| There are traces of settlements on the Ionian Islands dating
back to the Paleolithic period. Scientific opinion has concluded that the
first inhabitants who appeared here came from the Peloponese. Homer's
epics provide valuable evidence regarding their first years of history. It
appears that during the 8th century BC, for example, Greeks came to the
Ionian from Euboia (Evia) and the Peloponese. Lefkada flourished
especially during the archaic period (700-478 BC), while Kefalonia
blossomed in the classical period (478-323 BC) when Corfu rose to being a
strong naval power.
After the end of the Peloponnesian War, the leadership
of Alexander the Great and Hellenistic period, came the Roman conquest.
During the 9th-11th centuries AD, in the middle of the Byzantine Empire,
the Ionian Islands took on an active role in combating pirates and the
development of commerce between East and West. From the 14th century AD
onwards the Ionian Islands came under the control of the Venetians. The
Venetian domination of the islands left its strong mark both in terms of a
strongly class differentiated society and through its development of
commerce, the arts and crafts.
By the end of the 18th century, with the
breakdown of the Venetian democracy, the islands successively passed under
French domination, then to the Russo-Turkish alliance, when the Ionian
state was created, and finally to the British. On the 21st of May 1864 the
Ionian Islands become incorporated within the modern Greek state. |
