United States of the Ionian Islands took Lefkada in 1810. The island of Corfu remained occupied by the French until 1814. The Congress of Vienna agreed to place the Ionian Islands under the exclusive "amical protection" of the United Kingdom. Despite British military administration, the Austrian Empire was guaranteed commercial status equal to the UK. The arrangement was formalised with the ratification of the "Maitland constitution" on 26 August 1817, which created a federation of the seven islands, with Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Maitland its first "Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands". The Party of Radicals (Greek: Κόμμα των Ριζοσπαστών) founded in 1848 was against the
Ionian School (music) several scores by these and other 19th and 20th century Ionian composers. The major inspiration for the Ionian School was considered to be the Italian musical tradition. However, as late as the 1820s composers from Ionian Islands succeeded in shaping their own path towards 'national music' initially by using the Greek vernacular language, and later by incorporating folklore elements both from the local tradition and from that of mainland Greece. Ionian School (music) The term Ionian (or Heptanese) School of Music (Greek: Επτανησιακή Σχολή, literally: "Seven Islands' School") denotes the musical production of a group of Heptanesian composers, whose heyday