History of Corsica
prehistory
About the cultures that began around 6000 BC. Little is known about the island of Corsica (the oldest possibly pre-Romanesque date, 6570 BC the “Lady of Bonifacio”) . Only in Filitosa and near Terrina (from 2600 BC copper processing of the Terrinien culture) were remnants of the cultural epochs found, they allow conclusions to be drawn about their sequence. From around 1800 BC BC the megalithic cultures were overlaid by the Torre culture . From the fact that the statue menhirs were often smashed and used as building material in the buildings of the Torreans, the archaeologist Roger Grosjean concluded that this transition between cultures did not take place peacefully.
Prehistoric Torrean places: Alo-Bisucce , Araggiu , Balestra , Ceccia , Capula , Cucuruzzu , Filitosa , Foce , Palaggiu , Stantari , Tappa and Torre .
Antiquity
The earliest historical inhabitants of Corsica were probably Ligurians . The Phocaeans from Ionia were the first historical people to establish settlements here. Around 560 BC The city of Alalia was founded. Towards the end of the 6th century, however, they were subject to the Etruscans , allied with the Carthaginians , who were in turn ousted by the Carthaginians after they were ousted by the Romans.
The latter were followed by the Romans , who were able to gain a foothold here at the time of the First Punic War , but only settled in the middle of the 2nd century BC. BC settled. Both Marius and Sulla founded colonies - the first in 104 BC. In Mariana (near Lucciana ), the second in 88 BC. In Aleria. In the first centuries of the Christian era, Corsica was one of the empire's senatorial provinces . Although it had permanent trade ties with mainland Italy, the remote and impoverished island was better known as a place of exile for political prisoners. One of the most famous of them was Seneca the Younger , who stayed here for eight years until AD 49.
During the collapse of the Roman Empire in the west, possession of Corsica was disputed for a while between the Vandals and the Gothic allies of the Roman emperors. In 469, Geiseric finally made himself master of the island. The Vandals ruled for 65 years; the Corsican forests provided the wood for the fleets with which they terrorized the Mediterranean. After Belisarius had brought down the power of the Vandals in Africa , his lieutenant Cyril conquered Corsica (536).
Eastern Stream, Franconia, Saracens
Now it became part of the Eastern Roman Empire under the Exarchate of Carthage and saw occasional raids by the Lombards . Moreover, in 713, Muslims came to the island for the first time from the north coast of Africa. Corsica remained nominally assigned to the Byzantine Empire until Charlemagne, after his victory against the Lombards (774), set out to conquer the island, which now came to the Franks .
The Saracens of the 9th to 11th centuries
From 806 Spanish Moors and African Saracens invaded Corsica. They occupied large stretches of coast since 810 and drove out the residents of Aleria and Mariana . One figure of the early resistance was Ugo Colonna (also Ugo della Colonna), who defeated the Moors at Aleria and the Moorish ruler Nugalon at Mariana. Remember today a. the Corsican place names Campo dei Mori, Campomoro, Morosaglia and Morsiglia to the time of the Moors. Boniface II of Lucca (788–847; Italian Bonifacio), from 828 to 834 Margrave of Tuscia (Tuscia) and prefect of Corsica, successfully defended the island against Saracen attacks in 833.
But the islanders suffered under their reign of terror for more than 200 years. For this reason, most of the Corsicans withdrew to the inaccessible interior of the island. This strengthened the division of the island, which was already indicated in Roman times. The Corsicans lived apart from the Mediterranean world in the mountains, while the foreign rulers seized the coastal zones. The island's coat of arms dates from that time and is supposed to remind of the expulsion of the Saracens in the 11th century.
After the expulsion of the Saracens, a feudal system of various lords from Liguria and Tuscany formed under the nominal suzerainty of the Lombard Malaspina . The new masters divided the land among themselves, built castles on the heights and tyrannized the people. In addition to the powerful "Signori", the small "Centiluomini" tried to expand their power. Bloody feuds ensued, fighting and complete anarchy ensued for centuries.
