiana ", AOI); outside Africa, Italy possessed
276-620: A League of Nations mandate of the former German Cameroon and a free hand in Ethiopia from France in return for Italian support against Germany (see Stresa Front ). This was refused by French Prime Minister Édouard Herriot , who was not yet sufficiently worried about the prospect of a German resurgence. In its second invasion of Ethiopia in 1935–36, Italy was successful and it merged its new conquest with its older east African colonies to create Italian East Africa ( Italian : Africa Orientale Italiana ). On 9 May 1936 Mussolini proclaimed
414-454: A chain with Great Britain and to complete the politico-military encirclement of Italy. Thus Greece, Turkey, and Egypt must be considered vital enemies of Italy's expansion ... The aim of Italian policy, which cannot have, and does not have continental objectives of a European territorial nature except Albania, is first of all to break the bars of this prison ... Once the bars are broken, Italian policy can only have one motto – to march to
552-842: A contiguous colonial domain in Africa from the Atlantic to the Indian Oceans, and when ten million Italians had settled in them. In 1938, Italy demanded a sphere of influence in the Suez Canal in Egypt , specifically demanding that the French-dominated Suez Canal Company accept an Italian representative on its board of directors . Italy opposed the French monopoly over the Suez Canal because, under
690-661: A decisive victory against a numerically superior force that made use of firearms. When the Ottomans departed, the Hospitallers had but 600 men able to bear arms. The most reliable estimate puts the number of the Ottoman army at its height at some 40,000 men, of whom 15,000 eventually returned to Constantinople. The siege is portrayed vividly in the frescoes of Matteo Pérez in the Hall of St. Michael and St. George, also known as
828-648: A direct part in supporting the Malta native Iacob Heraclid who, in 1561, established a temporary foothold in Moldavia . The Hospitallers also continued their maritime actions against Muslims and especially the Barbary pirates . Although they had only a few ships, they quickly drew the ire of the Ottomans , who were unhappy to see the order resettled. In 1565 Suleiman sent an invasion force of about 40,000 men to besiege
966-655: A fascist government under Shefqet Verlaci was established to rule over Albania . Mussolini entered World War II in June 1940 on the side of Adolf Hitler with plans to enlarge Italy's territorial holdings. He had designs on an area of western Yugoslavia , southern France, Corsica, Malta, Tunisia, part of Algeria, an Atlantic port in Morocco, French Somaliland and British-controlled Egypt and Sudan. On 10 June 1940, Mussolini declared war on Britain and France; both countries had been at war with Nazi Germany since September of
1104-470: A long time now nothing at all. We only have something to keep us going, Sire, in your own Kingdom and in Spain. Maltese authorities did not mention the fact that they were making a substantial profit policing the seas and seizing infidel ships and cargoes. The authorities on Malta immediately recognised the importance of corsairing to their economy and set about encouraging it, as despite their vows of poverty,
1242-483: A more militarized force. In 1334, they fought an attempted invasion by Andronicus and his Turkish auxiliaries, and in 1374 they took over the defence of nearby Smyrna on the Anatolian coast, which had been conquered by a crusade in 1344 ; the knights held the city until it was besieged and taken by Timur in 1402. On the peninsula of Halicarnassus (present-day Bodrum ), the knights reinforced their position with
1380-583: A number of years, was tightly regulated as the island's government attempted to haul in the unscrupulous knights and appease the European powers and limited benefactors. Yet these efforts were not altogether successful, as the Consiglio del Mer received numerous complaints around the year 1700 of Maltese piracy in the region. Ultimately, the rampant over-indulgence in privateering in the Mediterranean
1518-572: A promise of colonial compensations made on 7 May 1919 during the partition of Germany's colonies between France and Britain. To satisfy this promise, France and Britain directly or indirectly gave Italy, from 1919 to 1935, a number of territories to expand Libya (Cufra, Sarra, Giarabub, the Aouzou strip, other lands in the Sahara), Somalia (Jubaland), the Dodecanese (Kastellorizo), and Eritrea (Raheita,
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#17327579154491656-637: A protectorate of Italy while Northern Albania was allocated to the states of Serbia and Montenegro . By 31 October 1918, French and Italian forces expelled the Austro-Hungarian Army from Albania. However, in 1920, an Albanian rebellion led the Italians to agree to return the occupied regions to Albania, with the exception of Sazan Island . Dalmatia was a strategic region during World War I that both Italy and Serbia intended to seize from Austria-Hungary. The Treaty of London guaranteed Italy
1794-560: A two-front campaign. German and Italian forces entered Tunisia in late 1942 in response, however, forces in Egypt were soon forced to make a major retreat into Libya. By May 1943, Axis forces in Tunisia were forced to surrender. The East African Campaign started with Italian advances into British-held Kenya , British Somaliland , and Sudan . In the summer of 1940, Italian armed forces successfully invaded all of British Somaliland . But, in
1932-609: Is given British Somaliland, Djibuti, French Equatorial Africa up to Ubangi-Shari , as well as Ciano adding at the meeting that Italy wanted Kenya and Uganda as well. Hitler made no promises. In October 1940, Mussolini ordered the invasion of Greece from Albania , but the operation was unsuccessful. In April 1941, Germany launched an invasion of Yugoslavia and then attacked Greece . Italy and other German allies supported both actions. The German and Italian armies overran Yugoslavia in about two weeks and, despite British support in Greece,
2070-575: The Ad providam bull that turned over much of their property to the Hospitallers. At Rhodes, and later Malta, the resident knights of each langue were headed by a bailiff . The English Grand Prior at the time was Philip De Thame , who acquired the estates allocated to the English langue from 1330 to 1358. On Rhodes, the Hospitallers, by then also referred to as the Knights of Rhodes , were forced to become
2208-619: The Balearic Islands and creating a client state in Spain. Italy sought the control of the Balearic Islands due to its strategic position – Italy could use the islands as a base to disrupt the lines of communication between France and its North African colonies and between British Gibraltar and Malta. After the victory by Franco and the Nationalists in the war, Italy pressured Franco to permit an Italian occupation of
2346-654: The Dodecanese Islands (following the Italo-Turkish War ), Albania ( 1917–1920 and 1939–1943 ) and also had some concessions in China . The Fascist government that came to power under the leadership of the dictator Benito Mussolini after 1922 sought to increase the size of the Italian empire and it also sought to satisfy the claims of Italian irredentists . Systematic " demographic colonization "
2484-565: The Eritrea War . This invasion was halted after the loss of five hundred Italian troops at the Battle of Dogali . Depretis's successor, Prime Minister Francesco Crispi signed the Treaty of Wuchale in 1889 with Menelik II , the new emperor. This treaty ceded Ethiopian territory around Massawa to Italy to form the colony of Italian Eritrea , and – at least, according to the Italian version of
2622-826: The Fatimid caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah destroyed the hospital and three thousand other buildings in Jerusalem. Merchants from Amalfi in southern Italy were given permission by the Egyptian Fatimid Caliph al-Mustansir Billah ( r. 1036–1094 ) to build a monastery in Jerusalem, near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre . The monastery, known as the abbey of St Mary of the Latins (to distinguish them from local Syriac Orthodox Church hierarchy),
2760-613: The Invasion of Sicily , all support for Mussolini evaporated. A meeting of the Grand Council of Fascism was held on 24 July, which managed to impose a vote of no confidence to Mussolini . The "Duce" was subsequently deposed and arrested by the King on the following afternoon. Afterwards, Mussolini remained a prisoner of the King until 12 September, when, on the orders of Hitler , he was rescued by German paratroops and became leader of
