o_19heefouak9i9v4do11ac41pi7a.pdf

SAKIS GEKAS
tion and knowledge were embedded in the colonial discourse of modernity that
many Ionians were cultivating since the late eighteenth century.
The case of the Ionian Islands suggests that colonial officers promoted a modernisation
of local society which nevertheless involved fixing institutions, categories and identities.
The period of British rule, 1815-1864, allowed for local experimentation that was
absent from later stages in the history of the British Empire in Indian and African colonies,
where colonial rule became more regimented and strictly defined 9 . The case of the
Ionian Islands belongs to the first phase of modernising projects, which came after the
Napoleonic wars. This was essentially a response to the French Revolution and included
the application of rational principles, social engineering, the substitution of modern administration
for old regime practices and the ‘rule of law in place of the rule of men’ 10 .
The period of British rule of the Ionian Islands was a period of adjustment and experimentation
and this is reflected in the mode of government. Following the 1848-49
uprisings in Kefalonia, High Commissioner Ward and the Colonial Office concluded that
liberal reforms were ill-advised, had adverse consequences and had better be avoided;
the Seaton liberal reforms of the 1840s were effectively withdrawn or annulled by Ward
once he took over as Commissioner 11 .
The discourse and political practice of colonial officers in the Ionian Islands reveal
a liberal project that promoted reform of the legal system, aimed at eradicating
corruption and restoring public order. Antiquated laws and corruption, the legacy of
the Venetian era, contrasted with the British rule of order and progress. The chaotic
years of 1799-1802, when social order in most islands broke down, set a precedent
that British authorities and Maitland, the first Commissioner, aimed to avoid at all
costs. Public order, reform of the legal system and the codification of civil, criminal
and commercial laws were among the first priorities of the British administrators, a
project that was not completed until the late 1830s 12 . Legislative reform, however,
was the result of Ionian legal expertise, acquired by educated Ionians during their
studies in some of the best Italian universities, usually in Padua.
The impact of changes in the law to promote property rights through modern
notions of the individual’s relationship to property and promote efficient changes in
the land ownership system, is one of the most contested issues in discussions on colonialism
and development 13 . In the Ionian Islands legal reform and the Commercial
9 This does not mean that there is a consensus among historians of the Indian subcontinent.
For a book that deals with the advent and impact of colonial modernity, see Sanjay
Joshi, Fractured Modernity: Making of a Middle Class in Colonial North India. New Delhi: Oxford
University Press, 2001.
10 Misra, ‘Colonial Officers’, 147.
11 For the Seaton reforms, see, E. Calligas, ‘Lord Seaton’s reforms in the Ionian Islands,
1843-8: a race with time’, European History Quarterly 24, 1994: 7-29.
12 The codification of laws was ready and published in 1839. Ionian Islands Government
Gazette, No. 469, 9/21 December 1839.
13 The literature on colonialism and law suggests that this was not really the product of
imperial rule but rather of indigenous processes of modernization that drew on the colonial
encounter. Misra, ‘Colonial officers’, 142.
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