Tra rivoluzione e impero: Corfù e le isole Ionie tra Campoformio e Lipsia

Ceded to the French Directory in 1797 with the Treaty of Campoformio, the Ionian islands underwent a first French domination, which ended in 1799; after a long period during which they became a Russian-Ottoman protectorate, they were occupied by France again, this time an empire, in 1807, after the Treaty of Tilsit. This double French occupation, divided over time, allows us to observe clearly the profound differences between revolution and empire, not only from a strategic-military point of view, but also as regards the administrative, social, economic and political management of this space itself. They are two tracks, two parallel and, at the same time, connected paths that must and can be analysed and find a synthesis. If, on the one hand, the two occupations have elements of strong discontinuity, it is also true, on the other hand, that there are important aspects of continuity, first of all the same strategic origin in Napoleon's mind. In 1797, it was he, in fact, who pointed out to the Directory the importance of the possession of the Ionian Islands for France; and it was he who, in 1807, asked for and obtained them from Tsar Alexander.