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

Ionians” campaigning for that purpose. 84 However, he argued sentiments of
“nationality and attachment of race” could be overcome if Britain conceded further
constitutional reforms that would help secure her position in the Islands. Seaton
encouraged Britain to grant reforms before a crisis developed, pressure and intrigue
mounted, and a deadlock played into the hands of demagogues and extremists, as
had happened in Upper and Lower Canada with William Mackenzie and Louis
Papineau. 85 Moreover the revolutionary events in Europe in 1848 stressed the need
for just and rapid reforms in the Islands. 86
In 1848 Europe was convulsed by revolutions that shook the political and
social order to its foundations. They were triggered by a series of economic, social
and political crises. The pace of the revolts and political change in Europe were as
varied as the societies themselves, from national climate and geography to economic
and social structures of ownership, agriculture, and industry to forms of culture,
language and political systems from constitutional monarchy (France) to absolutism
(Eastern and central Europe). 87 Similarly the causes of the revolutions varied from
economic distress to desires for political change. However, they shared a “general
malaise”. Their objectives were the end of arbitrary governments, the reduction of
84 Seaton to Grey, 21 April 1848, W.O 1/500.
85 Seaton to Grey, 4 January 1849, CO 136/130; Seaton to Grey, 21 April 1849, CO 136/130; Seaton
to Grey, 10 May 1849, CO 136/130; Seaton to Grey, 8 August 1849, CO 136/130.
86 Grey to Seaton, Private and Confidential, 24 March 1848, CO 136/128.
87 For further details regarding the 1848 revolutions, see the collection of essays in Dowe D., Haupt
H. G., Langewiesche D., Sperber J., (eds.) Europe in 1848: Revolution and Reform, (New York,
Oxford 2000); Körner A., (ed.), 1848- A European Revolution? International Ideas and National
Memories of 1848, (London, 2000). These essays provide a wider context of the revolutions and their
aftermath. For more general histories, see Sperber J., The European Revolutions 1848-1851,
(Cambridge, 1994); Eyck F., The Revolutions of 1848-1849, (Oxford, 1972).
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