Mer-Égée

Mer-Égée (French for Aegean Sea) was a one of three short-lived French départements in present Greece. It came into existence after Napoleon's conquest in 1797 of the Republic of Venice, when Venetian Greek possessions such as the Ionian islands fell to the French Directory.

It included the islands of Zante (Zakynthos), Kythira and the Strofades, as well as Dragamesto (modern Astakos) on the Greek mainland.

Its prefecture was at the town of Zante (Zakynthos). The territories were lost to Russia in 1798 and the département was officially disbanded in 1802.

During the renewed French control of the area in 1807-1809, the département was not re-established, the constitutional form of the Septinsular Republic being kept.

See also

• Corcyre
• Ithaque

References

• Lacroix, Louis (1853) (in French). Les Îles de la Grèce [The Islands of Greece]. Firmin Didot. p. 638. 
• Pauthier, G. (1863) (in French). Les Îles Ioniennes pendant l'occupation française et le protectorat anglais [The Ionian Islands during the French occupation and the British protectorate]. Paris: Benjamin Duprat. 
• Bellaire, J.P. (1805) (in French). Précis des opérations générales de la Division française du Levant [Precis of the general operations of the French division in the Levant]. Paris: Magimel & Humbert.