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
Technological Educational Institute of the Ionian Islands Technological Educational Institute of the Ionian Islands The Technological Educational Institute of Ionian Islands (TEI ION; ) is a fully self-governing higher-educational institute under state supervision, exercised by the Minister of National Education and Religious Affairs. The institute is based in Argostoli on the island of Kefalonia, with satellite campuses in Lixouri, Lefkada and Zakynthos. The Technological Educational Institute offers also postgraduate courses in collaboration with other universities in Greece and abroad. In 2018 the TEI of Ionian Islands and the Ionian University will form a new University. The Ionian Islands have a long tradition in education. The Ionian Academy