Malta was valuable chiefly as a strategic stepping stone. Its limited agricultural surplus, population, and fresh water offered little incentive for conquest by themselves. Its location let a power influence, raid, blockade, or support traffic moving through the Mediterranean. Venetian, Genoese, and connecting routes passed the island, while the sea served as the region's main commercial artery. Salt production had value as an essential preservative, but it did not justify an invasion by itself. Terry Pratchett's Jingo offers a fictional comparison: an island that rises and sinks has value to rival powers as an invasion route or a barrier against attack. Malta's real strategic attraction similarly lay in the access its location offered.
Chapter · 23:23-33:46
Trade routes make Malta strategically valuable
Malta matters less for its own resources, including salt, than for its position beside Mediterranean routes linking north, south, east, and west.