British Protectorate

The British a few years earlier had begun occupying, one by one, the seven Ionian islands. General James Campbell landed in Corfu in May of 1814 after the fall of Napoleon. The islands were constituted by the Treaty of Paris in 1815 as the independent 'United States of the Ionian Islands' under British protection.

For the following 50 years the Protective Power was represented in Corfu by 10 successive Lord High Commissioners. The first Constitution of the Ionian Protectorate was drawn up to 1817 leaving all effective power to the hands of the Lord High Commissioner.

During this period the building of the palace of St. Michael and St. George was started as seat of the government.

In 1823 the first modern Greek University was founded under the name of the Ionian Academy. The University comprised of 4 faculties: Theology, Philosophy, Law and Medicine. A large number of young men came from the other Ionian islands and from mainland Greece to study in Corfu. Also Lord Guilford established the first botanical garden in Greece at Garitsa.

An official weekly newspaper the 'Gazzetta degli Stati Uniti delle Isole Jone' was first published in 1814. First in Italian, then in both Greek and Italian and from 1850 in Greek and English and it continued for the entire duration of the Protectorate.

It was then that they started the building of the first network of roads, a complete sewage-system in the town of Corfu and suburbs and the first urban water-supply system. In 1834 started the publication of the literary periodical 'Ionian Anthology' containing articles in Greek, Italian and English.During the years 1830 to 1841 the new prison building, the mental hospital, the Ionian Bank and the municipal cemetery were either planned or completed. It should be noted that the use of Modern Greek became statutory first in the Court of Justice, then in all parliament procedures and finally in all public documents.

On the 27th of September 1859 the Ionian Parliament demanded Union with Greece. On the 21st of May 1864 the Ionian islands united with Greece which already, in 1833, had become a sovereign independent kingdom.