Ionian Islands in Venetian hands since 1238. The islands thus became the only part of the Greek-speaking world to escape Ottoman rule, which gave them both a unity and an importance in Greek history they would otherwise not have had. Corfu was the only Greek island never conquered by the Turks. Under Venetian rule, many of the upper classes spoke Italian (or Venetian in some cases) and converted to Roman Catholicism, but the majority remained Greek ethnically, linguistically, and religiously. In the 18th century, a Greek national independence movement began to emerge, and the free status of the Ionian islands made them
Makri (island) Makri (island) Makri (Nissos Makri)() is a Greek island, one of the Echinades, in the Ionian Islands group. It is located on the far southeast side of the Gulf of Makri close to the mouth of the Acheloos river. It is administered by the municipality of Ithaca and is east of the island. , it had no resident population. Strabo, and most modern writers, identify Dulichium, from which Homer reports that Meges, son of Phyleus, led 40 ships to Troy, with the island of Makri. The island is roughly long and at its widest. It has an area of roughly