French departments of Greece

The French departments of Greece (French: Départements français de Grèce) designate the three former departments created under the First French Republic in 1797 with the annexation of the Ionian Islands (until then possessed by the Republic of Venice) after the signing of the Treaty of Campo Formio by Napoleon Bonaparte.

The departments were:

Corcyre (prefecture: Corfu, on the island of the same name);
Ithaque (prefecture: Argostoli, on the island of Cephalonia);
Mer-Égée (prefecture: Zakynthos, on the island of the same name).

They came under Russian/Ottoman rule between October 1798 (Zante and Ithaca) and March 1799, after the Ottoman Empire allied with Russia, sending a joint fleet led by admiral Fyodor Ushakov against the French. The campaign culminated in the four-month siege of Corfu (1798–1799). They were later reorganised into the Septinsular Republic, the first even partially self-governing Greek state since the fall of the last successor states of the Byzantine Empire.

References

Louis Lacroix, Les Îles de la Grèce, Firmin Didot, 1853, p. 638.

History of the Ionian Islands

Mycenean period Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic period Roman period Byzantine period County Palatine Despotate of Epirus Venetian period French rule Septinsular Republic United States of the Ionian Islands Union with Greece Axis occupation 1953 earthquake Ionian Islands region

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