MATSEC Intermediate History: Evidence, Causation and Judgement
MATSEC Intermediate History (University of Malta) assesses both a chronological knowledge base - Maltese, Mediterranean and European - and the discipline's own skills: interpreting sources, explaining change, weighing causes and reaching a defensible judgement. Essay papers reward argument and precise evidence, not narrated recall; source papers reward provenance analysis and cross-referencing rather than quotation.
The chronological spine you must control
- Order of St John, 1530–1798: 1565 Siege, the building of Valletta, Hospitaller administration and its eighteenth-century decline.
- French occupation 1798–1800, then British Malta: 1814 Treaty of Paris, the language and education conflicts of the 1830s, the 1921 Amery Constitution and self-government, suspension of the constitution in 1933, the George Cross (1942), the restoration of self-government in 1947, the failed integration talks of 1955–58, Independence in 1964, Republic in 1974.
- Wider context: French Revolution, Risorgimento, the World Wars, interwar dictatorships, the Cold War and decolonisation.
Source work: provenance before content
Ask who produced the source, when, for whom and why. Separate usefulness from reliability: a propaganda poster is poor evidence of fact but excellent evidence of intent. Note silences - whose voice is absent - and distinguish what a source states from what you infer from it.
Arguing causation
Rank long-term structures, short-term triggers and contingent decisions; refuse single-cause answers. State the criterion by which you judge one cause 'more important' (scale, duration, inevitability) before ranking.
Worked example
"How far did the 1565 Siege explain the later growth of Valletta?" Set the criterion first: a cause must be necessary and substantial. Evidence for: the siege exposed the indefensibility of Birgu and the need to command the Grand Harbour from Mount Sciberras. Countervailing: La Valette's personal decision to build, papal and Spanish financing, and the commercial pull of the harbour. Judgement: the siege supplied the strategic motive, but money and trade determined whether the city flourished - so it was a necessary condition, not a sufficient one.
Traps that cost marks
Answering "how far" with a simple yes; quoting a source as though it were fact; mixing 1800 (French expulsion) with 1814 (formal British recognition); conflating 1921 self-government with 1964 Independence; ignoring the second half of a two-part question.