Two hundred nineteen years ago on 9 June 1798 the first ships containing a force of over 30,000 Frenchmen under Napoleon Bonaparte appeared on the horizon intent on capturing Malta.
After taking to cut possession of Malta on 11 June 1798 and a week's presence on the island, Napoleon departed to capture Egypt from a weakened Ottoman Empire. His aim was to cut off Britain from India and other Eastern possessions.
The main French organ that kept the French informed on the situation overseas was the Gazette de France which was the first European newspaper published in 1631.
Impartial and prudent in content, two issues of the Gazette de France from 1798 dealt with in this Feature capture the essence of the French occupation in Malta after the Maltese uprising just a few months after the French took control of the Maltese Islands.
The Maltese Rebellion
In 1797 Napoleon Bonaparte was commissioned by the French government to invade Malta and expel the Order of St. John. Indeed, Malta's strategic position in the Mediterranean with its potential for trade and features of a military bastion made it a prized possession for the French. Moreover, Napoleon saw the Order of St John as a reactionary regime and the Maltese population as supporters of the French Revolution.
When the French occupied the Maltese Islands, the majority of the 300 (mostly elderly) Knights of the Order had left Malta, leaving behind them most of their possessions. These treasures were quickly confiscated by the French.
After spending a week at Malta and installing a French garrison and putting in motion many reforms, Napoleon sailed with his fleet for his main objective, Egypt. The French had promised not to interfere in Maltese Church matters but this promise was not kept and convents were closed and French possession of the riches of the church took place.
Many treasures were already taken on the ships making their way for the Egyptian campaign of 1798. Soon, Napoleon occupied Alexandria in July and marched against Syria. Then he suffered defeats with the near complete destruction of the French navy by Admiral Nelson at Aboukir Bay (in the Battle of the Nile), which started on 1 August 1798, with the resulting loss of all the treasures that were stolen from Malta when the French naval ship L'Orient was destroyed.
The dissent against the French occupation increased rapidly and by the 2 September 1798, the first Maltese uprising commenced. The reason was an auction of the possessions of the Carmelite Convent in Mdina.
The ferocity of the uprising made the French retreat to Valletta and in the process lost control of the Maltese countryside. The rebellion alone could not defeat the French and the Maltese asked for British assistance.
These two issues of the Gazette give background information to the Gazette de France organ, as well as a clear idea of what it meant to be a French soldier at the time; besieged for 2 years and cut off without supplies reaching the Islands of Malta and Gozo.
The Gazette de France
The first European newspaper was the Gazette de France published in 1631. It served as a propaganda tool for the monarchs from Louis XIII to Louis XVI. There was no political criticism in the press or freedom of publication for over 150 years.
Article 2 of the Déclaration des droits de l'homme affirmed, inter alia, the freedom of the press; it is probable that more periodicals and newspapers were founded in France in 1789 alone than in the previous century and a half.
In 1798, the Gazette de France was published in 'A Paris, de l'Imprimerie du Citoyen, Sallentin, Rue Christine, no 8' which loosely translated means Printed in Paris at the Citizen's Printing Press Sallentin, rue Christine, no. 8.
The French Republican Calendar
The Gazette was dated using the French Republican Calendar or French Revolutionary Calendar. This was a calendar created and implemented during the French Revolution and used by the French government for about 12 years from late 1793 to 1805, and for 18 days by the Paris Commune in 1871.
The two issues of the Gazette de France
The two issues under review in this Feature are dated as follows:
- Sextidi, 6, Frimaire An VII de La Republique, (26 November 1798)
- Primidi, 11, Nivose An VII de La Republique, (31 December 1798)
Sextidi, 6 Frimaire An VII de La Republique (26 November 1798)
The first issue reports on the situation in Malta and Gozo during September 1798 giving an account of the surrender of Gozo by the French and the demands to General Vaubois, the Commander of the French forces to surrender Malta. Translated into English the report reads as follows:
"It is confirmed that the Island of Gozo (near Malta) has surrendered to the English. There were 100 French under the command of a Lieutenant-Colonel. They had been besieged by 4,000 men in a fort where they resisted attacks for two months without any means of defence.
