WORKSHEET FOR LOCAL HISTORY

THE BRITISH RULE IN CORFU AND THREE IMPORTANT PERSONALITIES

Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford (1766-1827) was a British politician and colonial administrator.

In 1824, North established the Ionian Academy on the island of Corfu, which was under British control as part of the United States of the Ionian Islands. It was the first University to be established in Modern Greece. the Academy consisted of four Schools of Excellence - Theology, Law, Medicine and Philosophy. In 1791, he converted to the Eastern Orthodox Church.

General Sir Frederick Adam (1781–1853) was a Scottish major-general.

Between 1824 and 1832 he was a popular Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands.

He built the Mon Repos in 1826  as a gift to his Corfiot wife, Nina Palatianou. It is a small but very beautiful palace with colonial architectural elements.

   

The first such Commissioner, appointed in 1816, was Sir Thomas Maitland. Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Maitland, (1759–1824) was a British soldier and colonial governor.

A lot of construction was undertaken during this period, such as the aqueduct which was built to bring water to the town, an extensive road network and many new public buildings. Maitland left Corfu with its earliest neo-classical building, the Palace of Sts George and Michael and the Rotunda built in his honour on the Esplanade.

 THE BRITISH RULE IN CORFU

In 1815, a treaty was  signed in Paris between representatives of Britain, Russia, Austria and Prussia, by which it was determined that the Ionian Islands would form a free and independent state, which would, however, come under the immediate and exclusive protection of Great Britain.

The period of British rule was a prosperous period for Corfu because the Greek language became official, new roads were built, the water supply system was improved and the first Greek University was founded in 1824.

On 29 March 1864, the United Kingdom, Greece, France and Russia signed the Treaty of London, pledging the transfer of sovereignty to Greece.

Thus, on 21 May, the Ionian Islands were united with Greece.

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