The agreement of 1484 brought fundamental changes to Zakynthos and ushered in a new epoch for its people. Until then, the island's fate had been part of that of the rest of Greece, and Zakynthos had physically and psychologically belonged to the body of Greece as a whole, even if that body was repeatedly dismembered, or the ties between the inhabitants of Zakynthos and other Greeks were not always ties of friendship and patriotic support. After the disaster of September 1479, Zakynthos stood alone and in ruins.
Shortly after the Venetian take-over, the handful of islanders who had survived the holocaust saw the arrival of thousands of new settlers. Venice had issued announcements in 1485 and 1492 in all its territories, inviting whoever wished to come to Zakynthos and make a new home. The Venetian nobles who held the reigns of government in Zakynthos generously shared out the farms and houses amongst the newcomers. A new period of activity began, which quickly resulted in high population growth: the records of 1515 could testify to more than 20,000 people living in Zakynthos.
An important feature of this demographic development was that the Zakynthian element was by no means wiped out. On the contrary, it not only recovered to a remarkable degree, but its influence was such that it assimilated the newcomers and permeated them with the characteristics of its own local traditions.
Part of the reason for the growing prosperity of the island was, of course, that Venetian rule created conditions peaceful stability such as had not been known for centuries. One result of this was that the typical medieval settlement of Zakynthos, which had been huddling close to the defensive strength of the castle, began to expand outside the walls and in time became a major town on the seaward slopes, with well planned streets, open squares, and imposing buildings. Known under the name of Aegialos, this fine new town came to be dubbed by the people of the time as the Florence of Greece. Emboldened by Venetian pretection, the islanders also began to establish, at first semipermanent and later permanent, settlements elsewhere on the island.
The growth of Aegialbs, the promulgation of new laws, and the resurgence of commercial activities laid the foundation for the proper social organisation of the island along communal lines, in a manner unknown since the fall of the ancient world. The usual aristocratic-oligarchic constitution of the Venetians provided for the self-government of Zakynthos under a Council of Nobles, who elected their Prince as well as a general Governor who dealt with day-to-day administrative, judicial and military matters.
As in all Venetian-ruled territories, the population was divided into three classes:
The nobility (nobili), whose income derived solely from their landed estates, and whose fathers and grandfathers had at no time engaged in the «coarse pursuits», i.e. manual labour. The members of this class were registered in the Golden Book, the Libro d'Oro.
The citizens (civili), the middle class of prosperous merchants teachers, goldsmiths, priests, notaries, and other professional men, who had no political rights. Although it was their dream and ambition that their names should eventually be inscribed in the Llbro d'Oro and their descendants become members of the nobility, they frequently stood up for the rights of the common people.
The common people (popolari), who were subdivided into workers, peasants, sailors, and all those engaged in «coarse pursuits». They too were without any political rights, of course, and one of the nobles, Ermo Lunci, admitted that their position was in fact that of serfs. They were shamelessly and mercilessly exploited by the nobles.
It was indeed the insatiable and inhumane rapaciousness of the nobility which in time led to serious social opposition and friction. By the beginning of the seventeenth century, this unrest had become so acute that it led to the first social revolution in modern Greek history. The 1628-1632 Revolt of the People was drowned in its own blood by the Venetian Governor of the time.
Meanwhile the Zakynthians had frequently to fend off attacks from the Turks, sometimes fighting alone, sometimes alongside their neighbours. Zakynthos sent its own ships and troops to the sea battle of Nafpaktos in 1571, when the Christian fleet secured a major victory against the Porte. After the Cretan War in 1669 and the occupation of Crete by the Turks, many Cretan families left their homeland. Among those who escaped to Zakynthos were the forebears of the national Greek poet Dionyssios Solomos.
The Republic of Venice was declining markedly. The impotence and greed of many of its nobles, most of whom lived in the overseats territories, increasingly provoked the protest and revolution of the lower classes who suffered the brunt of ever greater injustice, deprivation and persecution.
Biding their time with ill-concealed impatience, the Turks were hovering expectantly, while new powers were coming into the ascendancy in Europe.
One by one Venice lost her overseas possessions. Her power was shrivelling, and everlasting feuds among her worthless nobles brought her to the edge of ruin. The people of Zakynthos watched this visible decline of its rulers and waited for the opportunity to coast off their yoke.
With the spead of eighteenth-century French liberal ideas and in the wake of the French Revolution, the people of Europe threw off the lethargy of subordination and organised themselves in the pursuit of the ancient human rights of freedom, equality and national independence, which had been so barbarically trampled on for centuries on end.
Zakynthos received the new French ideas with enthusiasm. By the time Napoleon was winning his battles, political groups were being formed on the island, the most important among them the Club of the Jacobins. Its members included two literary men of note, the pre-Solomos poet Antbnios Martelaos, and the dramatist Dimitrios Gouzelis. The fundamental goals of the Zakynthos Jacobins were the equal distribution of land among the citizens, and their complete political equality with the nobility. The ruling class on the island not unnaturally reacted negatively to this liberal movement. They were fully aware of the dangers these new ideas presented for their own class, and they had no compunction in stamping out very few voices of dissent when it was decided to murder all the Jacobins