Abstract
Nationalism in Malta and Cyprus, from 1919 to 1939, was active and central to resistance to British colonialism. This chapter examines both what was common and what was distinct between Maltese nationalism and Greek Cypriot nationalism. In Malta, nationalists were in favor of Italianita, a Maltese identity that embraced Italian language and culture but was not crassly irredentist. In Cyprus, a strong and perennial Greek Cypriot nationalist movement for enosis (a policy of union with Greece) was opposed by both the British and the Turkish Cypriot minority. The British suppression of nationalism in both places was swift but different. Maltese nationalist agitation was met with compromise and constitutional change, whereas in Cyprus, Greek Cypriot nationalism was met with authoritarianism and the abandonment of the local constitution.
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Marovich-Old, I. (2018). Nationalism as Resistance to Colonialism: A Comparative Look at Malta and Cyprus from 1919 to 1940. In: Kyritsi, T., Christofis, N. (eds) Cypriot Nationalisms in Context. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97804-8_13
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