Let the Tail Wag the Dog: A Maltese wank

A Timeline in Search of a map: What's the maximal extent for a democratic Maltese republic?

Let the Tail Wag the Dog

In 1530, Charles V of Spain granted Malta and Tripoli to the knights of St. John. They suffered a setback in 1540, when Henry VIII dis-established all their holdings in England. The knights would go on to mount a heroic defence of the island in July 1551, but lose Tripoli in August that year. They managed to maintain their German holdings in the face of Lutheranism in 1577.

In 1560, the knights were victorious at the Battle of Djerba, and went on to recapture Tripoli.

The chief PoD for this timeline is that in 1562, the then-Count of Sicily was accused of heresy for following a Nestorian mystery cult of Christianity. His lands were handed over to the Knights of Malta, who were simultaneously charged with retaking the Tripolitanian hinterland. Over the next decade, the knights went on to take the much of the coast and hinterland between Tunisia and Tripoli, adopting the titles Duke of Africa and Count of Sicily. Over the next two centuries, Malta would continue to lead the call to arms against the Ottoman Empire, and together with allies from across Christendom effectively maintained control of the Mediterranean Sea against the Turk. The Battle of Leapnto (1571) was the most notable example of this change in fortunes. Despite repeated attempts, however, the latter-day crusades led by the knights to take Rhodes (1630), Cyprus (1644), and Crete (1647) were unable to hold those islands for more than a few months at a time.

Unliek OTL, where the knights made a significant income from raiding Barbary coast "pirates", these knights were able to "green the desert", and turned

As a result of the French Revolution, the knights lost all their estates in France in 1789, along with a significant source of income and the recruiting grounds for three of their langues. In 1798, the Napoleonic Wars came to Malta. The Second Great Seige had begun. The Grand Masterof the time was Emmanuel de Rohan-Polduc (in this timeline he did not suffer a stroke in 1792. However, his death mere days into the seige led to his succession by Hompesch. Hompesch was both inexperienced and a diplomat rather than a soldier. Nonetheless, he fought on. However, although the islands were well-fortified, with a curtain wall that by this time encircled not just the Citta Vecchia, Cottonera, Marsaxlokk, and Valletta, but much of the rest of the usable coastline too, they were poorly-provisioned, and after a few months without grain from Sicily and Africa, they were forced to capitulate.

The Maltese Repubhlic was born in 1799 as a puppet of the French Empire, and kept its pre-revolutionary holdings in Sicily and Africa. Government fell to the Universita, a body of Maltese 'nobility' (essentially the wealthiest of the native-born merchants). With the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, the nascent republic could truly claim to be independent.
 
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