Editing Ithaca (island) (section)

===Ottoman and Venetian eras===
{{Further|Ottoman Greece|Ionian Islands under Venetian rule}}

In 1479, Ottoman forces reached the islands and many of the people fled from the island out of fear of the new Turkish settlers.<ref name=":0" /> Those who remained hid in the mountains to avoid the pirates who controlled the channel between Cephalonia and Ithaca and the bays of the island. In the following five years, [[Ottoman Empire|the Turks]], [[Tocco family|Tocco]] and [[Republic of Venice|Venetians]] laid claim to the islands diplomatically. Possession of the islands was finally taken by the Ottoman Empire from 1484 to 1499. During this period, the Venetians had strengthened into a major power with an organized fleet. The Venetians pursued their interest in the Ionian Islands, and in 1499 a war between the Venetians and the Turks began. The allied fleets of the Venetians and the Spanish besieged Ithaca, and the other islands. The fleets prevailed, and from 1500 onwards the Venetians controlled the islands. According to a treaty of 1503, Ithaca, Cephalonia and Zakynthos would be [[Ionian Islands under Venetian rule|ruled by the Venetians]], and [[Lefkada]] by the Ottoman Empire. By then Ithaca was almost uninhabited, and the Venetians had to grant incentives to settlers from neighbouring islands and the mainland to repopulate it.<ref name="EncBritt" /> 1504, the Venetians ordered official the repopulation of Ithaca with tax incentives to attract settlers from neighbouring islands. The Venetian authorities found the island was already being repopulated by members of the [[Galatis (family)|Galatis]] family, who laid claim to it as their property, having received rights over Ithaca under the Tocco regime.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Zapanti|first=Stamatoula|date=1998|title=Η Ιθάκη στα πρώτα χρόνια τησ Βενετοκρατίας (1500-1571)|journal=Κεφαλληνιακά Χρονικά|volume=7|pages=129–133}}</ref> However, according to historians, the island received a great population revival in the period before and after the [[Siege of Candia|fall of Candia]] when numerous people from Crete arrived there as well as the noble Karavia family (Latin: Caravia), a branch of the ancient byzantine [[Kallergis family|Kallergi family]]. This family and its followers inhabited settlements on the island, received fiefs from the [[Venetian Senate]] and indulged in a tremendously profitable maritime trade as well as piracy against the [[Ottoman Turks|Ottomans]]. According to the French traveler [[William Leake|Leake]] during the 18th century the families of Karavias, Petalas and the Dendrinos constituted the three main factions of the island, with the Karavias controlling its most productive part. During the next centuries the island remained under Venetian control.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Leake |first=William Martin |title=Travels in northern Greece |volume=3 |url=https://archive.org/details/gri_000033125008698322  |publisher=J. Rodwell |date=1835 |publication-place=London |pages=[https://archive.org/details/gri_000033125008698322/page/28 28–29]}}</ref>