2898-622: The Johanniterorden to its continuing place as the chief non-Roman Catholic branch of the Knights Hospitaller. The Knights of Malta had a strong presence within the Imperial Russian Navy and the pre- revolutionary French Navy . When Phillippe de Longvilliers de Poincy was appointed governor of the French colony on Saint Kitts in 1639, he was a prominent Knight of St. John and dressed his retinue with
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#17327579154493036-565: The Ottoman -endorsed Barbary pirates operating out of North Africa. Boosted by an air of invincibility following the successful defence of their island in 1565, and compounded by the Christian victory over the Ottoman fleet in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, the knights set about protecting Christian merchant shipping to and from the Levant and freeing the captured Christian slaves who formed
3174-632: The Public Library was established in 1761. The University was founded seven years later, followed, in 1786, by a School of Mathematics and Nautical Sciences. Despite these developments, some of the Maltese grew to resent the Order, which they viewed as a privileged class. This even included some of the local nobility , who were not admitted to the Order. In Rhodes, the knights had been housed in auberges (inns) segregated by Langues. This structure
3312-587: The reconquest of the Holy Land by Islamic forces , the knights operated from Rhodes, over which they were sovereign , and later from Malta, where they administered a vassal state under the Spanish viceroy of Sicily . The Hospitallers were one of the smallest groups to have colonized parts of the Americas, briefly acquiring four Caribbean islands in the mid-17th century, which they turned over to France in
3450-583: The "Land of Severin" ( Terra de Zeurino ), along with the nearby mountains, from Béla IV of Hungary , as shown by a charter of grant issued on 2 June 1247. The Banate of Severin was a march , or border province, of the Kingdom of Hungary between the Lower Danube and the Olt River , today part of Romania, and back then bordered across the Danube by a powerful Bulgarian Empire . The Hospitaller hold on
3588-672: The 1660s. The knights became divided during the Protestant Reformation , when rich commanderies of the order in northern Germany and the Netherlands became Protestant and largely separated from the Catholic main stem, remaining separate to this day ; modern ecumenical relations between the descendant chivalric orders are amicable. The order was suppressed in England, Denmark, and other parts of northern Europe, and
3726-516: The 700 knights and 8,000 soldiers and expel them from Malta and gain a new base from which to possibly launch another assault on Europe. This is known as the Great Siege of Malta . At first the battle went as badly for the Hospitallers as Rhodes had: most of the cities were destroyed and about half the knights killed. On 18 August, the position of the besieged was becoming desperate: dwindling daily in numbers, they were becoming too feeble to hold
3864-590: The Albanian port of Vlorë in December 1914. In the fall of 1916, Italy started to occupy southern Albania . In 1916, Italian forces recruited Albanian irregulars to serve alongside them. Italy, with permission of the Allied command, occupied Northern Epirus on 23 August 1916, forcing the neutralist Greek Army to withdraw its occupation forces from there. In June 1917, Italy proclaimed central and southern Albania as
4002-587: The Americas: Cristopher Columbus from Genoa served Spain, Amerigo Vespucci from Florence served Portugal, the Cabot brothers from Venice served England, and Giovanni da Verrazzano from Florence served France. However, no Italian power took an active role in the scramble for the Americas, with the notable exception of the Pope who acted as an arbiter between European colonial powers during
4140-579: The Apostles. A historian of the Order in the 13th century wrote that this version was not true. In any case, the Hospitallers rose to fame and prestige in a short amount of time. By the time of the success of the First Crusade in 1099, the Hospital of St John was already well known among pilgrims and was regarded as a separate organization from the monastery of St Mary. The monastic brothers at
4278-514: The Axis troops overran that country by the end of April. The Italians gained control over portions of both occupied Yugoslavia and occupied Greece . A member of the House of Savoy , Prince Aimone, 4th Duke of Aosta , was appointed king of the newly created Independent State of Croatia . During the height of the Battle of Britain , the Italians launched an invasion of Egypt in the hope of capturing
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4416-716: The Balearic Islands but he did not do so. After the United Kingdom signed the Anglo-Italian Easter Accords in 1938, Mussolini and foreign minister Ciano issued demands for concessions in the Mediterranean by France, particularly regarding Djibouti , Tunisia and the French-run Suez Canal . Three weeks later, Mussolini told Ciano that he intended for Italy to demand an Italian takeover of Albania. Mussolini professed that Italy would only be able to "breathe easily" if it had acquired
4554-672: The Banate was only brief. After the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1291 (the city of Jerusalem had fallen in 1187 ), the Knights were confined to the County of Tripoli and, when Acre was captured in 1291, the order sought refuge in the Kingdom of Cyprus . Finding themselves becoming enmeshed in Cypriot politics, their Master, Guillaume de Villaret , created a plan of acquiring their own temporal domain, selecting Rhodes , then part of
4692-559: The Byzantine Empire. He also reorganised the order into eight langues , or "tongues", corresponding to a geographic or ethno-linquistic area: the Crown of Aragon , Auvergne , Crown of Castile , Kingdom of England , France , Holy Roman Empire , Italy and Provence . Each was administered by a Prior or, if there was more than one priory in the langue, by a Grand Prior. Guillaume's successor, Foulques de Villaret , executed
4830-615: The Conqueror in 1480, who, after capturing Constantinople and defeating the Byzantine Empire in 1453 , made the Knights a priority target. In 1522, an entirely new sort of force arrived: 400 ships under the command of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent deployed as many as 100,000 men to the island, and possibly up 200,000. Under Grand Master Philippe Villiers de L'Isle-Adam , the knights, though well-fortified, only had about 7,000 men-at-arms. The siege lasted six months, after which
4968-654: The Crusaders on 22 August 1153. It is not clear if the role of the Hospitallers was only advisory or if they were involved in the fighting at Ascalon. The Hospitallers and the Knights Templar became the most formidable military orders in the Holy Land. Frederick Barbarossa , the Holy Roman Emperor , pledged his protection to the Knights of St. John in a charter of privileges granted in 1185. The statutes of Roger de Moulins (1187) deal only with
5106-416: The English branch was confiscated in 1540. The German Bailiwick of Brandenburg became Lutheran in 1577, then more broadly Evangelical, but continued to pay its financial contribution to the Order until 1812, when the Protector of the Order in Prussia, King Frederick William III , turned it into an order of merit; in 1852, his son and successor as Protector, King Frederick William IV of Prussia , restored
5244-434: The European states became more complacent about the Order, and more unwilling to grant money to an institution that was perceived to be earning a healthy sum on the high seas. Thus, a vicious cycle occurred, increasing the raids and reducing the grants received from the nation-states of Christendom to such an extent that the balance of payments on the island had become dependent on conquest. The European powers lost interest in
5382-493: The French Navy over the long caravans favoured by the Maltese, and if the Knight desired, to indulge in some of the pleasures of a traditional debauched seaport. In return, the French gained and quickly assembled an experienced navy to stave off the threat of the Spanish and their Habsburg masters. The shift in attitudes of the Knights over this period is ably outlined by Paul Lacroix, who states: Inflated with wealth, laden with privileges which gave them almost sovereign powers ...