A first attempt by the Corsicans to form a people's rule with parliament in Morosaglia (1358) was short-lived. Sambucuccio d'Alando (died around 1370) conquered the center of the island, with the exception of Cap Corse in the north and the Terra dei Signori in the south. In doing so, he carried out a kind of collectivization of property. After his death, the Signori came back to power.
But despite all efforts, the Muslims seem to have retained part of the island. Berengar II , King of Italy, made himself ruler of the island, and after his deposition by Otto the Great it became a refuge for his son Adalbert, who managed to hold the island and pass it on to his son, another Adalbert . The latter was defeated by the troops of Otto II , and Corsica was again attached to the margraviate of Tuscany, from which Adalbert received part of the island as a fief.
Origin of the Terra di Comune
The period of feudal anarchy now began, with petty feudal lords eager to expand their respective territories. Especially the Counts of Cinarca, who are said to be descended from Adalbert, aimed to establish their supremacy over the whole island. To counter this and other ambitions, a kind of national diet was held in the 11th century, and Sambucuccio, Lord of Alando, led a movement that resulted in the feudal lords being restricted to less than the southern half of the island , and in the rest of the area, which was to be called Terra di Comune , a kind of republic of autonomous communities was founded.
This system, which survived until the French Revolution, is described by Jacobi as follows. Each parish nominated a number of council members who were entrusted with the administration of justice under the direction of a Podestà. The Podestà from all electoral districts elected a member of the supreme council who was responsible for passing laws and ordinances for the Terra di Comune. This council or magistrate was named the twelve according to the number of wards that participated in the nomination. In the end, the fathers of the commune elected a magistrate in each district who, under the name caporale, was responsible for representing the interests of the poor and the weak.
Meanwhile, the south remained under the rule of the Counts of Cinarca, while in the north feudal barons in the promontory of Cap Corso maintained their independence. Internal feuds continued; Wilhelm, Margrave of Massa , from the family that later became known as Malaspina , was turned on by the communes (1020), drove out the Counts of Cinarca, called the barons to order, and in harmony with the communes established a domain which he could pass on to his son.
Loaned to Pisa
Towards the end of the 11th century, however, the popes laid claim to the island due to the donation of Charlemagne, although the Frankish conqueror had promised to return the church lands at best. The Corsican clergy supported the claim, and in 1077 the Corsicans declared themselves subjects of the Holy See in the presence of the apostolic legate Landolfo, Bishop of Pisa. Pope Gregory VII then lent the island to the bishop and his successors. The enfeoffment was confirmed by Urban II in 1190 and expanded into a concession full of sovereignty.
The Pisans solemnly took possession of the island, and their judices took the place of papal legates. Like the Vandals before, the Pisans also valued Corsica as an inexhaustible store of materials for their fleet. Corsica flourished under the enlightened rule of the great commercial republic.
Conflict between Pisa and Genoa
There were, of course, plenty of reasons for disagreement. The Corsican bishops repented of their submission to the Pisan archbishop; the Genoese intrigued in Rome to obtain a withdrawal of the papal gift to their rivals with whom they fought for supremacy at sea.
The following popes followed conflicting strategies in this regard. In 1138, as a compromise , Innocent II divided the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the island between the Archbishops of Pisa and Genoa. This gave the Genoese great influence on Corsica, and the competition between Pisans and Genoese spilled over to the island. It was not until 1195 that Genoa was able to really gain a foothold in the country by conquering the pirate nest Bonifacio, which imitated the trade of both republics. For twenty years the Pisans struggled to win the fortress for themselves, until in 1217 the Pope settled the matter by taking it into his own hands.
During the 13th century, the struggle between Pisa and Genoa continued, replicating the feud between the Ghibellines and Guelphs that took place in Italy on the island . To put an end to the ruinous anarchy, the heads of the Terra di Comune brought in the Margrave Isnard Malaspina; the Pisans installed the Count of Cinarca once more. The war between the Margraves, the Pisans and the Genoese dragged on with varying degrees of luck, because none of them succeeded in gaining supremacy.
