The Ionian cities on the coast of Asia Minor bore collectively
the name Ionia, though no national union was signified by the
designation.
See ASIA MINOR: THE GREEK COLONIES, and after.
IONIAN (DELIAN) CONFEDERACY, The.
See GREECE: B. C. 478-477;
and ATHENS: B. C. 466-454, and after.
----------IONIAN ISLANDS: Start--------
IONIAN ISLANDS:
To 1814.
Under Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Venetian and French rule.
"Acarnania, as a glance at the map will show, is the most
western part of continental Greece. But in close proximity to
the mainland there stretch along the west coast a number of
islands, some of them of considerable area, the history and
traditions of which are inseparably intertwined with those of
Hellas. They have long been known as the Ionian Islands,
deriving the name, in all likelihood, from the sea in which
they are situated; for their ancient inhabitants were not, so
far as is known, of Ionic descent.
{1753}
They are very numerous, but only six of them are of
any historic importance. The most northerly is Corcyra
(Corfu), a long, narrow island, which extends like a lofty
breakwater in front of the coast of Epirus." The other five
are Paxos (Paxo), Leucadia (Santa Maura), Cephallenia
(Cephalonia), Ithaca (Thiaki), Zacynthus (Zante), and Cythera
(Cerigo). "Though not the largest, Corcyra is the most
populous and important of the islands. It has a place in the
mythic tradition, and a still greater one in the ascertained
history, of ancient Hellas.
See KORKYRA;
also, GREECE: B. C. 435-432, and 432.
… With the other islands in the Ionian Sea, Corcyra passed
under the dominion of Rome, and subsequently became part of
the Eastern Empire. In 540 A. D. the fleet of the Gothic
leader Totila ravaged the coasts of the island, but did not
capture the city, the fortifications of which had been greatly
strengthened by the Romans. Five centuries later the island
and its capital fell into the hands of a more formidable
invader—the Norman Robert Guiscard, who captured them on his
way from Italy to prosecute that invasion of the Byzantine
Empire which was at one time so nearly attended with success.
The first Norman supremacy did not last long; but in 1144 A.
D., Roger, the Norman king of Sicily, took occasion of a
rising of the Corcyreans (or, as they now began to be called,
the Corfiotes) against the Byzantine Emperor Manuel to
introduce a garrison into the city. Four years later Manuel,
who was an energetic and warlike prince, laid siege to Corfu,
and was assisted by the Venetians. The Norman garrison offered
a most determined resistance, but were ultimately obliged to
surrender on honourable terms. After the overthrow of the
Byzantine emperors, in the early part of the 13th century,
Corfu, with the other Ionian Islands, became part of the
dominions of the Venetian republic, and so continued, with
brief intervals, for nearly 500 years. The Venetian rule was
on the whole favourable to the material prosperity of the
island: it was admirably cultivated, and became the centre of
a large commerce. Unlike most of the other possessions of
Venice in the eastern Mediterranean, Corfu never fell into the
hands of the Turks. They overran and ravaged the island in
1537, carrying off, according to their custom, many of the
young women and children as slaves; and they besieged the
capital, but its fortifications had been much strengthened by
the Venetians, and the garrison was able to offer a successful
resistance. In 1716 another memorable siege [see TURKS: A. D.
1714-1718] took place, during the war in which Sultan Achmet
III. engaged with Austria and the Venetian republic. A large
Ottoman army under Kara Mustapha beleaguered Corfu; but the
garrison was commanded by a distinguished soldier, Count
Schulemburg, who baffled an the efforts of the Turks, and at
last compelled them to withdraw to their ships after they had
lost 15,000 men. By the Treaty of Campo Formio, dictated in
1797 to Austria by Napoleon after his marvellous Italian
campaign, the Ionian Islands were transferred to France [see
FRANCE: A. D. 1797 (MAY-OCTOBER)], the rest of the Venetian
territories falling to the share of Austria. The French
garrisons were, however, expelled in 1799 by a Russo-Turkish
expedition, and the islands constituted a republic [called the
Republic of the Seven Islands]. But in 1807, when the course
of events had changed Russia into an ally of the French
emperor, the latter again obtained possession of the islands
under the Treaty of Tilsit. The English, being masters of the
Mediterranean, soon drove the French out of all the islands
except Corfu. This was under French rule till 1814; and it is
only fair to say that they did much for the improvement of the
island, constructing some substantial roads in the interior.
