Short answers, pulled from the story.
Pasquale Paoli (the 6th of April 1725 - the 5th of February 1807) was a Corsican patriot, statesman, and military leader who served as President of the Corsican Republic from 1755 to 1769. He is credited by historian Linda Colley with writing the first ever written constitution of a nation state, and his republic was a representative democracy operating under Enlightenment principles decades before such governments became common.
The Corsican Constitution of 1755 was ratified by popular vote in November 1755 and declared Corsica a sovereign nation independent from the Republic of Genoa. Pasquale Paoli wrote it. Historian Linda Colley credits it as the first written constitution of a nation state. It was composed in Italian and established a representative democracy with an elected Diet and no hereditary authority.
Napoleon Bonaparte idolised Paoli as a young man and was an active admirer during the 1790 Corsican elections. The relationship broke down after a failed military expedition at La Maddalena Island in February 1793 and a deepening political split over the French Revolution. In May 1793, Paolists detained Napoleon, ransacked his family home, and the Corsican parliament formally outlawed the Bonapartes. Napoleon never fully shed his complicated feelings about Paoli throughout his life.
Genoa ceded Corsica to France by the Treaty of Versailles in May 1768 because it was the only way to repay the debts Genoa had incurred for French military assistance in defending the island. France then proceeded to military conquest in September 1768, defeating Paoli's guerrilla resistance at the Battle of Ponte Novu in 1769.
The Anglo-Corsican Kingdom was a protectorate in which King George III was accepted as sovereign head of state over Corsica, lasting from 1794 to 1796. It was established after Paoli appealed to Britain for protection and a British fleet under Admiral Samuel Hood assisted in taking the island from revolutionary France. It was not an incorporation into the British Empire, and the relationship between Paoli's government and British authority was never clearly defined.
Several towns in the United States carry the name Paoli, including Paoli in Colorado, Indiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Paoli, Pennsylvania was named after General Paoli's Tavern, a meeting point for the Sons of Liberty. The editor of the New York Journal described Paoli in 1768 as "the greatest man on earth," reflecting the influence he had on the American revolutionary movement.