5520-404: The French Navy proving the most popular destination. This decision went against the knights' cardinal reason for existence, in that by serving a European power directly they faced the very real possibility that they would be fighting against another Roman Catholic force, as in the few Franco-Spanish naval skirmishes that occurred in this period. The biggest paradox is the fact that for many years
5658-486: The French-dominated Suez Canal Company, all Italian merchant traffic to its colony of Italian East Africa was forced to pay tolls on entering the canal. In 1939, Italy invaded and captured Albania and made it a part of the Italian Empire as a protectorate and separate kingdom in personal union with the Italian crown . The region of modern-day Albania had been an early part of the Roman Empire , which had actually been held before northern parts of Italy had been taken by
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5796-413: The Germans occupied Vichy France during Case Anton , Italian-occupied France was expanded with the occupation of Corsica . By the autumn of 1943, the Italian Empire and all dreams of an Imperial Italy effectively came to an end. On 7 May, the surrender of Axis forces in Tunisia and other near continuous Italian reversals, led King Victor Emmanuel III to plan the removal of Mussolini. Following
5934-429: The Hanish islands). In April 1920, it was agreed between the British and Italian foreign ministers that Jubaland would be Italy's first compensation from Britain, but London held back on the deal for several years, aiming to use it as leverage to force Italy to cede the Dodecanese to Greece. In 1922, the leader of the Italian fascist movement, Benito Mussolini , became Prime Minister and dictator. Mussolini resolved
6072-484: The Holy Land were built by the Templars and the Hospitallers. At the height of the Kingdom of Jerusalem , the Hospitallers held seven great forts and 140 other estates in the area. The two largest of these, their bases of power in the Kingdom and in the Principality of Antioch , were the Krak des Chevaliers and Margat in Syria. The property of the Order was divided into priories , subdivided into bailiwicks , which in turn were divided into commanderies . As early as
6210-443: The Hospitallers in Germany, into the Principality of Heitersheim , making the Grand Prior of Germany a prince of the Holy Roman Empire with a seat and vote in the Reichstag . The knights would stay in Malta for the next 268 years, transforming what they called "merely a rock of soft sandstone" into a flourishing island with mighty defences, whose capital city, Valletta , would become known as Superbissima , "Most Proud", among
6348-597: The Hospitallers in their wills in the 1120s, and in the early 1140s Pope Innocent II mentioned that the Hospitallers had "servants" to protect pilgrims. An account from a Hospitaller priest in 16th century stated that as the Order of St John became more wealthy it hired knights to defend its hospitals and pilgrims, and these knights eventually became Hospitallers themselves. It is known that secular knights and soldiers were hired by institutions in Jerusalem to provide protection after 1099, including churches, and some of them later joined military orders. The Order of Knights Templar
6486-426: The Hospitallers rose in prominence and were recognized as a distinct order by Pope Paschal II in 1113. The Order of Saint John was militarized in the 1120s and 1130s, hiring knights that later became Hospitallers. The organization became a military religious order under its own papal charter, charged with the care and defence of the Holy Land , and fought in the Crusades until the Siege of Acre in 1291. Following
6624-427: The Hospitallers was granted the status of Reichsfürst ( Prince of the Holy Roman Empire ), even though the Order's territory was always south of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1630, he was awarded ecclesiastic equality with cardinals , and the unique hybrid style His Most Eminent Highness , reflecting both qualities qualifying him as a true Prince of the Church . With their diminished strength and relocation to Malta in
6762-480: The Italian government, as a matter of national prestige and to assert Italy's great power status, demanded the cession of Sanmen Bay to serve as a coaling station. Aware that Italy did not have sufficient naval power in Asian waters to back up its demand, the Chinese imperial government rejected the ultimatum and all subsequent requests, arguing that Italy had no real political or economic interests in China. This national humiliation, which for Italy's main newspaper made
6900-431: The Kingdom of France remained on amicable terms with the Ottoman Empire, the Knights' greatest and bitterest foe and purported sole purpose for existence. Paris signed many trade agreements with the Ottomans and agreed to an informal (and ultimately ineffective) cease-fire between the two states during this period. That the Knights associated themselves with the allies of their sworn enemies shows their moral ambivalence and
7038-413: The Knights boosted the economy, were charitable, and protected against Muslim attacks. Hospitals were among the first projects to be undertaken in Malta, where French soon supplanted Italian as the official language (though the native inhabitants continued to speak Maltese among themselves). The knights also constructed fortresses, watch towers, and naturally, churches. Its acquisition of Malta signalled
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#17327579154497176-429: The Knights were granted the ability to keep a portion of the spoglio , which was the prize money and cargo gained from a captured ship, along with the ability to fit out their own galleys with their new wealth. The great controversy that surrounded the knights' corso was their insistence on their policy of 'vista'. This enabled the Order to stop and board all shipping suspected of carrying Turkish goods and confiscate
7314-420: The Nationalist faction in the Spanish Civil War requested Italian support against the ruling Republican faction, and guaranteed that, if Italy supported the Nationalists, "future relations would be more than friendly" and that Italian support "would have permitted the influence of Rome to prevail over that of Berlin in the future politics of Spain". Italy intervened in the civil war with the intention of occupying
7452-400: The Netherlands , and the Order of Saint John in Sweden . In 603, Pope Gregory I commissioned the Ravennate Abbot Probus, who was previously Gregory's emissary at the Lombard court, to build a hospital in Jerusalem to treat and care for Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land. In 800, Emperor Charlemagne enlarged Probus' hospital and added a library to it. About 200 years later, in 1009,
7590-509: The Nicobar Islands from Denmark in 1864 and 1865, the genesis of the Italian colonial empire was the purchase in 1869 of Assab Bay on the Red Sea by an Italian navigation company which intended to establish a coaling station at the time the Suez Canal was being opened to navigation. This was taken over by the Italian government in 1882, becoming modern Italy's first overseas territory. Italy's search for colonies continued until February 1885 , when, by secret agreement with Britain, it annexed
