KERKIRA
Kerkira is the ancient Corcyra. In about 734 BC the island, which has been identified as Scheria, home of the Phaecians in Homer's Odyssey, was colonized by the Corinthians. After the Persian Wars, in which Corcyra did not partake, further dispute with Corinth led the Corcyreans to ally themselves in 435 BC with Athens, and the intervention of Athens contributed to the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War. In 229 BC the island came under Roman protection.
It was part of the Byzantine Empire until around 1400 AD, when it passed into the possession of the Venetians, who called it "Corfu" and held it until 1797, despite numerous attacks by the Ottoman Turks. It became British protectorate in 1815 and then a part of Greece in 1864.
During World War I the French took military possession of the island in 1916 to provide a refuge for the exhausted Serbian army. The Declaration of Corfu, proclaiming the union of the Yugoslavs, was signed here in 1917. Benito Mussolini sent naval forces to bombard the town of Kerkira and to occupy the island in 1923, but these troops were evacuated later that year. During World War II the island was held by Italian and German forces until it was retaken by Greek and British troops in October of 1944.