Constructing Ionian identities: the Ionian Islands in British official ...

are explored, from the establishment of the Ionian Protectorate in 1815 to its
annexation to Greece in 1864. This chronological narrative of personnel and events
provides the structure to guide the reader through the debates that shaped colonial
policies in the Ionian Islands and demonstrates both breaks and continuities.
The governorships of Sir Frederic Adam (1823-1832), Alexander Woodford
(1832) and James Mackenzie (1840-1843) are not investigated. Having served under
Maitland, Adam maintained his policies and did not merit separate examination.
Furthermore, after the Greek War of Independence from the Ottoman Empire had
erupted in 1821, Adam’s efforts centred on imposing and enforcing the neutrality of
the Ionian government to isolate the Islands from events in Greece. Woodford’s and
Mackenzie’s governorships were brief and had little significance for inaugurating
changes of colonial policy in the Septinsula and the questions the thesis poses.
The British governors claimed to ‘know’ the Ionians and felt they represented
the Ionians ‘accurately’ to colonial officials. That ‘knowledge’ enabled comparisons
with ‘others’ under British rule, particularly Europeans such as the Irish and Maltese.
As Doreen Massey notes, “arriving in a new place means joining up with, somehow
linking into, the collection of interwoven stories of which that place is made”. 6 The
policies of the governors in the Septinsula must be understood in the context of
“their life histories, and indeed their life geographies”. As David Lambert and Alan
Lester have argued, these men made connections across the Empire and their
6 Quoted in Lambert D., and Lester A., (eds.), Colonial Lives Across the British Empire: Imperial
Careering in the Long Nineteenth Century, (Cambridge, 2006), p. 2.
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