7728-518: The Order was granted more castles and towns by nobles that needed assistance in defending them, especially in the County of Tripoli and the Principality of Antioch . Those notably included the Krak des Chevaliers in 1142, which they received from Raymond II, Count of Tripoli . According to one estimate the Hospitallers had 25 castles as of 1180. In addition to defending them, the Hospitallers also undertook construction projects to build new castles or repair and expand existing ones, with an example of
7866-423: The Ottoman fleet, was a serious blow. The Turkish commanders, Piali Pasha and Mustafa Pasha, were careless. They had a huge fleet which they used with effect on only one occasion. They neglected their communications with the African coast and made no attempt to watch and intercept Sicilian reinforcements. On 1 September they made their last effort, but the morale of the Ottoman troops had deteriorated seriously and
8004-422: The Renaissance. The geographical position of Italy, located in the center of an internal sea, without an open free access to the ocean, contributed to this purely Mediterranean policy. Ferdinand I , Grand Duke of Tuscany, made the only Italian attempt to create a colony in the Americas, in what is now French Guiana , organizing in 1608 an expedition to explore the north of Brazil and the Amazon river in 1608 under
8142-415: The Romans, but had long since been populated by Albanians , even though Italy had retained strong links with the Albanian leadership and considered it firmly within its sphere of influence . It is possible that Mussolini simply wanted a spectacular success over a smaller neighbour to match Germany's absorption of Austria and Czechoslovakia . Italian King Victor Emmanuel III took the Albanian crown , and
8280-534: The Suez Canal. By 16 September 1940, the Italians advanced 100 kilometres (60 mi) across the border. However, in December, the British launched Operation Compass and, by February 1941, the British had cut off and captured the Italian 10th Army and had driven deep into Libya. A German intervention prevented the fall of Libya and the combined Axis attacks drove the British back into Egypt until summer 1942, before being stopped at El Alamein . Allied intervention against Vichy French-held Morocco and Algeria created
8418-413: The Templars. The other symbol of the Hospitallers, the "eight-pointed cross," is said to have originated in the Byzantine Empire before reaching the Duchy of Amalfi in Italy, and it was later used in Jerusalem by the monks that founded the Hospital of St John. After the Hospitallers moved to Malta, it became known as the Maltese cross . King Fulk of Jerusalem constructed several castles to defend
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#17327579154498556-412: The Throne Room, in the Grandmaster's Palace in Valletta ; four of the original modellos , painted in oils by Perez d'Aleccio between 1576 and 1581, can be found in the Cube Room of the Queen's House at Greenwich , London. After the siege a new city had to be built: the present capital city of Malta, named Valletta in memory of the Grand Master who had withstood the siege. In 1607, the Grand Master of
8694-450: The Treaty of London and by 17 November had seized Fiume as well. In 1918, Admiral Enrico Millo declared himself Italy's Governor of Dalmatia. Famous Italian nationalist Gabriele D'Annunzio supported the seizure of Dalmatia, and proceeded to Zara (today's Zadar) in an Italian warship in December 1918. At the concluding Treaty of Versailles in 1919, Italy received less in Europe than had been promised and none overseas mandate except for
8832-456: The abbey of St Mary as a church of the Holy See , placing it under his protection and exempting it from paying tithes on its land, on 19 June 1112. The monastic Hospitaller Order was formally created when the Pope issued the papal bull Pie postulatio voluntatis on 15 February 1113 to the head of the Hospital of St John, Blessed Gerard de Martigues . The Pope subordinated the hospital to his own authority and exempted it from paying tithes on
8970-473: The armistice was made public. In Albania , Yugoslavia , the Dodecanese , and other territories still held by the Italians, German military forces successfully attacked their former Italian allies and ended Italy's rule. During the Dodecanese Campaign , an Allied attempt to take the Dodecanese with the cooperation of the Italian troops ended in total German victory. In China, the Imperial Japanese Army occupied Italy's concession in Tientsin after getting news of
9108-459: The armistice. Later in 1943 the Italian Social Republic formally ceded control of the concession to Japan's puppet regime in China, the Reorganized National Government of China under Wang Jingwei . In 1947, the Treaty of Peace with Italy formally ended the empire that was now totally defunct. There were discussions to maintain Tripolitania (a province of Italian Libya ) as the last Italian colony, but these were not successful. In November 1949
9246-401: The attack was feeble, to the great encouragement of the besieged, who now began to see hopes of deliverance. The perplexed and indecisive Ottomans heard of the arrival of Sicilian reinforcements in Mellieħa Bay. Unaware that the force was very small, they broke off the siege and left on 8 September. The Great Siege of Malta may have been the last action in history in which a force of knights won
9384-425: The average reign of a Roman Emperor was just 18 months, down from average just over 9 years during the first centuries of the Empire. Knights Hospitaller The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( Latin : Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani ), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller ( / ˈ h ɒ s p ɪ t əl ər / ), is a Catholic military order . It
9522-426: The basis for Italian imperialism, especially during the fascist era. During the Middle Ages and the modern period, the Republic of Venice and the Republic of Genoa controlled networks of "colonies" in the Mediterranean region known as the Venetian Empire and the Genoese Empire respectively. Between the 15th and 16th centuries, Italian explorers contributed to the colonial enterprises of other European countries in
9660-411: The basis of the Barbary corsairs' piratical trading and navies. This campaign became known as the "corso". Yet the Order soon struggled on a now reduced income. By policing the Mediterranean, they augmented the assumed responsibility of the traditional protectors of the Mediterranean, the naval city states of Venice and Genoa . Further compounding their financial woes; over the course of this period,
9798-492: The beginning of the Order's renewed naval activity. The building and fortification of Valletta, named for Grand Master la Valette , was begun in 1566, soon becoming the home port of one of the Mediterranean's most powerful navies. Valletta was designed by Francesco Laparelli , a military engineer, and his work was then taken up by Girolamo Cassar . The city was completed in 1571. The island's hospitals were expanded as well. The Sacra Infermeria could accommodate 500 patients and
9936-404: The breaches, and the capture of Malta seemed more and more impossible. Many of the Ottoman troops in crowded quarters had fallen ill over the terrible summer months. Ammunition and food were beginning to run short, and the Ottoman troops were becoming increasingly dispirited by the failure of their attacks and their losses. The death on 23 June of skilled commander Dragut , a corsair and admiral of