The Island of Malta is defended by a sufficient garrison under the command of General Vaubois who is not disposed to surrender the Island. He has already been ordered twice. On the first request he replied that without doubt those who were demanding the surrender were not fully aware that Frenchmen were defending it. And on the second demand, a Portuguese parliamentarian said that he had been supplied with a vessel with 74 canons on board. General Vaubois wrote to the Admiral that he had every right for such a vessel but if he as a parliamentarian was granted such a vessel of such might, he would reply by firing red-hot shot cannon balls. He also answered that he had food supplies, gunpowder; and brave men who are not prepared to surrender. The English should not hope to be masters of the Island of Malta as the officer had ordered him."
The reference to red-hot shot cannon balls in the above report is a reference to cannon balls used at the siege of Gibraltar by the French and Spanish force whose artillery were kept busy from 1779 to 1783. Enemy vessels blockading the port were fired upon using red-hot shot, iron cannonballs heated in an oven, to set fire the ships on fire.
The Island of Gozo was then known as "La Nazione Gozitana", because Gozo became an independent country for about two years, until the Maltese Islands fell under the British rule on the 5 September 1800.
On the 19 September 1798, the French, angered by the Maltese determination, tried to land in St. Paul's Bay. But as the French fleet approached the shores, a Portuguese fleet commanded by Marchese de Niza, appeared off Malta.
Unprepared to challenge the Portuguese fleet, the French fleet fled to the Grand Harbour for safety. The Portuguese fleet provided the Maltese with provisions of food and munitions. After a few days, twelve British battered ships, commanded by Captain James Saumarez, appeared off the island. Survivors of the Battle of the Nile, they were in urgent need of repair and unable to directly assist in the siege, joined the Portuguese fleet.
Primidi, 11, Nivose An VII de La Republique, (31 December 1798)
The second issue hints clearly at the precarious situation the French garrison was facing with supplies not reaching Valletta and the forts they were besieged in. The report went as follows:
"By Fructidor 16th (Sunday, 2 September 1798 [my italics]) when the insurrection burst on this island, the French garrison sought refuge in the city of Valletta and in the forts. Attempts to counter-attack the inhabitants resulted in little success. The blockading force has not yet made any attack from the sea.
The garrison consists of five thousand men, elite soldiers, mostly from Marseilles determined, to hold on to the last cartridge. The garrison has, oil and wood to last one year, as well as vegetables in rather big quantities, enough to give out rations to every soldier during this time. They have fewer quantities of wine, water, vinegar and salted meat.
Regnaud (de Saint-Jean d'Angely) has just arrived in France and did not hold back in pointing out to the government about the needs which have to be addressed
Everything depends therefore on the success of the attempts being made to bring in the supplies which are so lacking."
The first British Naval force arrived in Malta during October 1798. The British Admiral Lord Nelson strategically ordered a blockade in order to force the French to surrender the Islands whilst the Maltese rebels made attempts to re-capture Valletta but failed. The blockade ended on 5 September 1800 (2 years from the start of the Maltese rebellion). The French garrison exhausted and cut off surrendered.
Immediately following Napoleon's first abdication, the Great Powers of Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia undertook to remain in alliance for twenty years. The French and their allies on the losing side and as the aggressors were punishised and restrained and the victors; the countries that helped to bring the downfall of Napoleon were rewarded. Britain was regaled with Malta.
It was also the aim of the allies to preserve the political division of Europe into dynastic states and establish a balance of power to prevent future revolutions and wars. Out of this purpose arose the territorial settlement of Europe agreed at the Congress of Vienna and the Congress System, which was intended to perpetuate the ideas of a 'Concert of Europe'.
The last time a European congress of the Great Powers had met before was in at the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 which ended the Thirty Years' War in Germany. The settlement as a whole was embodied in four distinct but interlocking agreements. Taken together these treaties shaped the course of European history for the next half century.
- The Treaty of Chaumont
- The Two Treaties of Paris of 1814 and 1815
- The Treaty of Vienna
- The Quadruple Alliance
- The Holy Alliance (expressed another conception of European unity and order, to which Britain never acceded)
Interestingly, it was not until 1814 at the Treaty of Paris that Malta became a British Crown Colony and in 1813 under the Bathurst Constitution, the First issue of Gazzetta del Governo di Malta was issued which was changed to the Malta Government Gazette in 1816. On the other hand, the Gazette de France, which had issued its first number on May 30 1631 disappeared from circulation in 1915.