CORFU HISTORY

Greek Antiquity and Corcyra

The history of Corfu is said to begin somewhere between 70.000 – 40.000 B.C. dating back to the Paleolithic Age. The first inhabitants of Corfu were Liburnians (of Illyrian decent) a seafaring race who held influence over the Dalmatian and Ionian Seas. Some claim that towards the middle of the 8th century, the known Greek settlement on “Corcyra” was established by the Euboeans. Later in the 734 B.C. Corinthians made Corcyra an important and prosperous city. The island became the second naval power in Greece after Corinth and established a number of colonies. Corcyra was the first maritime city, which built a fleet of triremes in about 492 BC, and often fought on behalf of Athens. In 375 BC Corcyra joined the Athenian Confederation. Later the island was taken over by many states and it became independent in 255 BC when Alexander, the last powerful King of Epiros died.

Corfuunder the Romans
In the summer of 229 BC the Romans took over the island and, thus, Corcyra became the first Greek city to place itself under their empire. Romans governed the island for more than five centuries from 229 BC to ca 337 AD. Corcyra remained to a certain degree a free state with its own laws and magistrates. The island was used as a naval station for Roman activities in Eastern Mediterranean and for various military campaigns.

Byzantine Corfu
In 395 AD Corcyra was included in the Eastern Roman, and later Byzantine Empire, and remained so until the capture of Constantinople by the crusaders in 1204. It was during the Byzantine dominion that the feudal system was first introduced to Corfu.

Corfu under the Despots of Epiros (1214-1267)
From 1214 until 1267 the island was taken over by the Despotate of Epiros, an independent Greek State under a prince of Byzantine House of Angeloi Comneni who assumed the title of “Despot”

The Angevins in Corfu (1267-1386)
During the Angevin rule, the island of Corfu was divided into four bailiwicks, called the Circle, the Mountain, the Center and Lefkimmi. Corfu was a valuable possession for the Angevins, mainly because of the island’s economic sources, such as its vineyards, olive-trees and saltpans. The Angevin occupation ended in 1386 with the death of Charles III of Anjou.

The Venetian Domination (1386-1797)
Corfiots accepted the rule of Venice who took formal possession of Corfu on the 9th of June 1386 and ruled the island for more than four centuries. The Venetians showed a keen interest in agriculture, especially in the cultivation of olive-trees. Corfu owes to this Venetian policy its countless olive groves, which cover almost the whole island. The long Venetian domination had a marked influence on local Greek language, which absorbed a wide range of Italian and Venetian words.

 

The Republican French (1797-1799)
Venetian rule ended in 1797 when Napoleon Bonaparte conquered the island and abolished the Republic of Venice. By the Treaty of Campoformio, between France and Austria, Corfu and the other Ionian islands were conceded to the French Republic, which occupied them for two years from 1797 to 1799. 

The Russians and the Turks ( -1800)
After the defeat of the French at the “Battle of the Nile” (1st of August, 1798), Russia and Turkey formed an alliance and declared war on France, conquering all the Ionian Islands except Corfu. The French authorities, realizing that the enemy would soon attack the island, took all possible defensive measures. The fights lasted until the 3rd of March 1799 when French authorities finally delivered the city of Corfu to the Russians and Turks. One of the first official acts of the Russians was the reinstatement of a Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Corfu.

The Septinsular State (1800-1807) and John Capodistrias
Following the Treaty of Constantinople between Russia and Turkey a semi-independent State of the Seven Ionian Islands, the so-called Septinsular State, was constituted in 1800. It was the first Greek State to be established after the fall of Constantinople in 1453. The executive body was called the Senate, its Prince being Count Spyridon-George Theotokis, who appointed Count John Capodistrias as his General Secretary of State. John Capodistrias (1776-1831) was a statesman and diplomat of European stature. In 1827 the Greek Assembly unanimously elected him as the President of an Independent Greece. He laid the foundations of the regenerated State and organized public education as well as political and agricultural structures. He was assassinated in 1831.

The Imperial French (1807-1814)
Following the Treaty of Tilsit (1807) between the Emperor Napoleon I, and Czar Alexander I, the Russians conceded their rights over the Ionian Islands to the French, who sent General Cesar Berthier to Corfu. The French Inperial administration founded the Ionian Academy for the advancement of letters, Arts and Sciences in 1808; in 1811 the first school of Fine Arts in Corfu was founded.

British Protectorate (1814-1864)
On the 30th of May 1814, soon after the fall of Napoleon, the British occupied the island. There were ten High Commissioners ruling on the island and each of them contributed to changing the face of Corfu. The Ionian Islands were finally, on the 21st of May 1864, united with Greece, which already in 1833 had become a sovereign independent Kingdom under King Otto.

The history of Corfu, from ancient time up to the present day, has been a particularly chequered one under a long succession of foreign rulers, good and bad; yet it never obscured the fundamental Greek character of the island and its inhabitants.

Mythology in Corfu
Mythology leads us to believe that the Ionian Sea was named after Io the priestess of Hera. It is said that Zeus and Io were lovers. When Hera caught them together she was so infuriated that she turned Io into a cow and tied her to an olive tree with a twenty four hour guard of Argus (who had eyes all over his body).
Zeus sent Hermes to play the pipes until Argus was sound asleep. Io was set free, but Hera sent a gadfly to plague Io and she madly ran from island to island, starting by jumping over the now named Ionian Sea. She finally settled in Egypt, returning to her human form and bore Zeus a son.

Corfu has been known by many names, the Greeks call it Kerkyra. This is said o derive from the nymph Corkyra. Corkyra could also have been Gorgyra or Gorgo (the demonic Medusa) as she is depicted on the temple of Artemis near Corfu town.

The Greek goddess of harvest Demeter, is believed to have thrown her sickle into the Ionian Sea. Upon landing, the sickle was petrified and formed the shape of Corfu. The two peaks gave the island the name Corfiou, which was later changed to the one we use today, Corfu.

Corfu has featured in other mythological episodes; according to Homer, who called the island Scheria, Odysseus during his ten year journey home to Ithaca, touched upon Scheria. Earlier in his trip, he and his crew had come across the Cyclops Polyphemus, the son of Poseidon. Odysseus killed him in a fight. When Poseidon saw Odysseus sailing home he sent a storm with the anger he felt at losing his son. Odysseus, the only survivor was washed up on Sceria where the king’s daughter Nausica found him. King Alcinoos heard Odysseus’s account of his travels and gave him a ship and crew to return home. Alcinoos again was very hospitable to visitors to the island, in particular the Argonauts while they were on the run after obtaining the Golden Fleece from Troy.