Corsica goes to Genoa
On April 4, 1297, Pope Boniface VIII added to the complications by enfeoffing King James II of Aragon with Corsica and Sardinia . After a long delay, the Aragonese attacked Sardinia in 1325 and subjugated it, with the result that the Pisans, with their shattered naval power, could no longer maintain themselves in Corsica. Another phase of anarchy followed, until in 1347 a large assembly of caporali and barons decided to offer Genoa sovereignty over the island. A regular tribute should be paid to the republic; the Corsicans should be able to preserve their laws and customs under the council of the twelve in the north and a council of the six in the south; Corsican interests should be represented in Genoa by an orator .
The Genoese rule began under bad omens, because the Black Death killed around two thirds of the population. It shouldn't bring peace to the island. The Genoese feudal barons of the south, like the hereditary caporali of the north, opposed the authority of the Genoese governor. King Peter of Aragon took advantage of their feuds to re-file his claims. In 1372 Arrigo, Count of La Rocca, made himself master of the island with the help of Aragonese troops. But it was precisely his success that turned the Barons of Cap Corso against him, who turned to Genoa again.
The republic, preoccupied with other problems, resorted to the hapless stopgap of transferring the governorship of the island to a five-person society called Maona. They tried to restore order through a partnership with Arrigo della Rocca, which had devastating consequences. In 1380 four of the Maona governors returned their rights to the Genoese Republic, and Leonello Lomellino was the sole governor. It was he who had Bastia built on the north coast in 1383 , which became the stronghold of Genoa on the island. It was not until 1401, after the death of Count Arrigo, that Genoese rule was temporarily restored.
At that time, the Giovannali , a Franciscan sect in the region of l'Alta Rocca, sometimes assigned to the Cathars, were violently smashed after around 50 years of existence.
Aragon
In the meantime, Genoa itself had fallen into the hands of the French, and in 1407 Leonello Lomellino returned with that of Charles VI. granted by France the title of Count of Corsia as governor. But Vincentello d'Istria, who had done a great job in the service of the King of Aragon, had conquered Cinarca, gathered all the communes of the Terra di Comune around himself, proclaimed himself Count of Corsica in Biguglia and even took Bastia. Lomellino was unable to hold out against him, and by 1410 Corsica, with the exception of Bonifacios and Calvis, was lost to Genoa, which was now independent from France again.
However, a feud between Vincentello and the Bishop of Mariana led to the loss of his authority in the Terra di Comune. He was forced to seek help in Spain and in his absence the Genoese were able to recapture the country. Not for long , though - the great schism was too obvious an opportunity for argument to be missed. The auxiliary bishops in Genoa fought for Benedict XIII. that in Pisa for John XXIII. ; and when Vincentello returned with an Aragonese troop he was able to fish for profit in the troubled waters. He easily took Cinarca and Ajaccio , came to an agreement with the Pisan bishops, mastered the Terra di Comune and built a strong castle in Corte . By 1419 the Genoese possessions in Corsica had shrunk back to Calvi and Bonifacio.
At this critical moment, Alfonso of Aragon appeared with a large fleet to take possession of the island. Calvi fell to him, but Bonifacio held on. His resistance gave the Corsicans, outraged by the Aragonese tyranny, time to organize a revolt. In the end, the siege of Bonifacio was lifted and the city, confirmed in its privileges, became practically an independent republic under Genoese protection. As for Vincentello, he held out for a while, but eventually the land rose against him. In 1435 he was executed as a rebel by the Genoese who accidentally captured him in the port of Bastia.
