Artifacts from the Paleolithic period (30,000 to 7,000BC) have been found
in a cave at Gardiki in the southwest part of the island. Homer mentions
the Kingdom of the Phaeacians which Ulysses visits before reaching Ithaki,
but archaeological excavations failed to locate it; there is a hypothesis
that it is possibly located at the area of Palaiokastritsa. The Greeks
arrived approximately in 750 BC; a colony was established from the city
of Eretria on the island of Evia. Corfu supplied the Eretrians with lumber
for ships and became an important stepping stone to the west.
In 734 BC
the Eretrians were driven out by the Corinthians who brought great wealth
and culture to the island as well as the first of many colonies at Croton
in southern Italy. The colony established by the Corinthians soon rebelled
against its metropolis; the latter was defeated in a naval battle that
took place in 664 B.C. Thucydides actually mentions that this was the oldest
recorded naval battle in the whole of Greece.
The tyrant Cypselus in order to be able to control Corfu sent forth colonists
to create new colonies in Lefkada and in Amvrakia (sity of Arta today).
His successor, the infamous tyrant Periander (r. 627-585 BC), used his
son Lykofrona and indeed managed to control Corfu. The latter remained
independent both after Perainder’s death and throughout the Persian Wars
against Greece. The battles however between Corfu and its metropolis did
not cease and lit the fire that burned the Hellenistic world: the Peloponnesian
War (431-404 BC), the World War II of it's time. Thucydides describes extensively
these conflicts along with the disputes among the Oligarchs and the Democrats
thus demonstrating the humane situation:
[The Peloponnesian war 3.81.1] During seven days that Eurymedon stayed
with his sixty ships, the Corcyraeans were engaged in butchering those
of their fellow-citizens whom they regarded as their enemies: and although
the crime imputed was that of attempting to put down the democracy, some
were slain also for private hatred, others by their debtors because of
the monies owed to them. Death thus raged in every shape; and, as usually
happens at such times, there was no length to which violence did not
go; sons were killed by their fathers, and suppliants dragged from the
altar or slain upon it; while some were even walled up in the temple
of Dionysus and died there. So bloody was the march of the revolution,
and the impression which it made was the greater as it was one of the
first to occur. Later on, one may say, the whole Hellenic world was convulsed;
struggles being everywhere made by the popular chiefs to bring in the
Athenians, and by the oligarchs to introduce the Lacedaemonians. In peace
there would have been neither the pretext nor the wish to make such an
invitation; but in war, with an alliance always at the command of either
faction for the hurt of their adversaries and their own corresponding
advantage, opportunities for bringing in the foreigner were never wanting
to the revolutionary parties. The sufferings which revolution entailed
upon the cities were many and terrible, such as have occurred and always
will occur, as long as the nature of mankind remains the same; though
in a severer or milder form, and varying in their symptoms, according
to the variety of the particular cases. In peace and prosperity states
and individuals have better sentiments, because they do not find themselves
suddenly confronted with imperious necessities; but war takes away the
easy supply of daily wants, and so proves a rough master, that brings
most men's characters to a level with their fortunes. Revolution thus
ran its course from city to city, and the places which it arrived at
last, from having heard what had been done before carried to a still
greater excess the refinement of their inventions, as manifested in the
cunning of their enterprises and the atrocity of their reprisals. Words
had to change their ordinary meaning and to take that which was now given
them. Reckless audacity came to be considered the courage of a loyal
ally; prudent hesitation, specious cowardice; moderation was held to
be a cloak for unmanliness; ability to see all sides of a question inaptness
to act on any. Frantic violence, became the attribute of manliness; cautious
plotting, a justifiable means of self-defence. The advocate of extreme
measures was always trustworthy; his opponent a man to be suspected.
