United States of the Ionian Islands

British protectorate in western Greece (1815–1864)

United States of the Ionian Islands

Ἡνωμένον Κράτος τῶν Ἰονίων Νήσων (Greek)
Inoménon-Krátos ton Ioníon Níson
Stati Uniti delle Isole Ionie (Italian)

1815–1864

Flag

Coat of arms

The Republic's territory extended to the seven main islands plus the smaller islets of the Ionian Sea

Status| Protectorate of the British Empire
Capital| Corfu
Official languages|

* Greek
* English (until 1851)
* Italian (until 1851)

Common languages| Venetian
Religion

| Greek Orthodox
Government| Federal oligarchy
Monarch/Protector|

• 1815–1820

| George III

• 1820–1830

| George IV

• 1830–1837

| William IV

• 1837–1864

| Victoria
Lord High Commissioner|

• 1816–1824

| Sir Thomas Maitland (first)

• 1859–1864

| Sir Henry Knight Storks (last)
President of the Senate|
Legislature| Parliament

• Upper house

| Ionian Senate (executive)b

• Lower house

| Ionian Assembly
Historical era| 19th century

• Congress of Vienna

| 9 June 1815 (signed)

• Protectorate established

| 9 November 1815

• Constitution

| 26 August 1817

• Resolution for union with Greece

| 26 November 1850

• Treaty of London

| 29 March 1864

• Union with Greece

| 21 May 1864
Area
1864[1]| 4,696 km2 (1,813 sq mi)
Population

• 1864[1]

| 236,000
Currency| Obol (1818–1864)

Preceded by | Succeeded by

|

|  | French rule in the Ionian Islands

|

| Kingdom of Greece |

|

Ioannina Eyalet |
Today part of|  Greece

^ Italian was used as the official language of administration during the first Parliament only.

^ The Senate is listed in the Constitution as the Executive branch of government. It shared legislative power with the Legislative Assembly, and in some British sources it appears as the Executive Council.[2][3]

References: Capital city;[4] languages.[5][6]

The United States of the Ionian Islands[a] was a Greek state and amical protectorate of the United Kingdom between 1815 and 1864. The successor state of the Septinsular Republic, it covered the territory of the Ionian Islands, as well as the port of Parga on the Greek mainland. It was ceded by the British to Greece as a gift to the newly enthroned King George I,[7] apart from Parga, which had been sold to Ali Pasha of Ioannina in 1819.[8]

## History

[edit]

Before the French Revolutionary Wars, the Ionian Islands had been part of the Republic of Venice. When the 1797 Treaty of Campo Formio dissolved the Republic of Venice, they were annexed to the French Republic. Between 1798 and 1799, the French were driven out by a joint Russo-Ottoman force.

After the War of the Fourth Coalition, the Ionian Islands were occupied by the French Empire as stipulated in the Treaty of Tilsit. In 1809, Britain defeated the French fleet off Zakynthos island on 2 October, and captured Kefalonia, Kythira, and Zakynthos. The British proceeded to capture Lefkada in 1810.

Under the Treaty between Great Britain and [Austria, Prussia and] Russia, respecting the Ionian Islands (signed in Paris on 5 November 1815), as one of the treaties signed during the Peace of Paris (1815), Britain obtained a protectorate over the Ionian Islands, and under Article VIII of the treaty the Austrian Empire was granted the same trading privileges with the Islands as Britain.[9]

During this period, the British brought thousands of Maltese labourers to the Ionian Islands to work as builders and artisans, forming the basis of the Corfiot Maltese community.

A few years later Greek nationalist groups started to form. Although their energy in the early years was directed to supporting their fellow Greek revolutionaries in the revolution against the Ottoman Empire, they switched their focus to enosis with Greece following their independence. The Party of Radicals (Greek: Κόμμα των Ριζοσπαστών) was founded in 1848 as a pro-enosis political party. In September 1848, there were skirmishes with the British garrison in Argostoli and Lixouri on Kefalonia. The island's populace did not hide their growing demands for enosis, and newspapers on the islands frequently published articles criticising British policies in the protectorate. On 15 August 1849, another rebellion broke out, which was quashed by Henry George Ward, who proceeded to temporarily impose martial law.[10]

