The Ionian Islands were an overseas possession of the Republic of Venice from the mid-14th century until the late 18th century. The conquest of the islands took place gradually. The first to be acquired was Cythera and the neighboring islet of Anticythera, indirectly in 1238 and directly after 1363. In 1386 the Council of Corfu, which was the governing body of the island, voted to make Corfu a vassal of Venice. During the Venetian period the Council remained the most powerful institution on the island. A century later, Venice captured Zante in 1485, Cephalonia in 1500 and Ithaca in 1503. These three islands modelled their administration on Corfu's model and formed their own councils. The conquest was completed in 1718 with the capture of Lefkada. Each of the islands remained part of the Venetian Stato da Màr until Napoleon Bonaparte dissolved the Republic of Venice in 1797. The Ionian Islands are situated in the Ionian Sea, off the west coast of Greece. Cythera, the southernmost, is just off the southern tip of the Peloponnese and Corfu, the northernmost, is located at the entrance of the Adriatic Sea. It is believed that the Venetian period on the Ionian Islands was generally prosperous, especially compared with the coinciding Tourkokratia — Turkish rule over the remainder of present-day Greece.Tsitselis, p. 529.
The governor of the Ionian Islands during the Venetian period was the Provveditore generale da Mar, who resided on Corfu. Additionally, each island's authorities were divided into the Venetian and the domestic authorities. The economy of the islands was based on exporting local goods, primarily raisins, olive oil and wine, whereas Venetian lira, the currency of Venice, was also the currency of the islands. Some features of the culture of Venice were incorporated in the culture of the Ionian Islands, thus influencing to this day local music, cuisine and language.
Relations between Venice and Byzantium
Venice was founded in 421 after the destruction of nearby communities by the Huns and the Lombards. In the shifting Italian borders of the following centuries, Venice benefited from remaining under the control of the Roman Empire - increasingly as the furthest Northwestern outpost of the now Constantinople centered power. During Justinian I's reconquest of Italy from the Visigoths, Venice was an increasingly important stronghold for the Empire's Exarchate of Ravenna.Thiriet, p. 32. The political centre of the exarchate, and the most senior military officials of the Empire, were situated in Ravenna.Mauskopf Deliyannis, p. 278.Grafton, Most & Settis, p. 806. The subordinate military officials who were their representatives in the Venetian lagoons were called tribunes, and only in about AD 697 were the lagoons made a separate military command under a ().Lane, p. 4. Notwithstanding the election of the first , vassalic evidence such as honours and orders received by the doge from the Emperor implies that Venice was considered part of the Byzantine Empire even after the capture of Ravenna by the Lombards.Lane, p. 5. Despite the (803), which recognised Venice as Byzantine territory, the influence of the Eastern Roman Emperor slowly faded away. By 814 Venice functioned as a fully independent republic.Luttwak, p. 151. Even so, Venice became a partner of the Empire and trading privileges were granted to it by the Emperors via treaties,Nicol, p. 16. such as the Byzantine–Venetian Treaty of 1082.
The Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) was initially intended to invade Muslim-controlled areas; instead, the Crusaders attacked the capital of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople, resulting in the temporary dissolution of the empire and the sack of its capital.Laiou, p. 154. As Venice was one of the participants in the Crusade its relations with the Byzantine Empire were strained during this period.Nicol, p. 66. Moreover, by styling themselves "Lord of one-quarter and one-eighth of the whole Empire of Romania" after the Crusade, the Doges of Venice contributed to the deterioration of the relations between the two states.Nicol, p. 254. Efforts to improve relations, for example through the Nicaean–Venetian Treaty of 1219, proved unsuccessful.Novoselova, p. 547. A period of friendly relations only followed the Sicilian Vespers in 1282, when Venice, foreseeing the fall of Charles, the French King of Sicily, began forming closer relations with Byzantium.Novoselova, p. 599. Venice had been bound by an alliance with Charles against Byzantium in 1281.
Appellation
The Islands were referred to, both individually and collectively, by various names. After Venice captured Cephalonia on 24 December 1500, the administration of the defense of all the islands was delegated to an official seated in Corfu. This official was being referred to as "the General of the Three Islands" () and resided at the fortress of Angelokastro from 1387 to the end of the 16th century.Archivio di Stato di Venezia, p. 5. The Three Islands refer to Corfu, Zante and Cephalonia. The Venetian equivalent for "Ionian Islands" is , the Italian being and the Greek in Modern Greek and in .
Below are the seven principal islands from north to south, including their Greek and Italian names in parentheses:
Corfu (; )Fréchet, Meghraoui & Stucchi, p. 44. Paxos (; )Smyth, p. 53. Lefkada (; or ) Cephalonia ( or ; ) Ithaca ( or ; , or )Soreide, p. 48. Zante (; or ), see the long account here Cythera (; )Macmillan, p. 84.
Cythera and Lefkada were additionally called or and respectively by the Ottomans.Davies & Davis, p. 37., p. 240.
