Venetian Ionian Islands

Origins

In 1386 Corfu, previously under the Angevins of Naples, placed itself under Venetian protection; Venice formally bought the rights in 1402. It later added Zakynthos (1485), Cephalonia and Ithaca (1500) and finally Lefkada (1684), while Kythira was already Venetian, gaining control over the sea route between the Adriatic and the eastern Mediterranean.

Rule and society

A Venetian provveditore generale in Corfu governed with local councils of island nobles registered in a Golden Book. Italian became the language of administration and the elite, while the majority stayed Greek Orthodox. Olive oil and currants were the main exports. Corfu's fortresses withstood Ottoman sieges in 1537 and 1716, the latter under Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg.

Decline and legacy

When Napoleon ended the Venetian Republic in 1797, the Treaty of Campo Formio gave the islands to France, creating the French Ionian Islands. Their distinct Italian-Greek culture survived into the Septinsular Republic and British rule.