History of Paxos

Legend says that Paxos was created when Poseidon struck Corfu with his trident, causing the southernmost tip to break off and float away to become a separate island. This small island then became his 'love nest', where he could hide from his jealous wife and conduct his affair with the nymph Amphytrite, in peace and seclusion. True or not (!), the trident of Poseidon remains the symbol of Paxos.
The islands of the Ionian have a long history of occupation by foreign powers, largely on account of their strategic position between what is now Italy and the Balkans, and because of the countless excellent harbours,
The history of Paxos has always been closely linked with that of Corfu. From the third to the fifth century BC Athens and the Peloponnese were engaged in a long drawn out dispute, culminating in the Peloponnesian War that lasted for most of the fifth century BC.
The Ionian Islands were drawn into the war, allying with Athens.
The defences of the islands were greatly weakened by these wars and by a number of Spartan attacks, leaving them highly vulnerable. In 230BC the Romans were invited to take control of Corfu, and eventually Paxos and, later, the whole of the Ionian came under the rule of the Romans.

The period of Roman rule was a time of relevant peace, broken only by some squabbles amongst the Romans themselves, in which some of the islanders participated.
Irretrievably weakened after the death of the Emperor Constantine, the Roman Empire became divided, and its rule eventually came to an end with the Gothic invasion.
The Goths were to rule over Corfu, Paxos and most of the Ionian for almost 600 years - a time when the region suffered enormously from the attacks of pirates who proliferated in Ionian waters. When they attacked, they did not only loot material goods, they also took prisoners and sold their hostages as slaves.

The islands of the Ionian were invaded by the Normans in the last half of the 11th century. Enraged by Norman expansion in the region, the Emperor of the Byzantine Empire sent a fleet, allied with the Venetians, to deal with them and reclaim the islands. First attempts to displace the Normans from Corfu were unsuccessful, but they finally left the island in 1147.
When the Byzantine Empire fell to the Crusaders in 1204, the Venetians made their claim on Corfu and Paxos.
The Venetian influence was profound and, as can still be seen today, long-lasting. Everything from the culture of the region to health and education systems and agriculture.
It was the Venetians who brought the tomato to the island and they who instigated a huge programme of olive planting.
Walking around Paxos today, it is impossible to miss the signs of that long period of Venetian government - houses, churches, oil presses - many of these date back to these times.

The next of the Great Powers to turn their attention to the Ionian Islands was the Ottoman Empire. There was no denying the importance of the area as an important shipping route and a base from which to make attacks on Italy and Europe in general.Under cover of a peace treaty with Venice, the Ottoman Turks laid their plans for invasion.
In 1537, the Turkish fleet, landed at Igoumenitsa, on the mainland of Greece.
The pirate Admiral Barbarossa commenced a determined but ultimately unsuccessful siege of Corfu and Paxos.
Now it was the turn of Napoleon Bonaparte and by the latter part of the eighteenth century, having defeated the Venetians in numerous battles, he set his sights on the Ionian Islands.
Napoleon captured the islands of Corfu and Paxos in 1789.
The Paxiots were, by this time, all too happy to bid farewell to the Venetians, but the French occupation of the area lasted only a year before a Russo-Turkish fleet took control of the islands, leaving the Russians in control and declaring the islands of Corfu and Paxos part of the Eftanisos State - the State of the Seven Islands.
In the meantime, the French were at war with the British and determined to take back control of the Ionian islands.
They did so successfully in 1803, but since France was at war with Britain, this brought the British into the area.
By 1811 they had taken control of the Ionian islands of Zakynthos, Kefalonia, Ithaca and Lefkas.
Corfu, however had extremely good fortifications so although the British did blockade Corfu and neighbouring Paxos for several years, they never actually attacked.

Napoleon abdicated in 1812 and, following a meeting of the great powers of the day - Britain, Russia, Prussia and Austria - responsibility for the administration of the Ionian Islands passed to Britain.
The islands underwent a rapid period of change with the British who instigated programmes of building, road building and improvements in drainage and water supply.
A succession of British Lord High Commissioners governed the islands until 1864, when the Ionian Islands were officially united with the new Kingdom of Greece.
Corfu and Paxos officially declared a position of neutrality in the First World War.
Greece was occupied by both Italian soldiers and the Nazis during the Second World War, with Corfu and Paxos being under Italian administrative control between 1941 and 2943. In 1944 liberation came with the arrival of the Allied forces.
As in rest of Greece, recovery from the hardship and catastrophe of war was a long process. Many islanders found it necessary to seek employment abroad, in the UK and Germany in particular, in order to support their families.
Tourism 'discovered' Corfu and Paxos in the nineteen-seventies, though a small number of discerning Brits had long been in love with the islands. Since the nineteen-eighties, tourism has taken over from olive oil production as the mainstay of the island's economy.