Laganas history guide

During that time,the island’s its population grew and its first colony,named Zakantha, was established in Spain.During the Byzantine period,the island suffered many attacks  by pirates, various conquerors as well as  barbarians.Zakynthos,together with the other islands,was captured successively by the Venetians,the Franks, the Angevins, the kings of Naples,and the Tocco family,who were princes of Florence.On 1484 that the rest of Greece was conquered by the Turks,Zante and the other Ionian Islands were ruled by the Venetians.

During the period of Venetian rule,Zante, which is a name given by the Venetians , came under the influence of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment.But the Venetians brought with them the typical aristocratic oligarchic political system and the population was divided into nobles,citizens and common people.This was why, when French republicans arrived on Zante in 1797, they were welcomed excitedly.But the French could not solve the island's social or economic problems either,so the Zakynthians sought new protectors.In 1798 the oligarchy returned under the Russians and the Turks (1799-1807).They were succeeded by officials of the French Empire (1807-1814) and finally by the British (1814-1864).

The English conquerors took care to modernize the administration and public works.The new ideas as well as Greece's independence from the Turks created a strong radical movement,whose activity contributed to the union of Zante and the other Ionian islands with Greece on 21vMay 1864,at which time the Greek flag was definitively raised over the island.