For homonymous articles, see Treaty of London.
The London Treaty concerns the cession of the Ionian Islands to Greece from the United Kingdom, which had them since the Treaty of Paris of 1815.
The islands in question were Corfu, Ithaca, Paxos, Cephalonia, Zakynthos and Lefkas, as well as Kythera, which is not strictly speaking an Ionian island, being located south of the Pelopponese peninsula. Since Greece gained independence in 1832, the inhabitants of the Ionian Islands had expressed their opposition to foreign sovereignty, and the decision to transfer that territory to Greece was taken at a meeting of the British Government, in 1862, by then Foreign Secretary Henry John Temple, supported by Queen Victoria. Maintaining British control over these islands was indeed too costly compared to the strategic benefits that could be expected.
After lengthy negotiations, the Treaty of London was signed by the Greek Plenipotentiary, Charílaos Trikoúpis, on March 29, 1864. On May 2, 1864, the British left the islands, which became three provinces of the Kingdom of Greece. The United Kingdom retained the use of a port on the island of Corfu. code
wiki
