After decades as a strategic British naval base and a brutal siege during World War II that earned the entire population the George Cross, Malta achieved independence under Prime Minister George Borg Olivier. The new nation retained Queen Elizabeth II as head of state until becoming a republic a decade later, in 1974.
Malta's location made it indispensable and expendable in turn: a coaling station for the Royal Navy in the age of empire, then a fortress island bombed more heavily per square mile than almost anywhere else during the Second World War. Its people endured over 3,000 air raids between 1940 and 1942, a siege so severe that King George VI awarded the George Cross to the island itself.
Independence negotiations dragged through the early 1960s, complicated by Malta's tiny size and total economic dependence on British military spending. When the Union Jack finally came down at midnight on September 21, 1964, in Valletta's Independence Arena, it capped a long transition rather than a sudden break—Malta continued hosting British and later NATO forces for years afterward. The George Cross earned in wartime remains on the national flag today, a small badge honoring an outsized ordeal.