The anarchy continued as rival parties, nominally supporters of the Aragonese and Genoese, vied for supremacy. This time the Genoese doge Janus da Fregoso took advantage of the situation to subdue the island, with his artillery having an easy time against the army of Count Paolo della Rocca (1441). To consolidate his rule, he built and fortified a new city, San Fiorenzo , near the ruins of Nebbio. But the Aragonese intervened again and the anarchy reached its peak. An appeal to Pope Eugene IV resulted in the dispatch of a papal army of 14,000 men (1444), which was completely destroyed by an alliance of some of the caporali and most of the barons under the intrepid leadership of Rinuccio da Leca.
A second campaign was more successful and Rinuccio was killed. In 1447 Eugene was succeeded on the papal throne by the Genoese Nicholas V , who immediately transferred his rights to Corsica to Genoa. The island was now effectively divided between: the Genoese Republic; the lords of Cinarca, who kept their lands in the south under the nominal suzerainty of Aragon; and Galeazzo da Campo Fregoso, who was at the head of the Terra di Comune.
Banca di San Giorgio
A meeting of the heads of the Terra di Comune decided to offer the government of the island to the Bank Casa di San Giorgio , an influential commercial society founded in Genoa in the 14th century. The bank promised, the Spaniards were driven out of the country and a government was organized. But the bank soon came into conflict with the barons and began a war of extermination against them. Their resistance was finally broken in 1460, and the survivors took refuge in Tuscany. But order had hardly been restored when the Genoese Tommasinoda Campo Fregoso, whose mother was a Corsican, took up the claims of his family and managed to get the interior of the island under control (1462).
Two years later, the Duke of Milan, Francesco Sforza , overthrew the Fregoso family in Genoa and made his claims on Corsica. His lieutenant easily forced the island to accept the suzerainty of the Duke of Milan. But when Francesco Sforza died in 1466, a dispute broke out, and Milan s sovereignty became purely nominal, except in the coastal cities. Finally, in 1484, Tommasino da Campo Fregoso convinced the Duke of Milan to give him the government of the island. The fortified places were given to him; he came into relationship through a marriage with Gian Paolo da Leca, the most powerful of the barons, and was soon at the head of the island.
Within three years, the Corsicans were in a storm again. A descendant of the Malaspinas who had once ruled in Corsica, Jacopo IV (d'Appiano), was now Prince of Piombino , and it was against him that discontent was directed. His brother Gherardo, Count of Montagnano, took up the call for help, proclaimed himself Count of Corsica, landed on the island and occupied Biguglia and San Fiorenzo. Tommasino da Campo Fregoso then discreetly sold his rights to the Bank of San Giorgio. But no sooner had the bank defeated Count Gherado - with the support of the Count of Leca - than the Fregoso family tried to deny the sale. Their claims were supported by the Count of Leca, and it cost the representatives of the bank a hard battle until the baron was defeated and banished to Sardinia. He returned twice, and it was not until 1501 that he was finally expelled from the country. It was not until 1501 that the other barons were also slain, and the bank could consider their possession of the island safe.
The power that the Banca di San Giorgio had gained with ruthless brutality was exercised with narrow-minded and short-sighted selfishness. Only a shadow of indigenous institutions was tolerated and no adequate system of administration was put in place in place of the abolished one. The blood feud or vendetta took root in the absence of justice at a time when, elsewhere in Europe, the advancement of civilization was putting an end to private war. The representatives of the bank did not oppose these constant disputes because they saw them as the best means of preventing a general uprising. Only busy with exerting taxes from a recalcitrant population, they neglected the defense of the coast, along which pirates plundered at will. In addition to all these hardships, there was the plague and devastating floods in the 16th century, which made the country even more impoverished and barbaric.
French interference
Under these circumstances, King Henry II of France devised the project to conquer the island. He received all the information he needed from Corsican mercenaries in the French service, embittered by the injustice suffered in the hands of the Genoese. Through a treaty of alliance concluded with Suleyman the Magnificent in Constantinople (February 1, 1553), he secured cooperation with the Turkish fleet under Targudscha Pasha. The combined forces attacked the island in the same year; the citadel of Bastia fell almost without a fight, and immediately all the other fortresses were besieged at the same time. After Bonifacio surrendered to the Turks after dogged resistance, a massacre of the garrison followed. Soon the Genoese held only Calvi of all fortified places .
