![]() The plague arrived in the Maltese Islands by infected crew members on board ships sailing from Alexandria to Malta. Marsamxett Harbour and the Lazzaretto, 1906 ![]() The plague had spread to Alexandria in Egypt, and by January 1813 the authorities in Malta had been aware of this outbreak. The source of the 1813–1814 epidemic is believed to have been an outbreak that began in Constantinople in 1812. During the plague outbreak, the islands underwent a political change from a protectorate to a crown colony. In 1813 Malta was a British protectorate and it was undergoing a financial and demographic boom due to the war economy and the presence of the Royal Navy, the relocation of British factories from Palermo, Naples and Livorno to the islands, and the free port status which meant that Malta was well-connected with other Mediterranean harbours. The latter was the most severe, having killed some 11,300 people. Bubonic plague outbreaks had occurred in Malta in 1592–1593, 1623, 16–1676. The second plague pandemic began with the Black Death in the 14th century, and it continued to recur until the 19th century. 5.4 Religious and superstitious beliefs.2.3 Spread throughout the rest of Malta.Containment measures were imposed immediately, limiting the spread and resulting in a much lower mortality rate in Gozo. However, the disease was inadvertently introduced to Gozo through contaminated clothes in February, and another outbreak occurred in the village of Xagħra. The epidemic began to subside by late 1813 and it was believed to be over by January 1814. The outbreak was particularly severe in the capital Valletta and its suburb Floriana, and in the villages of Birkirkara, Qormi and Żebbuġ. Violations of these regulations were met with harsh penalties including death, and several people were executed for concealing their infection. The urban area around the Grand Harbour was isolated from the rest of the island, and settlements with high mortality rates were cordoned off. The British colonial government took strict measures in order to contain the plague, although this was done too late to prevent the outbreak from spreading in its early stages. ![]() The disease appeared in the city in mid-April, and the outbreak was severe by mid-May. Some of its crew members had contracted the disease and died, and although the vessel and crew were quarantined, the disease spread to the local population since infected cargo from the vessel was stolen and sold in Valletta. The disease was imported to Malta from Alexandria on board the brigantine San Nicola in late March 1813. The plague outbreak had begun in Constantinople in 1812 and it spread to other parts of the Ottoman Empire, including Egypt. It resulted in approximately 4500 deaths, which was about 5% of the islands' population. It occurred between March 1813 and January 1814 on Malta and between February and May 1814 on Gozo, and the epidemic was officially declared to be over in September 1814. The 1813–1814 Malta plague epidemic ( Maltese: il-pandemija tal-pesta tal-1813–1814) was the last major outbreak of plague on the islands of Malta and Gozo. Class=notpageimage| Map showing the most severe locations of the outbreak ![]()
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