IONIAN ISLANDS, the collective name for the Greek islands of Corfu, Cephalonia, Zante, Santa Maura, Ithaca, Cythera (Cerigo) and Paxo (q.v.), with their minor dependencies. These islands, though of ten described as the ("Seven Islands"), have no geographical unity. The name "Ionian" is obscure, but is probably due to ancient Ionian colonies, for example in Corfu from Eretria. The political unity of the islands is com paratively modern ; their independence as a separate state lasted only seven years (1800-7).
The Ionian islands consist almost entirely of Cretaceous and Tertiary beds, but in Corfu Jurassic deposits have been found. The oldest beds which have yet been recognized are shales and hornstones with Liassic fossils. These are overlaid conformably by a thick series of platy Viglas limestone, representing the rest of the Jurassic and the lower Cretaceous. Then follow dolomites and unbedded Hippurites limestones evidently Upper Cretaceous age. The Eocene beds are folded with the Cretaceous. Both occasionally assume the form of Flysch. Miocene beds are found in Corfu and Zante, and Pliocene deposits cover much of the low ground.
Paxo, created a barony, was treated as part of Corfu. The County Palatine of Cephalonia (with Zante), seized by Matteo Orsini in 1194, owned the suzerainty first of Venice, then of Achaia, to which it was annexed in 1324. In 1357 it was be stowed upon the Tocco family of Benevento, and was united with Santa Maura and Ithaca (called Val di Conspare) in the Duchy of Leucadia. In 1479 the Turks annexed these four islands. But they gradually became Venetian; Cephalonia and Ithaca 1483-85, and from 1500 onwards; Zante 1482 and from 1485, and Santa Maura 1502-03 and from 1684. Cerigo, a Venetian Marquisate of the Venier family from 1207, became a Venetian colony in 1363, but was parcelled out between Venice and the Venier in 1393.
The Venetians, who exacted heavy contributions from the islands, won the adherence of the principal native families by the bestowal of titles and appointments; the Roman Catholic Church was established, and the Italian and Greek races were largely assimilated by intermarriage ; Greek ceased to be spoken except by the lower classes, which remained faithful to the orthodox communion. On the fall of the Venetian republic in 1797 the Treaty of Campo Formio annexed the Ionian islands to France; but a Russo-Turkish force drove out the French at the close of 1798; and in the spring of 1799 Corfu capitulated. By treaty with the Porte in 180o, the Emperor Paul erected the "Septin sular Republic," but the Treaty of Tilsit (1807) declared the islands an integral part of the French empire. They were incorpo rated with the province of Illyria (q.v.) ; but British forces under General Oswald took Zante, Cephalonia and Cerigo in 1809, and Santa Maura in 1810; Colonel (afterwards Sir Richard) Church (q.v.), reduced Paxo in 1814; and after the abdication of Na poleon, Corfu, which had been defended by General Donzelot, was, by order of Louis XVIII. surrendered to Sir James Campbell. By the Treaty of Paris (Nov. 9, 1815) the contracting powers (Great Britain, Russia, Austria and Prussia) agreed to place the "United States of the Ionian Islands" under the exclusive pro tection of Great Britain.
British Protectorate.—The constitutions, voted by a con stituent assembly in 1817 and applied in the following year, placed the administration in the hands of a senate of six mem bers and a legislative assembly of 4o members; but the real authority was vested in the high commissioner, Sir Thomas Maitland ("King Tom") (1815). The successive British commis sioners, General Sir Frederick Adam (1823), Lord Nugent (1832) and Sir Howard Douglas (1835-41) did much for the adminis tration, justice, education and communications of the islands, but their firm, often despotic rule was resented by the natives, the principal exponent of the opposition being the historian An dreas Mustoxidi (d. 1861). A complete change of policy was
inaugurated by Mr. Mackenzie (1841-43), and Lord Seaton was induced by the European disturbances of 1848 to initiate a number of important reforms. But the party in favour of union with Greece was rapidly growing. Serious insur rections of the peasantry, especially in Cephalonia, had to be put down by military force, and the parliament passed a resolu tion in favour of immediate union with Greece.