10074-624: The cargo to be re-sold at Valletta, along with the ship's crew, who were by far the most valuable commodity on the ship. Naturally, many nations claimed to be victims of the knights' over-eagerness to stop and confiscate any goods remotely connected to the Turks. In an effort to regulate the growing problem, the authorities in Malta established a judicial court, the Consiglio del Mer, where captains who felt wronged could plead their case, often successfully. The practice of issuing privateering licenses and thus state endorsement, which had been in existence for
10212-469: The central Mediterranean, the knights found themselves devoid of their founding mission: assisting and joining the crusades in the Holy Land . Revenues subsequently dwindled as European sponsors were no longer willing to support a costly and seemingly redundant organization. The knights were forced to make do with their maritime location and turn to combating the increased threat of piracy, particularly from
10350-736: The colonial race and its status as the least of the Great Powers , a position of relative weakness in international affairs, meant that it was dependent on the acquiescence of Britain, France and Germany towards its empire-building. Italy had long considered the Ottoman province of Tunisia , where a large community of Tunisian Italians lived, within its economic sphere of influence. It did not consider annexing it until 1879, when it became apparent that Britain and Germany were encouraging France to add it to its colonial holdings in North Africa . A last-minute offer by Italy to share Tunisia between
10488-702: The command of the English captain Robert Thornton . However, Thornton, on his return from the preparatory expedition in 1609, found Ferdinand I dead and his successor, Cosimo II , was not interested in the project. In 1651, Giovanni Paolo Lascaris , Italian nobleman and Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller of Malta (at the time a vassal state of the Kingdom of Sicily ), possessed four Caribbean islands: Saint Christopher , Saint Martin , Saint Barthélemy , and Saint Croix , which were colonized from 1651 until 1665. No other colonial attempt in
10626-612: The construction of Petronium Castle , utilizing pieces of the partially destroyed Mausoleum at Halicarnassus , one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World , to strengthen their rampart. In the 15th century, the knights fought frequently with Barbary pirates , also known as Ottoman corsairs. They withstood two invasions by ascendant Muslim forces, one by the Sultan of Egypt in 1444 and another by Ottoman Sultan Mehmed
10764-696: The country appear "like a third or fourth-rate power", provoked the fall of the Italian government. This prompted Italy to take part in the international expedition in Beijing at the outbreak of the Boxer Rebellion the following year, and resulted in the acquisition of a concession in Tianjin in 1901, the only example of Italian colonialism in Asia. The concession was administered by the Italian consul in Tianjin. A wave of nationalism that swept Italy at
10902-774: The death toll was 6,889, including 4,133 Italians. The Ethiopians suffered at least 4,000 dead and 10,000 wounded. Italy also fought in the Mahdist War , and since 1890 it defeated Mahdist troops in the Battle of Serobeti and the First Battle of Agordat . In December 1893, Italian colonial troops and Mahdists fought again in the Second Battle of Agordat ; Ahmed Ali campaigned against the Italian forces in eastern Sudan and led about 10–12,000 men east from Kassala, encountering 2,400 Italians and their Eritrean Ascaris commanded by Colonel Arimondi. The Italians won again, and
11040-576: The defeated surviving Hospitallers were allowed to withdraw to Sicily . Despite the defeat, both Christians and Muslims seem to have regarded Phillipe Villiers as extremely valiant, and the Grand Master was proclaimed a Defender of the Faith by Pope Adrian VI . In 1530, after seven years of displacement from Rhodes, Pope Clement VII – himself a knight – reached an agreement with Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain and Sicily, to provide
11178-539: The emblems of the Order. In 1651, the knights bought from the Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique the islands of Sainte-Christophe, Saint Martin , and Saint Barthélemy . The Order's presence in the Caribbean was eclipsed with De Poincy's death in 1660. He had also bought the island of Saint Croix as his personal estate and deeded it to the Knights of St. John. In 1665, the order sold their Caribbean possessions to
11316-679: The establishment of the Italian Empire in East Africa ("l'Impero"), with King Victor Emmanuel III as Emperor of Ethiopia. In 1939, Italy invaded Albania and incorporated it into the Fascist state . During the Second World War (1939–1945), Italy occupied British Somaliland , parts of south-eastern France , western Egypt and most of Greece , but then lost those conquests and its African colonies, including Ethiopia, to
11454-493: The exchange rate of the local currencies against the 'scudo' that were established in the late 16th century gradually became outdated, meaning the knights were gradually receiving less at merchant factories. Economically hindered by the barren island they now inhabited, many knights went beyond their call of duty by raiding Muslim ships. More and more ships were plundered, from whose profits many knights lived idly and luxuriously, taking local women to be their wives and enrolling in
11592-454: The expense of his own defences. A wrong decision could mean defeat and exposing Sicily and Naples to the Ottomans. He had left his own son with La Valette, so he could hardly be indifferent to the fate of the fortress. Whatever may have been the cause of his delay, the Viceroy hesitated until the battle had almost been decided by the unaided efforts of the knights, before being forced to move by
11730-464: The first use of an armoured fighting vehicle in military history and marked the first significant employment of air power in warfare. In 1914 Italy remained neutral and did not join its ally Germany in World War I. The Allies made promises and in 1915 Italy joined them . It was promised territorial spoils mainly from Austria and Turkey. Prior to direct intervention in World War I, Italy occupied
11868-613: The former Italian Somaliland then under British military administration, was made a 10-year United Nations Trust Territory under Italian administration ( Trust Territory of Somaliland ). On 1 July 1960, Somalia merged with British Somaliland to form the independent Somali Republic . Timeline of Italian history Timeline This is a timeline of Italian history , comprising important legal and territorial changes and political events in Italy and its predecessor states, including Ancient Rome and Prehistoric Italy . Date of
12006-400: The great powers of Europe. However, the indigenous islanders were initially apprehensive about the order's presence and viewed them as arrogant intruders; they were especially loathed for taking advantage of local women. Most knights were French and excluded Maltese from serving in the order, even being generally dismissive of local nobility. However, the two groups coexisted peacefully, since
12144-624: The hospital saw it as their duty to provide the best possible treatment to the poor. They were given an endowment by Godfrey of Bouillon , the leader of the First Crusade, before he died in 1100. The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem , Ghibbelin of Arles , formally recognized it as a separate entity from the monastery when he reformed the Catholic hierarchy in Palestine , and a step towards this was taken by Pope Paschal II when he recognized
