The Later History of Corfu
The Shakespeare Connection and the Modern Period
Under the protection of Venice, the Ionian island of Corfu provided the setting for Shakespeare's The Tempest, before being conquered by Napoleon and then the British.
Corfu, under attack from pirates after the collapse of the Byzantine empire, had appealed to Venice for help and in 1386 became part of the Venetian Empire.
The Shakespeare Connection
Around 1611 Shakespeare wrote The Tempest, possibly his final play, and some would also say the most fascinating. The Tempest is generally agreed to be set in Corfu. This is never made explicit but the details fit. Shakespeare had already set another play, Twelfth Night, in Illyria, just across from Corfu, and other plays of his take place in northern Italy (such as The Merchant of Venice), so this was clearly an area of the world he liked to use as a setting.
The Early Modern Period
In the late eighteenth century, another empire was on the rise – that of Napoleon Bonaparte. The Emperor of France conquered large parts of Western Europe, and took on the Venetians, too. At this time, on the coast opposite Corfu, the Albanian Sultan Ali Pasha was ruling his own private kingdom which stretched from his home town of Tepelena in Albania to Ioanina in modern-day Greece. He was sympathetic to Napoleon, and allowed him to use Albania's harbours, but when Napoleon took the Venetian possession of Corfu, only a few miles from Ali Pasha's kingdom, the Sultan felt that the understanding had been breached and withdrew his support.
Corfu's French period was short lived, as Napoleon was soon defeated by the British and their allies. In 1814 Britain took possession of Corfu and the other Ionian islands and, in true British style, started making the place habitable by their standards, adding public amenities and improving the infrastructure. Despite the improvements, the Brits were never popular in Corfu, and in 1864 Queen Victoria offered the (ethnically Greek) Ionian Islands to Greece, who accepted them gladly.
The Late Modern Period
At the beginning of the twentieth century the English Durrell family moved to Corfu. The brothers Lawrence and Gerald Durrell would both go on to become writers and produce memorable books about Corfu, such as My Family and Other Animals by Gerald and Prospero's Cell (named for the main character of The Tempest) by Lawrence. The brothers loved the unspoilt island. Lawrence Durrell in Prospero's Cell records how the poet and artist Edward Lear had also fallen in love with the island in the second half of the nineteenth century, spending the winter there as often as possible.
The Second World War, however, hit Corfu very heavily, and much of the beautiful architecture of Corfu Town was destroyed. The island was occupied by Germans and Italians, as were other Ionian islands (such as Cephalonia, the subject of Captain Correlli's Mandolin). Jews had been safe in Corfu for centuries, but were now rounded up and sent to concentration camps.
Later in the twentieth century Corfu was also hit hard by tourism. Where it had once been a playground for artists and writers, it became a package holiday destination and developed a reputation for over-developed tourist resorts and sleaziness. But the scenery which has made Corfu so attractive throughout the millennia is still there, and in recent years there has been a real effort to clean up Corfu's reputation. Corfu Town was renovated in the 1990s and the island is once more a pleasant place to visit.
More: The Ancient and Medieval Periods
Sources: The Rough Guide to the Ionian Islands (2006); The Cambridge Dictionary of Classical Civilisation; L. Durrell Prospero's Cell