Cession to Greece.—Contrary to the expectations of the Greeks, Mr. Gladstone, who toured the islands as high com missioner extraordinary, did not propose the abolition of the protectorate, and his successor, Sir Henry Storks, seemed indif ferent or blind to the popular feeling, but on the abdication of King Otho of Greece in 1862 the British Government declared to the provisional government of Greece that the selection of Prince William George of Gliicksberg would be followed Ly the cession of the Ionian islands. After the prince's election by the national assembly in 1863 the high commissioner laid before the Ionian Parliament the conditions of the cession. The rejection of one condition (the demolition of the fortifications of Corfu) led to a new prorogation, but on March 29, 1864, the plenipotentiaries of the five great Powers signed the treaty by which the protecto rate was ended. Neutrality was confined to Corfu and Paxo. On May 3, 1864 Sir Henry Storks left Corfu with the British troops and men-of-war. King George made his entry into Corfu on June 6.
Since their annexation to Greece the history of the Ionian islands has been uneventful ; their prosperity has somewhat de clined. Corfu with Paxo; Cephalonia; Santa Maura (Levkas) with Ithaca and Zante (Zacynthos) each form separate mon archies or departments; Cerigo forms part of the monarchy of Laconia. The islands retain the exemption from direct taxation which they enjoyed under the British protectorate; in lieu of this there is an ad valorem tax of 2o2% on exported oil and a tax of 6% on wine exported to Greek ports; these com modities are further liable to an export duty of II% which is levied on all agricultural produce and articles of local manufac ture for the maintenance and construction of roads.
See Lunzi, Ilept Tyls roXcrucis KaTao-rQQEcos rijs'Erraviyrou irl 'Everc7,v (Athens, 1856) ; Ansted, The 1.1. (1863) ; Viscount Kirkwall, Four Years in the 1.1. (1864) vol. i.; F. Lenormant, La Grece et les iles ioniennes (1865) ; P. Chiotis, laropia TOD loviou Kpa7ovr (Zante, 1815-64) ; Mardo, Saggio di una descrizione geografico-storica delle Isole (Corfu, 1865) (mainly geog.) ; De Bosset, Description des mon naies d'Ithaque et de Cephalonie (London, 1815) ; Postolakas, KarciXo-yos TCov itpxatcov voAccrithro, V?7WV KipKvpas, Aevatbos K. T. X. (Athens, 1868) ; Wiebel, Die Insel Kephalonia und die Meermiihlen von Argostoli (Hamburg, 1873) ; Tsitselis, FX,..aa-Ap,ou 1{(0.XX7lvias (Athens, 1876) ; '0v6i.Lara OicYewv Ev Ke4aXX7ivig. in the Parnassus i. 9-12 (Athens, 1877) ; Riemann, "Recherches archeologiques sur les Tles ioniennes" in Bibtiotheque des Ecoles francaises d'Athenes et de Rome (1879-8o) ; Gregorovius, Corfu: eine ionische Idylle (Leipzig, 1882) ; J. Partsch, Die Insel Corfu: eine geographische Monographie (Gotha, 1887) ; Die Insel Levkas (Gotha, 1889) ; Kephallenia und Ithaka (Gotha, 189o) ; Die Insel Zante (Gotha, 1891) ; Della condi Zione politica delle Isole lonie sotto it Dominio Veneto (Venice, 1858) ; Storia delle /sole Ionic sotto it reggimente dei Republicani Francesi (Venice, 186o) ; Della Republica Settinscilare (Bologna, 1863) ; G. E. Mavrogiennes, laropia 'Iovicov vilacev, 1797-1815, 2 vols. (Athens, 5899) ; E. R. Rangabe, Livre d'or de la Noblesse lonienne (3 vols. Athens, 1925-27) ; A. M. Andreades IIEpi T1js ,1Kovop6xis bCOLdiaccos `Erravicrov iri Bu'eroepariae (2 vols. Athens, 1914) ; A. M. Hidro menos, '0 inrip k-OvuK)s aroicaraaritaftes r&v `Errav,laicov (Corfu, 1889) ; W. Miller, The Latins in the Levant (1908) ; Essays on the Latin Orient (Cambridge, 1921). (J. D. B.; W. M.)