Europe is the ancestral home of a majority of Americans, yet we know surprisingly little about the countries of europe. Sure, we all know England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain - but how much do we know about Estonia, Belarus, Malta and Slovenia? These minor countries of europe are nonetheless ancestral homes of millions of Americans, each rich in history in its own right, and each of these countries of europe are worth getting to know - or even better, getting to visit.
Take the Republic of Malta, for examplle. It's a southern European country... that is actually an island in the mediterranean sea halfway between Italy and North Africa. It's a meeting point of cultures, with Sicily just 100 kilometers to the north and Tunisia, one of the largest and most important cultural centers of North Africa, just under three hundred kilometers to the south.
And Malta is unique in the way it reflects the influences of both of these cultures. English is the actually the co-official language of Malta, along with Maltese. What makes Maltese unique is that it's a Semitic language, meaning it comes from the middle east. Maltese is the only semitic language that is an official language of a country outside the midddle east.
And it's a language that's alive. About 20% of the maltese vocabulary comes from English, while half of it is borrowed from Italian. Yet the formation and base of the language, the grammar itself, sounds much more like its close relations - Arabic and Hebrew.
Malta has been one of the most strategic countries of europe, since its location was that of a crossroads of cultures. Everyone from the Phoenicians, to the Romans, to the Fatimids, to the French and British have, at one time or another, ruled the Maltese archipelago. The most recent to do so was the United Kingdom, which granted Malta its independence in 1964. Malta is still a part of the commonwealth, and joined the European union in 2004.
In spite of its semitic national language, rule by the Fatimids and proximity to the Arab world, Malta actually has a long Christian history - beginning in the bible, where legend has it that St. Paul was shipwrecked on the island. As a result, Catholicism is still the official religion of Malta, and the dominant one at that.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the countries of europe. There are nearly a hundred others with unique, fascinating histories - just like Malta.