Septinsular Republic: Greece's First Autonomy Since Byzantium

Seven islands suddenly stopped bowing to sultans. In 1800, Russia and Turkey agreed to create the Septinsular Republic from the Ionian Islands, establishing the first autonomous Greek state since the fall of the Byzantine Empire. The treaty, signed in Constantinople on March 21, 1800 (Old Style), was a product of the chaotic aftermath of Napoleon's Italian campaigns, which had ended Venetian rule over the islands. The Septinsular Republic comprised Corfu, Cephalonia, Zante, Santa Maura, Ithaca, Cerigo, and Paxos, islands that had been Venetian possessions for centuries before France seized them during the dissolution of the Republic of Venice in 1797. A joint Russo-Ottoman naval expedition expelled the French garrison in 1799, and the two empires agreed to establish a nominally independent republic under their dual protection. The new state adopted a constitution, elected a senate, and operated a rudimentary government, but its sovereignty was severely constrained by its protectors' competing interests. Russia wanted a Mediterranean naval base; Turkey wanted to prevent any precedent for Greek independence that might inspire revolt in its mainland territories. The republic lasted until 1807, when the Treaty of Tilsit transferred the islands to Napoleonic France. They passed to British control in 1815 and were finally ceded to the Kingdom of Greece in 1864. Despite its brevity and dependence on foreign protection, the Septinsular Republic holds symbolic importance as the first modern Greek self-governing entity, proof that Greeks could organize their own political institutions after four centuries of Ottoman and Venetian rule.