At this critical moment, Emperor Charles V intervened ; a strong power of Imperial and Genoese troops was brought to the island, and the fortunes of war turned. The details of the battle that followed, in which the Corsican national hero Sampiero de Bastelica earned his first laurels, are of little general importance. Fortresses were conquered and re-conquered; For three years the French, Germans, Spaniards, Genoese and Corsicans indulged in mutual slaughter and atrocities. The result was a pointless return to the status quo. In 1556 an armistice left Corsica, with the exception of Bastia, to the French, who set about establishing a tolerable government; but in 1559 the island was reassigned to the Banca di San Giorgio by the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis , from which it was immediately taken over by the Republic of Genoa.
According to the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis
Problems started again immediately. The Genoese tried to levy a tax, which the Corsicans refused. In violation of the peace treaty, in which a universal amnesty was agreed, they confiscated the property of Sampiero da Bastelica, better known as Sampiero Corso . Then Sampiero took the lead in the national movement. He seemed to prefer the supremacy of the Turks to that of Genoa, because he went to Constantinople with a letter from the French king and asked for help, which could have reduced Corsica to the status of an Ottoman province. However, all of his efforts to get foreign aid were in vain. He decided to act alone and ended up with only fifty followers in June 1564.
His success was exceptional at first, and he was soon at the head of 8,000 people, but ultimately victory was prevented by indiscipline among the Corsicans and constant feuds. For over two years a war was waged in which both sides gave nothing to each other. But after Sampiero's assassination in 1567, the morale of the insurgents was broken. In 1568 an honorable peace including a general amnesty was concluded with the Genoese commander Giorgio Dora. Sampiero's son Alphonse d'Ornano emigrated to France with 300 of his friends, where he was promoted to marshal under Henry IV .
From that time until 1729 Corsica remained at peace under the government of Genoa. It was, however, a peace through weariness and despair, not contentment. The unification of 1568 had given the Corsicans a great deal of autonomy; During the following years these were withdrawn bit by bit until they, disarmed and powerless, were excluded from all offices in the administration. The Genoese also did not replace the system they destroyed with an efficient one. In the absence of an effective judiciary, the vendetta increased; because of the lack of effective protection, the coast was exposed to the devastation of pirates, so that the coastal villages and towns were abandoned and the inhabitants withdrew to the interior. A large part of the fertile land therefore became a malaria- ridden wasteland.
In addition, the population was decimated by the plague in 1576. Emigration continued en masse, and an attempt to halt it by the settlement of a Greek colony in 1688 only added another element of disagreement to the hapless island. For the Genoese, Corsica was still just an area that they could exploit for profit. They monopolized his trade; they taxed up to his ability to pay and beyond; they opened up a source of income for themselves by issuing licenses for firearms; and they diligently avoided interfering with the practice of the vendetta which made this fiscal stopgap so profitable.
In 1729 the Corsicans rose up to revolt , indignant about a new stove tax called due semi . Their guides were Andrea Colonna Ceccaldi and Luigi Giafferi. As usual, the Genoese were soon confined to a few coastal towns. But the intervention by Emperor Charles VI. and the dispatch of a large German mercenary force turned the tide, and in 1732 the authority of Genoa was restored. Two years later, however, Giacinto Paoli again raised the flag of revolt; and in 1735 a meeting in Corte proclaimed the independence of Corsica, drafted a constitution and entrusted leadership to Giafferi, Paoli and Geccaldi. Although the Genoese again had to retreat to their fortresses, a lack of weapons and provisions ruined a crucial success of the insurgents.
