How different was life for Ionian Island Greeks under Venetian rule than for mainland Greeks under Ottoman rule?

[Roma_Victrix]

During the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, was life truly so abysmal and poverty-stricken for mainland Greeks living under Ottoman military rule as opposed to their Greek brethren living on the Ionian Islands controlled by the Republic of Venice? As many of you may recall, the Ionian Islands were largely controlled by Venice even long before the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Although the majority of the inhabitants remained Orthodox Greek instead of Roman Catholic, the Venetian language became the lingua franca of the upper classes, the currency was the Venetian lira, and general Italian culture was generally accepted in many ways. Yet was the material culture and economy of the islands in a much better position than it was for Greeks living in say Thessaloniki or Athens? At times the Ottomans were able to snatch some of the islands from the Venetians, but they generally remained under stable Venetian control for almost as long as Ottoman Greece existed, relatively speaking (the islands forming the Septinsular Republic in shortly after Napoleon dissolved the Venetian Republic in 1797). Can we really speak of all of Ottoman Greece as being monolithic and virtually the same throughout the entire period in terms of relative lack of material wealth and prosperity compared to the Ionian Islands under Venice? If so, why? Was it due mostly to the existence of the large Ottoman fiefs carved out of Greece and the burdens of taxation exacted on the native Greeks by the Ottoman Turks?

[neoptolemos]

Greece was never monolithic since antiquity due to the variety of the landscape, micro enviroment and local pecularities.
Eptanese were spared from the burden of the suffering the 18th and early 19th century had for the mainland Greece.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djya...CD7DBB206A72F9

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bul5...6A72F9&index=6

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95gP...CD7DBB206A72F9

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXt0...CD7DBB206A72F9

Music from Eptanese
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUBB...qjaB8mjq-4OqYA

Rebetiko, music that comes from the Anatolian Greeks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsUYqF32EdU

[KostasHBK]

One of the main differences regarding the Ionian Islands during the Venetian rule was the conservation of a local nobilitas and intelligentsia. It was an Ottoman tactic to exterminate all the non-cooperative aristocrats of a conquered area, leaving the inhabitances without leadership. That also caused the local intelligentsia to immigrate mainly to the west. That didn’t happen to the Ionian Islands and Crete until the 17^th century allowing a spiritual and artistic “Renascence” to take place in the area.
The comparison of the Ionian Islands and Greek mainland in economical bases is difficult. The reason is because financial factors were not similar in all of Ottoman Greece. There were areas with high taxation – mainly due to the Avariz taxes- and others with just the main cizie tax. Also keep in mind that after the late 17^th century, the non-Muslim population had many financial opportunities in the big urban centers.
Also, let’s keep in mind that the Ottoman authorities rarely forced the non-Muslims to convert. Most of the conversions to Islam were voluntary due to the high taxation of the non-muslim population. The Venetian authorities on the other hand, occasionally forced the Orthodox Christians to Convert to the Roman dogma.

[Roma_Victrix]

One of the main differences regarding the Ionian Islands during the Venetian rule was the conservation of a local nobilitas and intelligentsia. It was an Ottoman tactic to exterminate all the non-cooperative aristocrats of a conquered area, leaving the inhabitances without leadership. That also caused the local intelligentsia to immigrate mainly to the west. That didn’t happen to the Ionian Islands and Crete until the 17^th century allowing a spiritual and artistic “Renascence” to take place in the area.
The comparison of the Ionian Islands and Greek mainland in economical bases is difficult. The reason is because financial factors were not similar in all of Ottoman Greece. There were areas with high taxation – mainly due to the Avariz taxes- and others with just the main cizie tax. Also keep in mind that after the late 17^th century, the non-Muslim population had many financial opportunities in the big urban centers.
Also, let’s keep in mind that the Ottoman authorities rarely forced the non-Muslims to convert. Most of the conversions to Islam were voluntary due to the high taxation of the non-muslim population. The Venetian authorities on the other hand, occasionally forced the Orthodox Christians to Convert to the Roman dogma.

Did the Ottomans actively stifle Greek religious artwork? Were there exact written laws in the Ottoman law code forbidding such things? Or was it just an informal practice of suppression administered at random by Ottoman authorities whenever they felt like it? That seems to be the impression one gains when reading articles for the Cretan School (extinguished by the 17th-century Ottoman conquest of Crete) and its successor the Heptanese School, which survived in the Venetian-controlled Ionian Islands.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretan_School

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heptan...ool_(painting)

[fatti dell'ex nobile]

One of the main differences regarding the Ionian Islands during the Venetian rule was the conservation of a local nobilitas and intelligentsia. It was an Ottoman tactic to exterminate all the non-cooperative aristocrats of a conquered area, leaving the inhabitances without leadership. That also caused the local intelligentsia to immigrate mainly to the west. That didn’t happen to the Ionian Islands and Crete until the 17^th century allowing a spiritual and artistic “Renascence” to take place in the area.
The comparison of the Ionian Islands and Greek mainland in economical bases is difficult. The reason is because financial factors were not similar in all of Ottoman Greece. There were areas with high taxation – mainly due to the Avariz taxes- and others with just the main cizie tax. Also keep in mind that after the late 17^th century, the non-Muslim population had many financial opportunities in the big urban centers.Also, let’s keep in mind that the Ottoman authorities rarely forced the non-Muslims to convert. Most of the conversions to Islam were voluntary due to the high taxation of the non-muslim population. The Venetian authorities on the other hand, occasionally forced the Orthodox Christians to Convert to the Roman dogma.

I would to comment that venecian never forced us to convert to the Roman dogma but the opposite. More speciffically venetians didnt have the best relationship with Pope so they let us stay orthodox or in many cases convert from Catholic to Orthodox.