12282-551: The hospital was visited by Archbishop John of Amalfi during his pilgrimage. In later centuries, to help raise money in Europe, the Order of St John made claims that the hospital had been founded more than a century before Christ by the high priest Menelaus and the Greek King Antiochus of Jerusalem, with financing from Judas Maccabeus , and that it was first headed by Saint Stephen and had been visited by Christ and
12420-492: The importance of a religious army), and thus in the Knights' regular tributes from European nations. That the knights, a chiefly Roman Catholic military order, pursued the readmittance of England as one of its member states – the Order there had been suppressed under King Henry VIII of England during the dissolution of the monasteries – upon the succession of the Protestant queen Elizabeth I of England aptly demonstrates
12558-472: The indignation of his own officers. On 23 August came yet another grand assault, the last serious effort, as it proved, of the besiegers. It was thrown back with the greatest difficulty, even the wounded taking part in the defence. The plight of the Turkish forces was now desperate. With the exception of Fort Saint Elmo , the fortifications were still intact. Working night and day the garrison had repaired
12696-662: The invading allied forces by 1943. It was forced in the peace treaty of 1947 to relinquish sovereignty over all its colonies. It was granted a trust to administer former Italian Somaliland under United Nations supervision in 1950. When Somalia became independent in 1960, Italy's eight-decade experiment with colonialism had ended. The Second Italo-Ethiopian War cost Italy 4,359 killed in action—2,313 Italians, 1,086 Eritreans, 507 Somalis and Libyans, and 453 Italian laborers. Ethiopian military and civilian dead, many of them from Italian bomb and mustard gas attacks, were estimated as high as 275,000. In July 1936, Francisco Franco of
12834-604: The invading Allied forces by 1943. In 1947, Italy officially relinquished claims on its former colonies. In 1950, former Italian Somaliland, then under British administration, was turned into the Trust Territory of Somaliland until it became independent in 1960. Imperialism in Italy dates back to ancient Rome , and the Latin notion of mare nostrum ("Our Sea", referring to the Mediterranean) has historically been
12972-557: The invasion of the Greek island of Corfu after the Corfu incident . The Italian press supported the move, noting that Corfu had been a Venetian possession for four hundred years. The matter was taken by Greece to the League of Nations , where Mussolini was convinced by Britain to evacuate Italian troops, in return for reparations from Greece. The confrontation led Britain and Italy to resolve
13110-591: The kingdom's southern border from attacks by the Fatimid garrison at Ascalon , and allowed the Hospitallers to manage one of them in 1136, the castle of Bethgibelin . This castle also allowed them to defend the pilgrim route between Jaffa and Jerusalem. Later in the century, the Hospitallers were given control over more castles in Syria than they had in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. In the next several decades after 1136
13248-474: The knights as they focused their intentions largely on one another during the Thirty Years' War . In February 1641 a letter was sent from an unknown dignitary in the Maltese capital of Valletta to the knights' most trustworthy ally and benefactor, Louis XIV of France , stating the Order's troubles: Italy provides us with nothing much; Bohemia and Germany hardly anything, and England and the Netherlands for
13386-583: The knights permanent quarters: In exchange for providing Malta, Gozo , and the North African port of Tripoli in perpetual fiefdom , Charles V would receive an annual fee of a single Maltese falcon (the Tribute of the Maltese Falcon ), which they were to send on All Souls' Day to the king's representative, the Viceroy of Sicily. In 1548, Charles V raised Heitersheim , the headquarters of
13524-449: The lands it owned, and gave the right to its professed brothers to elect their master. He also placed several other hospitals and hospices in southern Italy under the governance of the Hospital of St John in Jerusalem, as they were located at port cities from which pilgrims traveled to the Holy Land. Gerard acquired territory and revenues for his order throughout the Kingdom of Jerusalem and beyond. Under his successor, Raymond du Puy ,
13662-605: The late 12th century, the order had begun to achieve recognition in the Kingdom of England and Duchy of Normandy . As a result, buildings such as St John's Jerusalem and the Knights Gate, Quenington in England were built on land donated to the order by local nobility. An Irish house was established at Kilmainham , near Dublin, and the Irish Prior was usually a key figure in Irish public life. The Knights also received
13800-501: The latter being Krak des Chevaliers. One of the first battles that the Knights Hospitaller fought in was the Siege of Ascalon in 1153. After a group of Knights Templar, led by their Grand Master, Bernard de Tremelay , entered the besieged fortress and were all killed, King Baldwin III of Jerusalem wanted to withdraw, but Raymond du Puy convinced him to continue, and the fort surrendered to
13938-403: The long line of fortifications. But when his council suggested the abandonment of Birgu and Senglea and withdrawal to Fort St. Angelo , Grand Master Jean Parisot de Valette refused. The Viceroy of Sicily had not sent help; possibly the Viceroy's orders from Philip II of Spain were so obscurely worded as to put on his own shoulders the burden of the decision whether to help the Order at
14076-444: The military brothers, the brothers infirmarians, and the brothers chaplains, to whom was entrusted the divine service. In 1248, Pope Innocent IV (1243–1254) approved a standard military dress for the Hospitallers to be worn during battle. Instead of a closed cape over their armour (which restricted their movements), they wore a red surcoat with a white cross emblazoned on it. Many of the more substantial Christian fortifications in
14214-416: The military element of the Order. Raymond decided some time before 1136 that Hospitallers could fight to defend the kingdom or to besiege a pagan city. The Knights Hospitaller, like the other military orders, organized its fighting members into the ranks of knight and sergeant . In 1130, Pope Innocent II gave the order its coat of arms , a plain silver cross in a field of red, to differentiate them from
14352-572: The navies of France and Spain in search of adventure, experience, and yet more money. The Knights' changing attitudes were coupled with the effects of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation and the lack of stability from the Roman Catholic Church. All this affected the knights strongly as the 16th and 17th centuries saw a gradual decline in the religious attitudes of many of the Christian peoples of Europe (and, concomitantly,
14490-472: The new commercial-minded nature of the Mediterranean in the 17th century. Serving in a foreign navy, in particular that of the French, gave the Knights the chance to serve the Church and for many, their King, to increase their chances of promotion in either their adopted navy or in Malta, to receive far better pay, to stave off their boredom with frequent cruises, to embark on the highly preferable short cruises of