History
Roman and Byzantine period During the Roman Empire, the Ionian Islands were variously part of the provinces of Achaea and Epirus vetus.Kazhdan, p. 1007. These would form, with the exception of Cythera, the Byzantine theme of Cephallenia in the late 8th century.Zakythinos, p. 529. From the late 11th century, the Ionian Islands became a battleground in the Byzantine–Norman Wars. The island of Corfu was held by the Normans in 1081–1085 and 1147–1149, while the Venetians unsuccessfully besieged it in 1122–1123. The island of Cephalonia was also unsuccessfully besieged in 1085, but was plundered in 1099 by the Pisans and in 1126 by the Venetians.Soustal & Koder, p. 56–57, 176. Finally, Corfu and the rest of the theme, except for Lefkada, were captured by the Normans under William II of Sicily in 1185. Although Corfu was recovered by the Byzantines by 1191, the other islands henceforth remained lost to Byzantium, and formed a County palatine of Cephalonia and Zakynthos under William's Greek admiral Margaritus of Brindisi.Kazhdan, p. 1123.Soustal & Koder, p. 58, 176. Count Palatine Dynasties of Cephalonia and Zakynthos
The Following the Fourth Crusade and the signature of the , Corfu came under Venetian rule.Herrin & Saint-Guillain, p. 82. In 1207 though, doge Pietro Ziani ceded the island as a to ten Venetian nobles, provided that they demonstrate loyalty and devotion and that they pay taxes.Miller, p. 88. Corfu passed in the hands of the Despotate of Epirus around 1214, and was captured in 1257 by Manfred of Sicily, who put his admiral Philippe Chinard there in charge of his eastern possessions. Nonetheless, with the defeat of Manfred at Benevento and the signature of the Treaty of Viterbo on 27 May 1267, Corfu became a possession of the Angevin Kingdom of Naples.Nicol, p. 401–402. Meanwhile, the rest of the islands continued to form part of the County palatine,Tsitselis, p. 400.Mercati, p. 17-18. which throughout its existence was governed by three families: the Orsini (whose relation to the Roman Orsini family is unattestedAndreas Kiesewetter, Preludio alla Quarta Crociata? Megareites di Brindisi, Maio di Cefalonia e la signoria sulle isole ionie (1185-1250), in Gherardo Ortalli, Giorgio Ravegnani, Peter Schreiner, Quarta Crociata. Venezia - Bisanzio - Impero latino, Venice, 2006, p.340–42), the House of Anjou and the Tocco family.Haberstumpf, p. 57–70. The rule of the family of Tocco lasted for 122 years, up until 1479, when Ottomans captured Cephalonia, Zante, Lefkada and Ithaca.
The Venetian conquest On 13 February 1386 Corfu became once more a Venetian possession and this time Venetian rule would last until the end of the Republic.Durrell, p. 95. This was accomplished voluntarily by the people of Corfu.Durrell, p. 160. On 10 May, the Corfiotes appointed five ambassadors to submit to the Venetian senate. The Ottomans made several attempts to capture Corfu, the first of which was in 1537.Black, p. 56. This attack led Venice to an alliance with the Pope and Emperor Charles V, known as the Holy League, against the Ottoman Empire.Isom-Verhaaren, p. 40. Another major unsuccessful Ottoman attack was that of July 1716.A History of the Ottoman Empire to 1730, p. 210.
After the partition of the Byzantine Empire in 1204, Cythera fell into Venetian hands in 1238 through the marriage of Marco Venier with the daughter of the Greek lord of the island. Cythera and Anticythera constituted part of the for the first time in 1363 followed by an interruption of a three-year Turkish rule, between 1715 and 1718.Maltezou, p. 33. With the Treaty of Passarowitz Cythera and Anticythera passed to the Venetian Republic and remained under its control until its fall, in 1797.Miller, p. 633–638.
The Turkish rule in the three islands of Cephalonia, Zante and Ithaca was short-lived. In 1481, two years after the beginning of the Turkish rule, Antonio Tocco invaded and briefly occupied Cephalonia and Zante but he was soon driven out by the Venetians.Babinger, p. 384. Zante was officially recovered by the Venetians in 1485.Ward, p. 26.McCabe, Harlaftis & Minoglou, p. 98.Setton, p. 515. Then, Cephalonia, after sixteen years of Turkish occupation (1484–1500), became part of the on 24 December 1500, with the Siege of the Castle of St. George. Finally, Ithaca, following the fate of Cephalonia, was conquered by Venice in 1503.Scammell, p. 119.
Ithaca had become depopulated and rewilded during the period of Turkish rule. In 1504, the Venetians ordered official the repopulation of Ithaca with tax incentives to attract settlers from neighbouring islands. The Venetian authorities found the island was already being repopulated by members of the Galatis family, who laid claim to it as their property, having received rights over Ithaca under the Tocco regime.
However, according to historians, the island received a great population revival in the period before and after the fall of Khandaka (Heraclion) when numerous people from Crete arrived there as well as the noble Karavia family, a branch of the ancient Kallergi family. This family and its followers inhabited settlements on the island, received fiefs from the Venetian Senate and indulged in a tremendously profitable maritime trade as well as piracy against the Ottomans. According to the French traveler Leake during the 18th century the families of Karavia (Latin: Caravia), Petalas and Dendrinos constituted the three main factions of the island, with the Karavia family controlling its most productive part.