French conquest of Corsica

• 1. Introduction

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  The French conquest of Corsica began in May 1768 with a straightforward-sounding military expedition. A French force landed on an island that had spent decades fighting for its independence. What followed was anything but straightforward. The conquest would humiliate France's first commander, spawn a guerrilla resistance that took years to extinguish, force the island's beloved leader into British exile, and set in motion a chain of consequences that would eventually produce one of the most world-altering figures in modern history. The questions worth carrying through this story are not simply who won or lost. They are: what did Corsica build before France arrived, why did France want it so badly, and what did the conquest ultimately unleash on the world?

• 2. A Republic Worth Fighting For

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  The Corsican Revolution for independence from Genoa began in 1729, first led by Luiggi Giafferi and Giacinto Paoli. For twenty-six years, Corsicans fought against the Republic of Genoa, which had controlled the island since 1284. Along the way, in 1736, there was an almost theatrical interlude: a German adventurer named Theodor von Neuhoff was proclaimed king of an independent Corsican kingdom, backed by the Dutch Republic and the Kingdom of Great Britain. The experiment was short-lived, but it showed how much outside attention Corsican resistance had drawn.

  Giacinto Paoli's son, Pasquale Paoli, eventually took up the cause and in 1755 proclaimed the independent Corsican Republic. He wrote the 1755 Corsican Constitution himself, in Italian, which remained the language of culture on the island until the middle of the nineteenth century. That constitution established what was, at the time, the most extensive voting franchise in the world. Paoli also pushed for radical reforms in education, and his constitution drew heavily from ideas behind the British constitutional tradition.

  Despite four decades of intense fighting, Corsica could never dislodge the Genoese from the major coastal fortresses of Calvi and Bonifacio. But in 1767, Corsican forces did capture Capraia, a small island in the Tuscan Archipelago. That small victory came just before everything changed.

• 3. The Treaty That Sold an Island

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  Genoa's decision in 1768 was born from exhaustion. After forty years of fighting the Corsican Republic, the Genoese had run out of will and resources. Rather than continue, Genoa sold its rights over the island to France through the Treaty of Versailles in 1768.

  France had its own reasons for wanting Corsica. The Seven Years' War had ended in French defeat, and Louis XV was looking to strengthen his country's position in the Mediterranean. Corsica offered a strategically placed island. The Comte de Vaux, a veteran of that same Seven Years' War, was placed in command of the expedition that would secure French rule.

  For Pasquale Paoli and the Corsican Republic, the treaty was a betrayal by a power they had never truly controlled. The republic had been sovereign since 1755, and the sale was made without any Corsican consent. France launched the expedition the same year the treaty was signed, moving swiftly before resistance could organize.

• 4. Battle, Defeat, and Return

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  France's first offensive failed. In October 1768, the initial French expeditionary force suffered a significant defeat at the Battle of Borgo. The loss was not just a military embarrassment; it forced a complete rethink of the campaign.

  France sent large reinforcements, swelling the army on the island to 24,000 men, and replaced the commander. The Comte de Vaux took charge of the renewed effort. At the Battle of Ponte Novu in 1769, the Corsican army was decisively defeated. French forces overran the island, though full control took time. Corsican fighters took to the hills and waged guerrilla warfare against the occupiers for the better part of a year. It was not until 1770 that Corsica formally became a province of France.

  Pasquale Paoli, having neither the manpower nor the means to continue, fled to Great Britain. In exile, he became enormously popular among the British public and joined Samuel Johnson's dining club. He stayed in Britain until the French Revolution created conditions that allowed him to return to Corsica. British troops later intervened on the island between 1794 and 1796, establishing the Anglo-Corsican Kingdom with Paoli as its ruler. On the 19th of October 1796, France reconquered Corsica and made it a French département.

• 5. A Child Born at the Crossroads

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  When Napoleon Bonaparte was born on Corsica in 1769, the conquest had just made him a natural-born French citizen. His parents, Carlo Maria Buonaparte and Maria Letizia Ramolino, had both fought against the French to maintain Corsican independence, even while Maria was pregnant with Napoleon.

  Napoleon grew up shaped by Corsican nationalism. Over time, however, his loyalties shifted toward France as a whole. He joined the French Army and rose through its ranks. He adopted the ideals of the French Revolution as his own governing principles and eventually became ruler of mainland France. The Napoleonic Wars that followed devastated much of Europe and altered its political map permanently.

  The conquest that began as a French strategic maneuver in the Mediterranean thus produced, almost by accident, the man who would redraw European borders for a generation.

• 6. The Long Aftermath

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  French rule brought lasting cultural change. Under French administration, the Corsican language, closely related to Italian and long spoken across the island, gradually declined in favor of standard French. Italian held on as Corsica's official language until 1859, more than nine decades after the conquest.

  The French invasion also triggered what became known as the Corsican Crisis in British politics. Though the British government quietly sent secret aid to the Corsicans, it chose not to intervene openly to stop the French occupation. Britain did open a consulate on the island, but Corsica did not become a prominent concern in British public life until 1768.

  Today, two nationalist parties remain active on Corsica: the autonomist Femu a Corsica and the separatist Corsica Libera. Both advocate for some degree of autonomy from France, and some seek full independence. The National Liberation Front of Corsica has carried out a violent campaign since the 1970s, including bombings and assassinations targeting buildings and officials representing the French government. The Corsican Republic proclaimed by Pasquale Paoli in 1755 may be gone, but the political argument it represented has never fully closed.