Siege of Malta

Malta /ˈmɒltə/, officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in... the centre of the Mediterranean, 80 km south of Sicily, 284 km east of Tunisia and 333 km north of Libya, with Gibraltar 1,755 km to the west and Alexandria 1,508 km to the east. Malta covers just over 316 km in land area, making it one of the world's smallest states. It is also one of the most densely populated countries worldwide. The de facto capital city of Malta is Valletta; the largest town, Birkirkara. The main island comprises many towns, which together form one Larger Urban Zone with a population of 368,250 according to Eurostat. The country has two official languages, Maltese and English. Throughout history, Malta's location has given it great strategic importance, and a succession of powers including the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Aragonese, Habsburg Spain, Knights of St John, French and the British ruled the islands.
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The Ottoman–Habsburg wars refers to the military conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg dynasties of the Austrian Empire,... Habsburg Spain and in certain times, the Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary. The war would be dominated by land campaigns in Hungary and present day Croatia. Initially, Ottoman conquests in Europe made significant gains with a decisive victory at Mohács reducing around one third part of Kingdom of Hungary to the status of an Ottoman tributary. By the 16th century, the Ottomans had become a serious threat to Europe, with Ottoman Barbary ships sweeping away Venetian possessions in the Aegean and Ionia. The Protestant Reformation, the France-Habsburg rivalry and the numerous civil conflicts of the Holy Roman Empire served as distractions. Meanwhile the Ottomans had to contend with the Persian Safavid Empire and to a lesser extent the Mameluke Sultanate, which was defeated and fully incorporated into the empire. Later, the Peace of Westphalia and the Spanish War of Succession in the 17th and 18th centuries respectively left the Austrian Empire as the sole firm possession of the House of Habsburg.
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