Septinsular State

According to 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 new state was placed under the nominal Suzerainty of the Sultan and under the effective Protection of the Czar. The executive body was called the Senate. Its president took the title of Prince. The General Assembly of the nobility elected the senators and the syndics who constituted the local administration. The Constitution of 1800 brought no peace to the island, and several uprisings took place as well as internecine struggles between opposing factions.

Count George Mocenigos was dispatched to the island as the Czar's plenipotentiary to restore order in the prevailing political and social chaos. Mocenigos put an end to the strife by promulgating a new Constitution in 1803. Among other actions, he promoted the establishment of the first Greek State School in the Ionian islands.

A third Constitution was enacted in 1806 by Mocenigos but it was never put into force since soon after, the islands came under the Imperial France in 1807.

Imperial French

Following the Treaty of Tilsit (1807) between the emperor Napoleon I and Czar Alexander I, the Russians ceded their rights over the Ionian islands to the French.

The new administration left the previous Greek Septinsular Constitution unchanged. The administration of the French governor Donzelot from 1808 to 1814 is gratefully remembered by the inhabitants until today.

The French Imperial administration founded in 1808 the Ionian Academy for the advancement of Letters, Arts and Sciences. The Academy functioned until the year 1814 when the British took over from the French.

The French administration started town-planning projects for the town of Corfu but only the arcades on the Esplanade were completed - time was too short for carrying out other projects.