14628-400: The new religious tolerance within the Order. For a time, the Order even possessed a German langue which was part Protestant or Evangelical and part Roman Catholic. The moral decline that the knights underwent over the course of this period is best highlighted by the decision of many knights to serve in foreign navies and become "the mercenary sea-dogs of the 14th to 17th centuries", with
14766-526: The newly established Italian Social Republic . After 25 July, the new Italian government under the King and Field Marshal Pietro Badoglio remained outwardly part of the Axis. But, secretly, it started negotiations with the Allies. On the eve of the Allied landings at Salerno , which started the Allied invasion of Italy , the new Italian government secretly signed an armistice with the Allies . On 8 September,
14904-628: The newly formed Langue, now occupied by the Lands Authority) and Provence (now National Museum of Archaeology ). In the Second World War, the auberge d'Auvergne was damaged (and later replaced by Law Courts) and the auberge de France was destroyed. In 1604, each Langue was given a chapel in the conventual church of Saint John and the arms of the Langue appear in the decoration on the walls and ceiling: The Order may have played
15042-529: The ocean was made and, by 1797, the Venetian and Genoese possessions in the Mediterranean were lost. Once unified as a nation-state in the late 19th century, Italy intended to compete with the other European powers for the new age of European colonial expansion. It saw its interests in the Mediterranean and in the Horn of Africa , a region yet to be colonized and with access to the ocean. Italy had arrived late to
15180-747: The oceans. In the Balkans , the Fascist regime claimed Dalmatia and held ambitions over Albania , Slovenia , Croatia , Bosnia and Herzegovina , Vardar Macedonia , and Greece based on the precedent of previous Roman dominance in these regions. Dalmatia and Slovenia were to be directly annexed into Italy while the remainder of the Balkans was to be transformed into Italian client states. The regime also sought to establish protective patron-client relationships with Austria , Hungary , Yugoslavia , Romania , and Bulgaria . In both 1932 and 1935, Italy demanded
15318-445: The order at last became so demoralised by luxury and idleness that it forgot the aim for which it was founded, and gave itself up for the love of gain and thirst for pleasure. Its covetousness and pride soon became boundless. The Knights pretended that they were above the reach of crowned heads: they seized and pillaged without concern of the property of both infidels and Christians." With the knights' exploits growing in fame and wealth,
15456-468: The order soon extended to provide pilgrims with an armed escort before eventually becoming a significant military force. Thus, the Order of St. John imperceptibly became militaristic without losing its charitable character. It is possible that the Hospital of St John hired knights or foot soldiers after the First Crusade to provide security, before it formally established its own military organization. Knights in western Europe left their horses and weapons to
15594-504: The original hospice was expanded to an infirmary and by then was subordinated to the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Around this time the Hospital of St John became connected with that Church, and documents often referred to "the Holy Sepulchre and the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem." Initially, the Hospitallers cared for pilgrims as well as others (including Muslims and Jews) in Jerusalem, but
15732-550: The outcome of the battle constituted "the first decisive victory yet won by Europeans against the Sudanese revolutionaries". A year later, Italian colonial forces seized Kassala after the successful Battle of Kassala ; Italy returned the city to the British at the end of the war three years later. In 1898, in the wake of the acquisition of leased territories by Germany , Russia , Britain and France in China earlier that year,
15870-484: The plan to take Rhodes, and on 15 August 1310, after more than four years of campaigning , the city of Rhodes surrendered to the knights. They also gained control of a number of neighbouring islands and the Anatolian port of Halicarnassus and the island of Kastellorizo . Not long after, in 1312, Pope Clement V dissolved the Hospitallers' rival order, the Knights Templar , with a series of papal bulls , including
16008-578: The poor. Earlier in the 11th century, merchants from Amalfi founded a hospital in Jerusalem dedicated to John the Baptist where Benedictine monks cared for sick, poor, or injured Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land . Blessed Gerard , a lay brother of the Benedictine order, became its head when it was established. After the Christian conquest of Jerusalem in 1099 during the First Crusade ,
16146-626: The port of Massawa in Eritrea on the Red Sea from the crumbling Egyptian Empire . Italian annexation of Massawa denied the Ethiopian Empire of Yohannes IV an outlet to the sea. At the same time, Italy occupied territory on the south side of the horn of Africa , forming what would become Italian Somaliland . However, Italy coveted Ethiopia itself and, in 1887 , Italian Prime Minister Agostino Depretis ordered an invasion, leading to
16284-418: The prehistoric era are approximate. For further background, see history of Italy and list of prime ministers of Italy . Lucius Sicinius Vellutus , the plebs abandoned Rome for the nearby Monte Sacro . Marius was elected consul for the first of three years in a row. Civil wars would follow with the first breaking out in 238, another in 249 followed by a third in 253. From 235 through 284
16422-665: The previous year. In July 1940, Italian foreign minister Count Ciano presented Hitler with a list of Italy's goals that included: the annexation of Corsica, Nice, and Malta; protectorate in Tunisia and a buffer zone in Eastern Algeria; independence with Italian military presence and bases in Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Transjordan as well as expropriation of oil companies in those territories; military occupation of Aden , Perim and Sokotra ; Cyprus given to Greece in exchange for Ionian islands and Ciamuria given to Italy; Italy
16560-633: The problems of Southern Italy 's population growth. Fearful of being excluded altogether from North Africa by Britain and France, and mindful of public opinion, Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti ordered the declaration of war on the Ottoman Empire , of which Libya was part, in October 1911. As a result of the Italo-Turkish War , Italy gained Libya and the Dodecanese Islands from the Ottoman Empire. The 1912 Libya desert war featured
16698-566: The question of Jubaland in 1924, which was merged into Italian Somaliland . During the late 1920s, imperial expansion became an increasingly favoured theme in Mussolini's speeches. Amongst Mussolini's aims were that Italy had to become the dominant power in the Mediterranean that would be able to challenge France or Britain, as well as attain access to the Atlantic and Indian Oceans . Mussolini alleged that Italy required uncontested access to