Theodor von Neuhoff
When the German adventurer baron Theodor von Neuhoff appeared on March 12, 1736 with a shipload of muskets and supplies and the assurance of further help, the leaders and people were ready to accept his help on his terms, namely that he should be recognized as King of Corsica. On April 15, a meeting of the clergy and representatives of the municipalities in Alésani solemnly proclaimed Corsica as an independent kingdom under the rule of Theodor I and his heirs. The reign of the new king would not last long. The opera buffa manner of his arrival did not offend the simple islanders (he was dressed in a scarlet caftan, Turkish trousers, a Spanish hat and feather, and was girded with a scimitar); they were even ready to take seriously his lavish bestowal of titles and his order of chivalry della Liberazione . They appreciated his personal courage. And the fact that the Genoese government branded him a con man and put a price on his head only strengthened their affection.
But things looked very different when the European aid he had promised did not arrive, and even more so when the governments whose influence he had boasted distanced themselves from him. In November he thought it advisable to go to the continent, ostensibly in search of help; he left Giafferi, Paoli and Luca d'Ornano as regents. Despite several attempts, he was unable to return to the island. The Corsicans, tired of the war, opened negotiations with Genoa. But the Genoese refusal to treat them as anything other than rebels made mutual understanding impossible. Eventually the republic decided to seek help from France, and in July 1737 a treaty was signed under which the French king undertook to restore order among the Corsicans.
First French intervention
The intention of the French in helping them was not to acquire the island itself, but to avoid the long-known danger that it could fall into the hands of another great power, such as Great Britain. The Corsicans, on the other hand, while willing to come to an agreement with the French king, refused to recognize the rule of Genoa, even if it were covered by France. A powerful French army under the Comte de Boissieux arrived in the spring of 1738, and negotiations took place for a few months.
But the effect of the French guarantee of Corsican freedoms was negated by the requirement that the islanders lay down their arms. Boissieux's attempt at disarmament was followed by his defeat by the Corsicans in the winter of 1738/39. Boissieux died in February 1739. His successor, the Marquis de Maillebois, arrived in March with large reinforcements. Through a combination of severity and reconciliation, he soon established order. Its maintenance, however, depended on the presence of French troops, and in October 1740 the death of Charles VI required it. and the outbreak of the Austrian War of Succession their departure. The Genoese and Corsicans came face to face again, and the constant struggle began again.
In 1743 King Theodore went to the island, supported by a British squadron. Realizing that he no longer had a following, he left never to come back. The Corsicans gathered for a parliament in Casinca and now elected Giampietro Gaffori and Alerio Matra as generals and protectors of the fatherland ( protettori della patria ). They began a violent attack on the Genoese fortresses. Now they were helped by the sympathy and active support of the European powers, and in 1746 Count Domenico Rivarola, a Corsican in Sardinian service, managed to take Bastia and San Fiorenzo with the help of a British squadron and Sardinian troops.
The sectarian spirit of the Corsicans themselves was, however, their worst enemy. The British commander found it inappropriate to intervene in the affairs of a country whose leaders were fools. Rivarola, on her own, was unable to hold Bastia, which was a place with sympathy for Genoa. Despite the collapse of Genoa itself, which was now in Austrian hands, the Genoese governor managed to hold onto the island.
By the time of the Peace of Aachen in 1748, the situation on the island had changed again. Rivarola and Matra had died, Gaffori nominally left behind as head of a people torn apart by constant feuds. Genoa had also driven the Austrians out with French help. On the basis of a report that the King of Sardinia was considering another attempt at conquest, a strong French expedition under the Marquis de Cursay had occupied Bonifacio, Ajaccio and Bastia at the request of the Republic of Calvi.
After the peace of Aachen
Under the terms of the Peace of Aachen, Corsica was again awarded to Genoa, but the French garrison remained until a compromise between the republic and the islanders was reached. No agreement could be reached with regard to the hard-to-control temperament of the two parties; but thanks to Cursay's personal popularity, the peace was kept for a while. However, his departure in 1752 was the signal for a general uprising, and once again Gaffori was elected general and prottetore by a diet in Orezza. In October of the following year he was the victim of a vendetta and the nation was again without a leadership. His place was taken for a time by Clemente Paoli with the assistance of other lieutenants from Gaffori. Because of his temper, however, he was unsuitable to lead a rebellious and unrestrained people in these tense times, and in 1755, at his suggestion, his brother Pasquale was invited to come from Naples and take over command.
