Years of coexistence and intermarriage on the Rock soon led to a coalescence of Maltese, Italian and Andalusian culture, preserving the Mediterranean and Catholic nature of Gibraltar despite the centuries of British rule.

Gibraltar, Malta and Cyprus were the three stepping stones whereby Great Britain controlled the Mediterranean and the vital route to the Suez Canal and thence to India.

This prosperity attracted immigrants from neighbouring Mediterranean lands and in 1885 there were about 1,000 Maltese people living in Gibraltar.

Early in the 20th century the British undertook vast naval works and improvements to the existing fortifications of Gibraltar to make the rock practically impregnable.

The situation in Malta was very different, where, despite an earlier attempt at integration with the UK, rising nationalist sentiment led to independence in 1964 and the establishment of a republic a decade later.