Imagine thinking you were entitled to a reward for supporting and engaging in slavery…
But without slaves, how will I profit???
That is how it went in the other colonial empires, including Britain though. In fact while the UK abolished slavery in 1837, it only finished paying off its debt of reparation to slaveowners in 2015.
But it should be mentioned that Napoleon also reinstated slavery after he became emperor, so I highly doubt he abolished it on Malta for personal convictions.
In 1825 the French King said he would recognize the independence of Haiti if they paid reparations to France for the loss of all of the slaves in Haiti. They didn’t finish paying off the loans they took out to pay France back until 1947.
This set Haiti back financially even to this day. France you should have to pay that back with interest, reparations for slavery seems pretty indefensible.
The French looting and general assholery also lead to Malta being the only place to ask to join the British empire.
Wasn’t malta also asked to join Russian empire?