In 1814, during the general cataclysm of the gigantic empire
of Napoleon, the French garrison was driven out of the island
after a gallant resistance, and in the following year the
Ionian Islands were reconstituted a republic under British
protection and supremacy."
_C. H. Hanson,
The Land of Greece,
chapter 4._
IONIAN ISLANDS: A. D. 1815-1862.
The British protectorate.
Its relinquishment.
Annexation to the kingdom of Greece.
"These seven islands [the Ionian] were constituted a sort of
republic or commonwealth by the Treaty of Vienna [1815]. But
they were consigned to the protectorate of Great Britain;
which had the right of maintaining garrisons in them. Great
Britain used to appoint a Lord High Commissioner, who was
generally a military man, and whose office combined the duties
of Commander-in-Chief with those of Civil Governor. The little
republic had a Senate of six members and a Legislative
Assembly of forty members. It seems almost a waste of words to
say that the islanders were not content with British
government. For good or ill, the Hellenes, wherever they are
found, are sure to be filled with an impassioned longing for
Hellenic independence. The people of the Ionian Islands were
eager to be allowed to enter into one system with the kingdom
of Greece. It was idle to try to amuse them by telling them
they constituted an independent republic, and were actually
governing themselves, … while they saw themselves presided
over by an English Lord High Commissioner who was also the
Commander-in-Chief of a goodly British army garrisoned in
their midst. … It is certain that they got a great deal of
material benefit from the presence of the energetic
road-making British power. But they wanted to be, above all
things, Greek. … Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton [who was
then—1858—Secretary for the Colonies in the British
Government] … thought the causes of the complaints and the
dissatisfaction were well worth looking into, and he resolved
on sending a statesman of distinction out to the islands to
make the enquiry. Mr. Gladstone had been for some years out of
office. He had been acting as an independent supporter of Lord
Palmerston's Government. It occurred to Sir Edward Bulwer
Lytton that Mr. Gladstone was the man best fitted to conduct
the enquiry. … He offered, therefore, to Mr. Gladstone the
office of Lord High Commissioner Extraordinary to the Ionian
Islands, and Mr. Gladstone accepted the offer and its duties."
Arriving in Corfu in November, 1858, "he called together the
Senate, and endeavoured to satisfy them as to the real nature
of his mission. He explained that he had not come there to
discuss the propriety of maintaining the English protectorate,
but only to enquire into the manner in which the just claims
of the Ionian Islands might be secured by means of that
protectorate."
{1754}
But "the population of the islands persisted in regarding him,
not as the commissioner of a Conservative English Government,
but as 'Gladstone the Philhellene.' He was received wherever
he went with the honours due to a liberator. … The visit of
Mr. Gladstone, whatever purpose it may have been intended to
fulfil, had the effect of making them [the Ionians] agitate
more strenuously than ever for annexation to the kingdom of
Greece. Their wish, however, was not to be granted yet. A new
Lord High Commissioner was sent out after Mr. Gladstone's
return. … Still … the idea held ground that sooner or
later Great Britain would give up the charge of the islands. A
few years after, an opportunity occurred for making the
cession. The Greeks got rid quietly of their heavy German king
Otho [see GREECE: A. D. 1830-1862], and on the advice chiefly
of England they elected as sovereign a brother of the Princess
of Wales. … The second son of the King of Denmark was made
King of Greece; and Lord John Russell, on behalf of the
English Government, then [1862] handed over to the kingdom of
Greece the islands of which Great Britain had had so long to
bear the unwilling charge."
_J. McCarthy,
History of our Own Times,
chapter 39 (volume 3)._
----------IONIAN ISLANDS: End--------
IONIAN REVOLT, The.
See PERSIA: B. C. 521-493.
IONIANS, The.
See DORIANS AND IONIANS.