To succeed in a plot was to have a shrewd head, to divine a plot a still
shrewder; but to try to provide against having to do either was to break
up your party and to be afraid of your adversaries. In fine, to forestall
an intending criminal, or to suggest the idea of a crime where it was
wanting, was equally commended, until even blood became a weaker tie
than party, from the superior readiness of those united by the latter
to dare everything without reserve; for such associations had not in
view the blessings derivable from established institutions but were formed
by ambition for their overthrow; and the confidence of their members
in each other rested less on any religious sanction than upon complicity
in crime. The fair proposals of an adversary were met with jealous precautions
by the stronger of the two, and not with a generous confidence. Revenge
also was held of more account than self-preservation. Oaths of reconciliation,
being only proffered on either side to meet an immediate difficulty,
only held good so long as no other weapon was at hand; but when opportunity
offered, he who first ventured to seize it and to take his enemy off
his guard, thought this perfidious vengeance sweeter than an open one,
since, considerations of safety apart, success by treachery won him the
palm of superior intelligence. Indeed it is generally the case that men
are readier to call rogues clever than simpletons honest, and are as
ashamed of being the second as they are proud of being the first. [Translation
by Richard Crawley.]
In 229 AD Corfu was invaded and conquered by pirates from Illyria. They
in turn were driven out by the Romans who gave the island autonomy provided
they were allowed to use it as a naval base. Nero, Julius Caesar, Vespacion
and Cicero all visited the island and many wealthy Romans had estates
here. The Roman influence lasted from 229 to 395 AD.
From 395 to 1267 Corfu was part of the Byzantine Empire and frequent
raids by the Goths, Vandals and Saracens caused the inhabitants to move
to the high places of the city which could be easily defended. It was
captured by the Normans in 1081, lost and recaptured several times. When
the forces of the Fourth Crusade captured Constantinople in 1204, Corfu
was ceded to Venice. But then, years later, Corfu was Greek again when
Michael Angelus Ducas set up the Despotate of Epirus, one of three independent
Greek states. In 1402 the Venetians purchased the island from Naples.
This is known as the Second Period of Venetian rule and it lasted until
1797. Corfu was attacked frequently by the Genovese and of course by
the Turks . In 1537 Barbarossa, a pirate in the service of Sultan Sulieman
the Magnificent laid siege to the town with 25,000 troops. The Corfiots
drove Barbarossa off and he was recalled to Constantinople taking with
him thousands of prisoners who were sold into slavery. After several
other attacks by the Turks, the Venetians decided to build the New Fortress
and strengthen the existing walls of the city. Because of this, and some
say divine intervention by Saint Spyridon, the Ottoman fleet was finally
driven off in a battle that is celebrated every year on August 11th.
During the period of Venetian rule the island became a haven and place
of refuge for many scholars and artists escaping the Turkish occupied
mainland and thus helped make the island one of the most culturally developed
regions in the east. When Napoleon overthrew the Venetians and the French
occupied the island in 1797 the Corfiots welcomed them with enthusiasm
believing that because of the French revolution the lower classes would
be treated better. But this was not the case. The French imposed heavy
taxes on the people though they did introduce a system of primary education
and a printing house. But two years later a combined Russian and Turkish
fleet captured the island after four months of fighting and Corfu became
the capital of the Septinsular Republic which included all the Ionian
islands. Then in 1807 when Russia and France signed the treaty of Tilsit,
Corfu and the other islands became provinces of Napolean. When Napoleon
fell in 1814 Corfu was placed under the protection of the British. In
1848, after years of British oppression, Ioannis Capodistrias was able
to pass a revised constitution that granted freedom of the press which
led immediately to the publication of the first newspaper in Corfu, Greek
was recognized as the official language and a new system of education
was set up. In 1824 the first Greek university, the Ionian Academy, was
set up. Despite the tension between the British and the Corfiots, the
years of British rule was responsible for the building of the roads and
the creation of the island's water supply. The Ionian islands became
a part of Greece in 1864 even though Ioannis Capodistrias was elected
the first President of Greece in 1827 and assassinated in 1831. Corfu
was bombed by the Italians in 1923 and again during World War II and
was bombed and occupied by the Germans until the war's end.
