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
2018 Ionian Sea earthquake suffered major damage from a 1953 earthquake. The event was felt in eight different countries, including in the Balkans, Italy, Malta as well as coasts of Africa and Turkey. The main shock was followed by multiple aftershocks in the following days, including undersea aftershocks of magnitude 4.4 and 5 over a week after the initial earthquake. The largest reported aftershock was of magnitude 5.6 the day of the initial earthquake. 2018 Ionian Sea earthquake A strong earthquake measuring magnitude occurred in the Ionian Sea near the coasts of Greece during the night between 25 and 26 October 2018 at 22:54:51