In a blunder of English diplomacy, one of the greatest for Great Britain and one of the most fortunate for Greece, was due to the great celebration on that morning of May 21, 1864. The blue and white flag was raised at the fortress of Corfu and the then 39-year-old Thrasybulos Zaimis officially received the Ionian Islands from the English commissioner Henry Storx.
The British were granting the islands as a dowry to the new king of Greece in return for the condition they had set: That the new monarch would not usurp the lands of the Ottoman Empire. And the new monarch was George I, during whose reign Greece took, by the sword of war, Thessaly, Epirus, Macedonia, Crete and most of the Aegean islands...
The English occupation of the Ionian Islands was officially called the Proteas. Protection of the independent state of the Ionian Islands, as mentioned in the Treaty of Vienna, 1815. On the day of the union with Greece, an anonymous chronicler wrote:[/B]
[/P]"The English were in the Ionian Islands for 54 years, eight months and one day".
After the surrender to Zaimi, Commissioner Storx crossed to Katakolon and offered the flag of the Ionian State to King George. On 29 June, George set foot in Corfu, the first stop on his Ionian tour. On 29 August, the proxies from the Ionian Islands were received with cheers at the National Assembly, which was preparing the new constitution of Greece.
The "Golden Bible" ("Libro d'oro") determined in the Ionian Islands, who were the aristocrats and therefore the chosen ones, from whom came the members of the administration, the judiciary, the army and the church. With the exception of Cephalonia, where it was never able to impose itself completely, feudalism triumphed in the region throughout the Venetian conquest. Revolts of the people and peasants were more than commonplace. In 1797, the islands passed into French occupation, which brought with it all the democratic currents of the French revolution, subversion and reform.
The temporary Russo-Turkish conquest (1799-1800) brought the aristocracy back into the fold, more literate. The Ionian Islands briefly gained the title of a republic under the suzerainty of the Sultan. The revolts yielded a "Byzantine constitution" (so called because it was drafted in Constantinople) that granted some subtle liberties, and created the "honorable deputation", a kind of compromise between the nobles and the rich of the islands.
The second French occupation (1807) was nothing like the first, as this time it represented the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Moreover, it brought with it the exclusion of raisins (the main product of the islands) from English markets, as the English had imposed an embargo on products coming from French territory.
The immediate consequence was the creation of an economic crisis. Growing popular opposition and Napoleon's problems facilitated the progressive removal of the islands from French influence. With the treaty of 1815, they came under the protection of England.
The Lord High Commissioner settled in Corfu and worked closely with the aristocracy. Their common goal was to fight the national consciousness of the islanders, which had flared up after the first French conquest. The Greek revolution and the creation of the independent Greek state were the trigger for long struggles that found their political expression through the ranks of the radical party.
The aim of the radicals was not only the union with Greece but also the democratic transformation of the entire Balkans. The continuous uprisings intensified. The revolutionary wind that swept across Europe in 1848, erupted impetuously in Kefalonia, where the uprising turned into a structured revolution. The intervention of the British army curtailed it for a while, but in 1849 the revolution flared up again and developed into a full-fledged armed confrontation.
The fighting between the peasants and the English upset the island, so that the British occupation used the most brutal means of repression at its disposal in order to prevail. The radicals suffered terrible persecution unleashed with the cooperation of English and local aristocrats. However, the Parliament of the Ionian Islands passed a resolution (1850) calling for union with Greece. The commissioner's response was to dissolve the parliament.
The social reforms that followed were the prelude to the union of the islands with Greece. It took place in 1864.
The first victim of British diplomacy, in relation to Greece, was Alfred, second son of Queen Victoria. For a long time, the British had wanted to get rid of the Ionian Islands, which had been nothing but trouble for them. They would have gladly ceded them to Greece, were it not for King Otto and his obsession with the Great Idea. The British in no way wanted the integrity of the Ottoman Empire to be compromised, unless they were to benefit themselves
At the turn of the 1850s to 1860s, Anglophiles in the Ionian Islands were promoting an ambitious plan: The creation of the Ionian Dominion, which would include the Ionian Islands and the still Turkish-occupied Thessaly and Epirus, with Prince Alfred as its ruler.
Otto's eviction, in October 1862, caused the plan to falter. Prince Alfred was now destined to become King of the Greeks. In November 1862, the Prime Minister of England, Lord Palmerston, summoned Charilaos Trikoupis, the Greek commissar in London.
"With Otto gone," he told him, "we keep Corfu and give you the rest of the Ionian Islands."
The English may have wanted Alfredo to be king in Greece. But the other great powers of the time did not want him. The English proceeded differently. On December 10, 1862, the National Assembly that would lead to the election of a new king began in Athens. On the same day, the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Russell, told Charilaos Trikoupis that "the Queen would have no objection to the Eptanisa being given to Greece, if the new king was agreeable to the British."
In the same month, an extraordinary envoy from the British government arrived in Athens. The message was not to be misinterpreted:
"In order to support the monarchy in Greece, Queen Victoria was willing to announce to the House of Lords and the English Parliament the union of the Ionian Islands with Greece. However, this offer was not valid if the Greeks elected a king who would raise suspicions that he would pursue an aggressive policy towards Turkey"...
The National Assembly voted to give the crown of Greece to the 18-year-old son of the new King of Denmark, George I, with the name George I. To avoid getting into trouble with regencies, the National Assembly declared him an adult. The English were pleased. On July 13, 1863, an international treaty gave the Ionian Islands the right to be united with Greece "if their people so desired," as if this was not the demand of half a century's bloody struggle.
In execution of the treaty, Commissioner Storx dissolved the parliament of the Ionian state and called an election for September 19. He presented himself before the newly elected officials with the question whether the people desired union with Greece. He received the answer in the resolution of 23 September 1863:
"The islands of Corfu, Kefalonia, Zakynthos, Lefkas, Ithaca, Kythira, Paxos and their appendages shall join the kingdom of Greece as an integral part of it in one and undivided state, under the constitutional sceptre of His Majesty the King of the Greeks George I and his successors".
The foundations for the final straight line were laid on 14 November 1863 with the signing of the Treaty of London, which ceded the Ionian Islands to Greece. Two days later, on the 16th of the same month, George was sworn in as King of the Greeks. On March 29, 1864, the final agreement was announced.
Two months later, on May 21, the future Prime Minister and one of the main contributors to Otto's eviction, Thrasybulos Zaimis, in an official ceremony in Corfu, received the Ionian Islands as the new king's proxy.
Two months later, on May 21, the future Prime Minister and one of the main contributors to Otto's eviction, Thrasybulos Zaimis, in an official ceremony in Corfu, received the Ionian Islands as the new king's proxy.
Source:historyreport.gr
Contents of this article including associated images are belongs Cyprus Times
Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or Cyprus Times
Source
