During the First World War Malta did not take an active part in the fighting. Britain was joined in an ‘entente’ a friendship agreement with France since 1904 and later with Russia in 1907. On the other hand Germany was allied to the Austrian- Hungerian Empire, hence when the Great War started in July 1914 there were France, Britain and Russia on one side and Germany and Austria-Hungary on the other. The British fleet “ruled the waves”, hence with France and Britain as allies, to be joined later by Italy, the Mediterranean was more or less an allied lake, with Malta in the centre.peer-reviewe