Corsican Republic (1755–1769)
Pasquale Paoli was elected general in April by a meeting in San Antonio della Casabianca . His first task was to create a political order for an independent Corsica. Paoli wrote a democratic constitution for this , which was inspired by antiquity, the Enlightenment and local Corsican traditions of the Terra di Commune. It is the first modern constitution and democracy worldwide, ahead of the USA and Poland .
Paoli successfully took action against the rival party led by Emanuele Matra , the son of Gaffori's former ally. By the spring of 1756 this was done and the Corsicans were able to form a united front against the Genoese. At that moment the French intervened again as they were alarmed by a presumed understanding between Paoli and the British. They occupied Calvi, Ajaccio and San Fiorenzo until 1757 when their troops were withdrawn because of wars on the continent.
In 1758 Paoli renewed the attacks on the Genoese. He founded the new port of Isola Rossa as the center from which the Corsican ships could attack the merchant ships of Genoa. Genoa was now actually too weak to seriously defend its rule over the island. With the exception of the coastal cities, Corsica was independent and the Corsicans ruled themselves
As for the future of Corsica, everything now depended on the attitude of France, to which both Paoli and Genoa proposed. In 1764 a French expedition appeared under the Comte de Marbeauf and, with Genoa's consent, occupied three of the Genoese fortresses. Although Genoese sovereignty was expressly recognized in the agreement authorizing this action, in reality it did not exist. The French and the Corsicans remained in agreement, and the inhabitants of the nominally Genoese cities actually sent representatives to the national parliament, the consulta . The climax came in early 1767 when the Corsicans conquered the Genoese island of Capraja and occupied Ajaccio and other places. The places had been evacuated by the French in protest against the asylum given to the Jesuits exiled from France . Genoa realized now that it had drawn the short straw in the long dispute, and on May 15, 1768 signed a contract by which the suzerainty was left on the island of France.
The Corsicans, determined to be independent, now faced a more formidable enemy than the decrepit Republic of Genoa. Part of the people was in favor of submission, but Paoli himself spoke out in favor of resistance. Among those who supported him in the consulta convened to discuss this question was his secretary Carlo Buonaparte, father of Napoleon Bonaparte , the future French emperor. The details of the war that followed cannot be discussed here. In the absence of the hoped-for help from Great Britain, the outcome of the war was not in question; and although the French did not have an easy game, by the summer of 1769 they were masters of the island. On June 16, Pasquale and Clemente Paoli embarked on a British ship for Livorno with around 400 of their supporters . On September 15, 1770, a general assembly of the Corsicans was called and the deputies swore King Louis XV. Loyalty.
Corsica under French rule
Corsica remained dependent on the French crown for twenty years, although it retained many of its old institutions. Then came the French Revolution and the island was incorporated into France as a separate department in accordance with the new administrative model . Paoli, who was recalled from exile by the National Assembly at Mirabeau's request , was hailed as a hero and martyr of freedom during his visit to Paris by the National Assembly and the Jacobin Club . In 1790 he returned to Corsica, where he was received with great applause and celebrated as the father of the country.
However, he had little sympathy for the new order on the island. Branches of the Jacobin Club had opened in the towns and these, as elsewhere, tended to usurp the functions of the regular organs of government and introduce a new element of dispute into the country which Paoli had worked to unite. Doubts about his loyalty to the revolutionary principles had already been spread in Paris in 1790 by Bartolomeo Arena, a Corsican MP and enthusiastic Jacobin. But after the overthrow of the monarchy in 1792, the French government, anxious to secure Corsica, hastily appointed him lieutenant general of the troops and governor ( capo comandante ) of the island.