On 26 November 1850, the Radical MP John Detoratos Typaldos proposed in the Ionian parliament the resolution for the enosis of the Ionian Islands with the Kingdom of Greece which was signed by Gerasimos Livadas, Nadalis Domeneginis, George Typaldos, Frangiskos Domeneginis, Ilias Zervos Iakovatos, Iosif Momferatos, Telemachus Paizis, Ioannis Typaldos, Aggelos Sigouros-Dessyllas, Christodoulos Tofanis. In 1862, the party split into two factions, the "United Radical Party" and the "Real Radical Party". During this period of British rule, William Ewart Gladstone visited the islands and recommended their reunion with Greece, to the chagrin of the British government.[citation needed]

On 29 March 1864, representatives of the United Kingdom, Greece, France, and Russia signed the Treaty of London, pledging the transfer of sovereignty to Greece upon ratification; this was meant to bolster the reign of the newly installed King George I of the Hellenes. Thus, on 28 May, by proclamation of the Lord High Commissioner, the Ionian Islands were united with Greece.[11]

## Languages

[edit]

As a result of the long Venetian domination, the Italian language was the language of government, science, and the upper classes, even though the vast majority of the Islanders were monolingual Greek-speakers.[12] The replacement of Italian by Greek was envisaged in the second constitution of the Septinsular Republic in 1803 to take place over time by 1820, but the French occupation in 1807 and the succeeding turmoils prevented this from taking place.[13]

After 1814, the British rulers of the Islands published the government gazette in both languages, with Italian initially first, but pushed to second place in 1832 and third place after the introduction of English in 1836.[14] The 1817 constitution of the British protectorate was also written in Italian, but specified Greek as the "national" language and stipulated that all public affairs should come to be conducted in it, while Italian was allowed to remain in use in the interim.[15] However, it was not until 1849 that the Ionian Assembly began holding its sessions in Greek,[16] 1851 that the Ionian legal codes (originally published in Italian in 1841) were translated into Greek,[17] and 1852 that Greek was established as the sole official language.[18]

## States

[edit]

The British royal arms surrounded by the emblems of the seven Ionian Islands. From top, clockwise: Corfu, Zakynthos, Ithaca, Paxos, Kythira, Lefkada, Cephalonia.

The United States of the Ionian Islands was a federation. It included seven island states, each of which was allocated a number of seats in the parliament, the Ionian Senate:

State  | Capital  | Members elected

|
|

Corfu | Corfu | 7
Cephalonia | Argostoli | 7
Cythera | Kythira | 1 or 2[19]
Ithaca | Vathy | 1 or 2[19]
Paxos | Gaios | 1 or 2[19]
Lefkada | Lefkada | 4
Zakynthos | Zakynthos | 7

## Government

[edit]

Ionian two-oboli coin, 1819 30 oboli, Ionian Islands, 1862

The British organised administration under the direction of a Lord High Commissioner, appointed by the British government. In total, ten men served in this capacity, including William Gladstone as a Lord High Commissioner Extraordinary (in office 1858–1859).

The Ionian Islands had a bicameral legislature, titled the "Parliament of the United States of the Ionian Islands" and composed of a Legislative Assembly and Senate.[20]

The 1818 constitution also established a High Court of Appeal to be called the Supreme Council of Justice of the United States of the Ionian Islands, of which the president was to be known as the Chief Justice, who would rank in precedence immediately after the President of the Senate.

The successive Chief Justices were:

* John Kirkpatrick 1820–1835
* Sir James John Reid 1837–?
* Sir Charles Sargent 1860–?
* Sir Patrick MacChombaich de Colquhoun 1861–1864

## See also

[edit]

* List of Greek countries and regions
* List of Lord High Commissioners of the Ionian Islands
* Order of St Michael and St George, a British order of chivalry created in honour of the protectorate.

## Footnotes

[edit]

1. ^ Greek: Ἡνωμένον Κράτος τῶν Ἰονίων Νήσων, romanized: Inoménon-Krátos ton Ioníon Níson, lit. 'United State of the Ionian Islands'; Italian: Stati Uniti delle Isole Ionie

