Septinsular Republic

The Septinsular Republic — also known as the Republic of the Seven United Islands — was an oligarchic republic that existed from 1800 to 1807 under nominal Russian and Ottoman sovereignty in the Ionian Islands: Corfu, Paxoi, Lefkada, Cephalonia, Ithaca, Zakynthos or Zante, and Kythira. It was established after a joint Russo-Ottoman fleet captured the islands and ended a two-year rule by the French Republic. Although the islanders had hoped for complete independence, the new state was granted only autonomy, becoming tributary to the Ottoman Porte and de facto under Russian domination; nevertheless, it was the first time that Greeks had been granted self-government since the fall of the last remnants of the Byzantine Empire to the Ottomans in the mid-15th century. The seven islands formed a single oligarchic republic with its seat at Corfu; Orio's draft constitution comprised 28 articles and envisaged a thoroughly aristocratic regime, with each island headed by a Great Council composed of the nobles and the upper bourgeoisie who elected the senators. The republic's brief life — the state shown on the map — ended in 1807, when the republic was ceded to Napoleon's French Empire, though the islands kept their institutions of government; the British gradually took control of the islands from 1809 on, and in 1815 they were formally organised into the United States of the Ionian Islands, the republic's successor.