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. The occupying forces founded the Septinsular Republic, which enjoyed relative independence under nominal Ottoman suzerainty and Russian control from 1800 until 1807. The Ionian Islands were then occupied by the French after 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 took Lefkada in 1810. The island of Corfu remained occupied by the French until 1814. Under the Wikisource:Treaty between Great Britain and Russia, respecting the Ionian Islands|Treaty between Great Britain and Russia, respecting the Ionian Islands, as one of the treaties signed during the Peace of Paris, Britain obtained a protectorate over the Ionian Islands, and under of the treaty the Austrian Empire was granted the same trading privileges with the Islands as Britain. As agreed in of the treaty a "New Constitutional Charter for the State" was drawn up and was formalised with the ratification of the "Maitland constitution" on 26 August 1817, which created a federation of the seven islands, with Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Maitland its first "Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands". A few years later resistance groups started to form. Although their energy in the early years was directed to supporting the Greeks in the revolution against the Turks, it soon started to turn towards the British. The Party of Radicals founded in 1848 was against the British occupation of the Ionian Islands and in favour of union with Greece. In September 1848 there were skirmishes with the British Army in Argostoli and Lixouri on Kefalonia, which led to some relaxation in the laws and to freedom of the press. Union with Greece was now a declared aim, and by 1849, a growing restlessness resulted in even more skirmishes. The twenty-one instigators were hanged, another 34 were jailed and 87 whipped. On 26 November 1850, the Radical MP John Detoratos Typaldos proposed in the parliament the resolution for the union of the Ionian Islands with 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. Britain responded with persecutions, arrests, imprisonments, and exile. In 1862, the party was split into two factions, the UnitedRadical Party and the Real Radical Party. On 29 March 1864, representatives of Great Britain, 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 Greece. Thus, on 28 May, by proclamation of the Lord High Commissioner, the Ionian Islands were united with Greece.
Languages
According to the second constitution of the Republic, Greek was the primary official language, in contrast to the situation in the Septinsular Republic. Italian was still in use, though, mainly for official purposes since the Venetian Republic. The only island in which Italian had a wider spread was Cephalonia, where a great number of people had adopted Venetian Italian as their first language.
States
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
Ithaca
Vathy
1 or 2
Paxos
Gaios
1 or 2
Leucas
Lefkada
4
Zakynthos
Zakynthos
7
Government
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. 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 a Senate. 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:
