WI: Knights of Malta still ruled Malta?

Inspired by the thread asking a similar question about the Teutonic Knights still ruling what later became Prussia, I propose this question: what would the world be like if the Knights of Malta still ruled Malta? This is a very interesting question if for no other reason than the fact that the POD can be as late as 1800.
 

Baskilisk

Banned
If somehow they can prevent being taken over by Europeans until WWII, assuming it isn't butterflied, they have to avoid being occupied then. This is a very hard thing to do, as Malta is a very strategic island, and Hollywood's going to need it to film Troy. In any case, I'd imagine it'd be the Andorra of the Mediterranean today. Oh wait, that's Monaco. Same difference. ;)
 
Er, well, they'd need some serious reform in both income sources, rank admittance, and relations with the Maltese. They were pretty lousy governors, actually.
 
Inspired by the thread asking a similar question about the Teutonic Knights still ruling what later became Prussia, I propose this question: what would the world be like if the Knights of Malta still ruled Malta? This is a very interesting question if for no other reason than the fact that the POD can be as late as 1800.

By late 18th century the wast majority of the Knights budget came from either property in France or the French nobility - both sources of income that the revolution stopped.

A Knights of Malta that weren't invaded by Napoleon or the British would be very poor, with bad relation to the "ordinary" maltesians and sitting on a valuable island that many wants to have and they can't defend very well. That would lead to big changes during the first years after 1800.

To survive until today the Knights would have to ally with someone, thereby solving both money and military problems. They would also have to involve the non-knight maltesians in the government and modernize fast. Renting a fleet base to the British? Raising mercenary regiments for the British? Aiming to become a new Hong Kong?

The world wouldn't be very different - Malta is a small island. The result could be a slightly more "exotic" world with not only Gurkha soldiers and French Foreign Legion, but also a militant knight order.

Malta could also turn out to become the North Korea of Europe, run by bitter aristocrats that fled Europe during late 19th century, treating maltesians as serfs.
 
They would probably become political pawns during the post-Revolutionary period - there won't BE a Bonapartist period I wouldn't think, if he doesn't take Malta. Alternatively, they could be RESTORED to Malta, as they were supposed to be at Amiens, at Vienna. Then things could get interesting

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
I doubt they could survive the second world war and the cold war though, unless perhaps if they become a first world nation
 
I doubt they could survive the second world war and the cold war though, unless perhaps if they become a first world nation

Which they could easily do, as the US would back them readily. A Catholic Theocracy is better then a communist state.
 
They would probably become political pawns during the post-Revolutionary period - there won't BE a Bonapartist period I wouldn't think, if he doesn't take Malta. Alternatively, they could be RESTORED to Malta, as they were supposed to be at Amiens, at Vienna. Then things could get interesting

Not my area of expertise, but it appears Malta was restored to the Knights at Amiens in 1802 and turned over to the British at Pars in 1814 by request of the Maltese themselves, a request spelled out in a Declaration of Rights. This sort of thing seems anathema to the Metternichs of Europe. If the Knights could use some savvy diplomacy to get on the good side of Austria, Prussia, and Russia, it seems they could convince the Holy Alliance powers to argue for their restoration. Perhaps the British could give up Malta in exchange for Minorca... but something tells me they've already given up Minorca in exchange for something else. British Corsica, then - how ironic would that be?
 
The Knights, in my opinion, would eventually become an even more hated institution and probably be overthrown in 1848.
 
I doubt they could survive the second world war and the cold war though, unless perhaps if they become a first world nation

The Knights, in my opinion, would eventually become an even more hated institution and probably be overthrown in 1848.

BUTTERFLIES!!!! *Dies of a dozen heart attacks*

How about having Malta annexed to the Papal States with the Knights being used as the infrastructure for government with Catholic clerics and friars being attached to them?
 
BUTTERFLIES!!!! *Dies of a dozen heart attacks*

Malta's such a small island, so the butterflies might be quite small - in particular, I can't think of much that would preclude the nationalist risings of 1848. Your heart is safe!

That said, they need not necessarily spread to Malta. But the Maltese had nationalist sentiments surface during the Napoleonic Wars, so an 1848 rising is possible.

I'll go with my earlier Vienna scenario. In 1848, the Austrians sent a force to Malta from the Littoral to put down the anti-Knight rising. Malta became an Austrian protectorate.
 
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