16836-594: The question of sovereignty over the Dodecanese at the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne , which formalized Italian administration of both Libya and the Dodecanese Islands, in return for a payment to Turkey, the successor state to the Ottoman Empire, though he failed in an attempt to extract a mandate of a portion of Iraq from Britain. The month following the ratification of the Lausanne treaty, Mussolini ordered
16974-518: The right to annex a large portion of Dalmatia in exchange for Italy's participation on the Allied side. From 5–6 November 1918, Italian forces were reported to have reached Lissa , Lagosta , Sebenico , and other localities on the Dalmatian coast. By the end of hostilities in November 1918, the Italian military had seized control of the entire portion of Dalmatia that had been guaranteed to Italy by
17112-473: The service of the sick; the first mention of military service is in the statutes of the ninth grand master, Fernando Afonso of Portugal (about 1200). In the latter, a marked distinction is made between secular knights, externs to the order, who served only for a time, and the professed knights, attached to the order by a perpetual vow, and who alone enjoyed the same spiritual privileges as the other religious. The order numbered three distinct classes of membership:
17250-423: The spring of 1941, the British had counter-attacked and pushed deep into Italian East Africa . By 5 May, Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia had returned to Addis Ababa to reclaim his throne. In November, the last organised Italian resistance ended with the fall of Gondar . However, following the surrender of East Africa, some Italians conducted a guerrilla war which lasted for two more years. In November 1942, when
17388-480: The treaty – made Ethiopia an Italian protectorate . Relations between Italy and Menelik deteriorated over the next few years until the First Italo-Ethiopian War broke out in 1895, when Crispi ordered Italian troops into the country. Vastly outnumbered and poorly equipped, the result was a decisive defeat for Italy at the hands of Ethiopian forces at the Battle of Adwa in 1896. On Italy's side,
17526-539: The turn of the 20th century led to the founding of the Italian Nationalist Association , which pressed for the expansion of Italy's empire. Newspapers were filled with talk of revenge for the humiliations suffered in Ethiopia at the end of the previous century, and of nostalgia for the Roman era. Libya , it was suggested, as an ex-Roman colony, should be "taken back" to provide a solution to
17664-606: The two countries was refused, and France, confident in German support, ordered its troops in from French Algeria , imposing a protectorate over Tunisia in May 1881 under the Treaty of Bardo . The shock of the " Slap of Tunis ", as it was referred to in the Italian press, and the sense of Italy's isolation in Europe, led it into signing the Triple Alliance in 1882 with Germany and Austria-Hungary . While attempts were made to buy
17802-573: The world's oceans and shipping lanes to ensure its national sovereignty. This was elaborated on in a document he later drew up in 1939 called "The March to the Oceans", and included in the official records of a meeting of the Grand Council of Fascism . This text asserted that maritime position determined a nation's independence: countries with free access to the high seas were independent; while those who lacked this, were not. Italy, which only had access to an inland sea without French and British acquiescence,
17940-549: Was encouraged by the government, and by 1939, Italian settlers numbered 120,000–150,000 in Italian Libya and 165,000 in Italian East Africa. During World War II , Italy allied itself with Nazi Germany in 1940 and it also occupied British Somaliland, western Egypt, much of Yugoslavia, Tunisia, parts of south-eastern France and most of Greece; however, it then lost those conquests and its African colonies to
18078-520: Was famous as one of the finest in the world. In the vanguard of medicine, the Hospital of Malta included Schools of Anatomy, Surgery and Pharmacy. Valletta itself was renowned as a centre of art and culture. The Conventual Church of St. John , completed in 1577, contains works by Caravaggio and others. In Europe, most of the Order's hospitals and chapels survived the Reformation, though not in Protestant or Evangelical countries. In Malta, meanwhile,
18216-415: Was founded around 1119-1120 and it is likely that the Hospitallers were inspired by them to have their own knights. A charter made for a gift to the Hospital of St John in a Christian army on 17 January 1126 recorded that a brother from the Order was present as a witness and that he held a military title. Raymond du Puy , who succeeded Gerard as master of the hospital in 1120, is credited with establishing
18354-713: Was founded in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century and had headquarters there until 1291, thereafter being based in Kolossi Castle in Cyprus (1302–1310), the island of Rhodes (1310–1522), Malta (1530–1798), and Saint Petersburg (1799–1801). The Hospitallers arose in the early 12th century at the height of the Cluniac movement , a reformist movement within the Benedictine monastic order that sought to strengthen religious devotion and charity for
18492-424: Was further damaged by Napoleon 's capture of Malta in 1798, after which it dispersed throughout Europe. Today, five organizations continue the traditions of the Knights Hospitaller and have mutually recognised each other: the Sovereign Military Order of Malta , the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John , the Bailiwick of Brandenburg of the Chivalric Order of Saint John , the Order of Saint John in
18630-458: Was maintained in Birgu (1530–1571) and then Valletta (from 1571). The auberges in Birgu remain, mostly undistinguished 16th-century buildings. Valletta still has the auberges of Castile and Portugal (1574; renovated 1741 by Grand Master de Vilhena, now the Prime Minister's offices), Italy (renovated 1683 by Grand Master Carafa, now an art museum), Aragon (1571, now a government ministry), Bavaria (former Palazzo Carnerio, purchased in 1784 for
18768-441: Was only a "semi-independent nation", and alleged to be a "prisoner in the Mediterranean": The bars of this prison are Corsica , Tunisia , Malta , and Cyprus . The guards of this prison are Gibraltar and Suez . Corsica is a pistol pointed at the heart of Italy; Tunisia at Sicily. Malta and Cyprus constitute a threat to all our positions in the eastern and western Mediterranean. Greece, Turkey, and Egypt have been ready to form
18906-411: Was served by the Order of Saint Benedict and took in Christian pilgrims travelling to visit the Christian holy sites. The increase in the number of pilgrims led the Benedictine monks to establish two hospitals in the late 1060s, one for men and one for women, with the former known as the Hospital of St John. They did this with the support of a wealthy Amalfian named Mauro of Pantaleone. In the early 1070s
19044-411: Was to be the knights' downfall in this particular period of their existence as they transformed from serving as the military outpost of a united Christendom to becoming another nation-state in a commercially oriented continent soon to be overtaken by the trading nations of the North Sea . Even as it survived in Malta, the Order lost many of its European holdings during the Reformation . The property of
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