Xenocracy

Of the many European territorial reconfigurations to result from the Congress of Vienna, the Ionian State remains among the least understood. Xenocracy offers a much-needed account of the region during the ensuing half-century of oversight by Great Britain-a period that embodied all of the contradictions of British imperial expansion. Administrators deliberately pursued liberal reforms and fostered the growth of a middle class that was instrumental in building the colonial state. However, Ionian finances deteriorated and fissures appeared along class lines, presenting a significant threat to social stability. As author Sakis Gekas shows, the ordeal fueled an ambivalence toward Western Europe, anticipating the "neocolonial" condition with which the Greek nation struggles even today.