The Septinsular Republic (Greek: Ἑπτάνησος Πολιτεία, Italian: Repubblica Settinsulare, Ottoman Turkish: جزاييرى صباى موجتميا جومهورو) was an island republic that existed from 1800 to 1807 under nominal Russian and Ottoman sovereignty in the Ionian Islands. It succeeded the previous French departments of Greece. It was the first time Greeks had been granted even limited self-government since the fall of the last remnants of the Byzantine Empire to the Ottomans in the mid-15th century.
In 1807, the republic was ceded to Napoleon's First French Empire, but the islands were not annexed by France, keeping their institutions of government (known in French as République Septinsulaire or République des Sept-Îles). The British gradually took control of the islands, and following the Treaty of Paris, the islands were formally organised into the United States of the Ionian Islands under British protection.
The currency used was the gazeta (plural gazetes, Greek: γαζέτα, plural γαζέτες). It replaced the Venetian lira at a rate of 1 gazeta = 2 soldi, and continued to be used through the existence of the Septinsular Republic. After the British took possession of the islands, coins were countermarked in Turkish kuruş for use on the islands before the obol was introduced in 1819 for the United States of the Ionian Islands. |
