Treaty of London (1864)

TheTreaty of Londonin 1864 resulted in the United Kingdom ceding theUnited States of the Ionian IslandstoGreece.Britain had held anamical protectorateover the islands since the 1815Treaty of Paris.

Treaty of London

1914 postal card for the fiftieth anniversary of the union of the Ionian Islands with Greece
Type	Multilateral treaty
Signed	29 March 1864(1864-03-29)
Location	London,England
Original signatories	Greece Prussia Russia United Kingdom
Ratifiers	Greece Prussia Russia United Kingdom

The federated United States of the Ionian Islands included seven islands off the coasts ofEpirusand thePeloponnese,that hadremainedinVenetianhands until 1797 and escapedOttomanrule. Of the seven, six lay in theIonian Sea,off the western coast of the Greek mainland. These six states wereCorfù(Kerkyra),Ithaca(Ithaki),Paxò(paxoi/paxos),Cephalonia,Zante(Zakynthos) andSanta Maura(Lefkas).Cerigo(Kythera) was also a state of the federation, although it is situated southeast of the Peloponnese.

Ever since Greece hadbecome independentfrom the Ottoman Empire in 1832, the people of the Ionian Islands had pressed forenosiswith Greece. At a Cabinet meeting in 1862, BritishForeign SecretaryHenry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerstondecided to cede the islands to Greece. This policy was also favoured byQueen Victoria.The practical reasoning was that maintenance of ownership in the area was too expensive. Besides, the islands did not have great strategic importance; Britain would still maintain a strategic presence in the Mediterranean from the island ofMalta.It may also have been a British manoeuvre to increase its support in Greece as a counterweight to the newly establishedKingdom of Italy,which had interests in the area.

The decision to cede the islands was also influenced by the accession to the Greek throne of the Danish princeGeorge,a committed Anglophile. Indeed, in areferendum in November 1862,the Greeks had elected Queen Victoria's second son,Prince Alfred,as their king, partly in the hope of receiving the Ionian Islands.

After long negotiations with Greece, the Treaty of London was signed by Greek delegateCharilaos Trikoupison 29 March 1864. On 2 May 1864 the British departed and the Ionian Islands became three provinces of the Kingdom of Greece, although Britain retained use of the port on Corfu.

This can be seen as the first example of voluntarydecolonizationby Britain. For Greece, the incorporation of the Ionian Islands was the first of several territorial increases to 1947.

Maps

• 
  In yellow the situation of the islands in relation to the current borders of Greece. The islands formed the British protectorate of theUnited States of the Ionian Islandsfrom 1815 and were transferred to theKingdom of Greecein 1864.
• 
  Expansion of theKingdom of Greece,of which the incorporation of theIonian Islandswas the first territorial gain.

See also

• Treaties of London

Further reading

• Anderson M. S.The Eastern Question 1774–1923, A Study in the International Relations(London, 1983).
• Paschalidi, Maria. "Constructing Ionian identities: the Ionian Islands in British official discourses; 1815-1864" (PhD dissertation. UCL (University College London), 2010)online.
• Xenos, Stephanos Th.East and West: A Diplomatic History of the Annexation of the Ionian Islands to the Kingdom of Greece(Trübner, 1865)online.

External links

• Details of the 1864 Treaty of London