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b "Treaty of London". Greek Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Archived from the original on 8 March 2005. Retrieved 21 July 2006. "The Ionian Islands were formally united with the Kingdom of Greece on 2 June 1864. This was the first expansion of the Greek kingdom since its foundation. The national territory increased by 1,813 square miles and the population by 236,000."
2. ^ Fieldhouse, David (1985). Select Documents on the Constitutional History of the British Empire and Commonwealth: "The Empire of the Bretaignes," 1175–1688. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 679\. ISBN 9780313238970.
3. ^ Fitzroy, Charles (1850). Ionian Islands. Letters by Lord C. Fitzroy and documents from other sources, on past and recent events in the Ionian Islands; shewing the anomalous political and financial condition of those States. p. 115.
4. ^ Constitution of the Ionian Islands, Article II
5. ^ Constitution of the Ionian Islands, Article IV
6. ^ Constitution of the Ionian Islands, Article V
7. ^ The Times (London) 8 June 1863 p. 12 col. C
8. ^ "::[ History of Parga | Prefecture of Preveza ]::".
9. ^ Hammond, Richard James (1966). Portugal and Africa, 1815–1910 : a study in uneconomic imperialism. Stanford University Press. p. 2. ISBN 0-8047-0296-9.
10. ^ "British Occupation". Archived from the original on 6 May 2021. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
11. ^ Hertslet, Edward. The map of Europe by treaty (PDF). p. 1609. Retrieved 21 July 2006.
12. ^ Mackridge 2014, pp. 68–69.
13. ^ Mackridge 2014, pp. 71–72.
14. ^ Mackridge 2014, p. 75.
15. ^ Mackridge 2014, pp. 73–74.
16. ^ Mackridge 2014, pp. 85–86.
17. ^ Mackridge 2014, p. 84.
18. ^ Mackridge 2014, pp. 76, 86–88.
19. ^ a b c Cythera, Ithaca, and Paxos each elected one member, but the three elected a second member in rotation. Constitution of the Ionian Islands, Article IV
20. ^ Constitution of the Ionian Islands, Article VII

## Further reading

[edit]

* Gekas, Sakis (2016). Xenocracy: State, Class, and Colonialism in the Ionian Islands, 1815–1864. Berghahn Books. ISBN 9781785332623.
* Hannell, David. "The Ionian Islands under the British Protectorate: social and economic problems." Journal of Modern Greek Studies 7.1 (1989): 105–132. online
* Hannell, David. "A Case of Bad Publicity: Britain and the Ionian Islands, 1848–51." European History Quarterly 17.2 (1987): 131–143.
* Knox, Bruce. "British policy and the Ionian Islands, 1847–1864: nationalism and imperial administration." English Historical Review 99.392 (1984): 503–529.
* Mackridge, Peter (2014). "Venise après Venise: Official Languages in the Ionian Islands, 1797–1864". Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies. 38 (1): 68–90\. doi:10.1179/0307013113Z.00000000038.
* Moschonas, Nikolaos (1975). "Τα Ιόνια Νησιά κατά την περίοδο 1797–1821" [The Ionian Islands in the period 1797–1821]. In Christopoulos, Georgios A. & Bastias, Ioannis K. (eds.). Ιστορία του Ελληνικού Έθνους, Τόμος ΙΑ΄: Ο Ελληνισμός υπό ξένη κυριαρχία (περίοδος 1669 - 1821), Τουρκοκρατία - Λατινοκρατία [History of the Greek Nation, Volume XI: Hellenism under Foreign Rule (Period 1669 - 1821), Turkocracy – Latinocracy] (in Greek). Athens: Ekdotiki Athinon. pp. 382–402\. ISBN 978-960-213-100-8.
* Pagratis, Gerassimos D. "The Ionian Islands under British Protection (1815–1864)." in Anglo-Saxons in the Mediterranean. Commerce, Politics and Ideas (XVII–XX Centuries), (Malta, 2007) pp: 131–150. online[dead link]
* Paschalidi, Maria. "Constructing Ionian identities: the Ionian Islands in British official discourses; 1815–1864" (PhD dissertation, UCL (University College London), 2010. online
* Schumacher, Leslie Rogne. "Greek Expectations: Britain and the Ionian Islands, 1815–64." in Imperial Expectations and Realities: El Dorados, Utopias and Dystopias, edited by Andrekos Varnava, (Manchester University Press, 2015), pp. 47–65. [www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1wn0scs.8 online]

## External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to United States of the Ionian Islands.

English Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Treaty between Great Britain and Russia, etc. respecting the Ionian Islands; signed at Paris 5th November 1815.

* "Constitution of the Ionian Islands". University of Kassel. Retrieved 21 July 2006.[permanent dead link]
* "Constitution of the Ionian Islands" in Italian
* "Territories of the British Empire, History of the Ionian Islands". David Rumsey Map Collection. Retrieved 2 July 2014.

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