United States of the Ionian Islands

The United States of the Ionian Islands was a Greek state and amical protectorate of the United Kingdom between 1815 and 1864 — the Ionian polity shown on the map. The successor state of the Septinsular Republic, it covered the territory of the Ionian Islands — Corfu, Paxoi, Lefkada, Cephalonia, Ithaca, Zakynthos and Kythira — as well as the port of Parga on the Greek mainland, with its government seated at Corfu. Before the French Revolutionary Wars the islands had been part of the Republic of Venice; under the British protectorate that followed the Napoleonic turbulence, the long Venetian domination left Italian the language of government, science and the upper classes, even though the vast majority of the islanders were monolingual Greek speakers, and after 1814 the British rulers published the government gazette in both languages. The union lasted until 1864, when the islands were ceded by the British to Greece as a gift to the newly enthroned King George I — apart from Parga, which had been sold to Ali Pasha of Ioannina in 1819. On 28 May, by proclamation of the Lord High Commissioner, the Ionian Islands were united with Greece, closing the protectorate.