end, following the fate of the Ionian islands, completed by the capture of Lefkas from the Turks in 1684. The Treaty of Campoformio dismantling the Venetian Republic awarded the Ionian Islands to France, a French expeditionary force with boats captured in Venice taking control of the islands in June 1797.
From the 16th to the 18th centuries, the island was one of the largest exporters of currants in the world with Zakynthos, and owned a large shipping fleet, even commissioning ships from the Danzig shipyard. Its towns and villages were mostly built high on hilltops, to prevent attacks from raiding parties of pirates that sailed the Ionian Sea during the 1820s.
French, Ionian state period and British Rule
Venice was conquered by France in 1797 and Kefalonia along with the other Ionian Islands was part of the French départment Ithaque.
In the following year the French were forced to yield the Ionian Islands to a combined Russian and Turkish fleet. From 1799 to 1807, it was part of the Septinsular Republic, nominally under sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire but protected by Russia.
By the Tilsit Treaty in 1807 the Ionian Islands were ceded back to France who remained in control until 1809 when Britain mounted a blockade on the Ionian Islands as part of the war against Napoleon and in September of that year they hoisted the British flag above the castle of Zakynthos. Kefalonia and Ithaka soon surrendered and the British installed provisional governments. The treaty of Paris in 1815 recognised the United States of the Ionian Islands and decreed that it become a British protectorate. Colonel Charles Philippe de Bosset became provisional governor between 1810 and 1814. During this period he was credited with many public works including the Drapano Bridge.
A few years later resistance groups started to form although their energy in the early years was directed to supporting the Greeks in the revolution against the Turks it
