High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Siege of Malta was a two-year siege and blockade of the French garrison in Valletta, the largest city and main port on the Mediterranean island of Malta between 1798 and 1800. Valletta had been captured by a French expeditionary force during the Mediterranean campaign of 1798, and garrisoned with 3,000 men under the command of Claude-Henri Belgrand de Vaubois. When the French Mediterranean Fleet was destroyed at the Battle of the Nile on 1 August 1798, the British Royal Navy was able to initiate a blockade of Malta, assisted by an uprising among the native Maltese population against French rule. Forced to retreat to Valletta, the French garrison faced severe food shortages, exacerbated by the effectiveness of the British blockade: although small quantities of supplies arrived in early 1799, there was no further traffic until early 1800, by which time starvation and disease was having a disastrous effect on health, morale, and combat capability of the French troops.