Paoli took on the office that he had two years earlier from the hands of Louis XVI. had refused. However, he had no sympathy for the people and methods of the reign of terror. When he was suspected of having put obstacles in the way of the expedition against Sardinia in 1793, he was summoned to the court of the National Convention with the General Procurator Pozzo di Borgo . Paoli now openly challenged the convention by summoning the representatives of the municipalities to the state parliament in Corte on May 27th. In response to the protests of Saliceti, who attended the meeting, he replied that he was not rebelling against France but against the ruling party, whose actions the majority of French disapproved of. Saliceti rushed then to Paris, and at his request, Paoli and his sympathizers were by the Convention as outlaws declared (June 26).
For the independence of Corsica - with Great Britain against France
Paoli had already made up his mind to raise the flag of revolt against France. But although the consulta elected him president in Corte, Corsican opinion was by no means uniform. Napoléon Bonaparte, whom Paoli had wanted to win for his views, indignantly rejected the idea of a break with France. From then on, the Bonapartes ranked among his enemies. Paoli then asked the British government for assistance and managed to dispatch a considerable force. By the summer of 1794, after heavy fighting, the island was subdued, and in June the Corsican Assembly formally offered rule to King George III. on.
The British occupation lasted two years, during which the island was administered by Sir Gilbert Elliot. Paoli, whose presence was considered inappropriate, was ordered to return to England, where he remained until his death. In 1796, after his victorious campaign in Italy, Bonaparte sent an expedition to Corsica. The British were tired of the somewhat ungrateful task and did not offer much resistance. In October the island was again in French hands. In 1814 it was briefly occupied again by Great Britain, but in the 1815 Agreement it was returned to the French crown. Since then, their history has been part of the history of France.
The 19th and 20th centuries
With the introduction of compulsory schooling loi Ferry (1882), the construction of the railway (1888-1894) and other administrative measures, French rule over the island solidified. French began to displace Corsican (corsu) due to the stronger influence of schools and administration . At the same time, the bitter poverty in many villages forced many Corsicans to emigrate , the wave of emigration reached its peak around 1900. In Marseille , the Quartier du Panier district next to the Old Port (Vieux-Port) developed into the center of the Corsican diaspora , where the island's language and culture were maintained and the villages' close family ties remained. During the First World War the Corsicans fought on the side of France, 15,000 Corsican soldiers died in French armed service. After the World War there was no rebuilding because there was no industry before. During the interwar period, the network of the Corsican mafia developed in Marseille , whose representatives were active in the arms and drug trade, but also exercised a considerable influence in local politics by offering themselves to various political groups as the armed arm. These activities peaked in the 1930s, but persisted in a different form after the Second World War, and in the 1950s and 1960s these networks also influenced French national politics. At the same time, Corsicans benefited in many functions from the expansion of the French colonial empire , on the one hand as soldiers and colonial officials, and on the other hand, by working in the colonies as traders and business people. Many Corsicans also settled in French Algeria, the most important settlement colony of the empire français .
In response to attempts to take over fascist Italy under Mussolini , who declared Corsica an integral part of Italy in 1936, Corsican writers and intellectuals defined Corsican for the first time as an independent language and not as an Italian dialect, as was customary until then, and defined theirs Identity as Corsican, not Italian. This attitude was expressed in the 1938 oath of Bastia, through which the Corsicans swore their affiliation to France and rejected Italian "liberation" efforts. During the Second World War , Corsica was on November 11, 1942, as a reaction to the landing of Allied troops in North Africa, as was the entire Libre Zone , the area in southern France ruled by the Vichy regime , on November 11, 1942 initially by about 80,000 Italians, from June 1943 also occupied by about 10,000 German soldiers. Associations of the Free France (FFL) therefore began in April 1943 to arm the island population who fought as partisans against the occupiers. After the fall of Mussolini and the armistice of Cassibile with the Allies, the Italian troops changed sides on September 8, 1943, and on the same day units under the command of General Henri Giraud landed on the island. On September 8, the 90th Panzer Grenadier Division of the Wehrmacht began to move from Sardinia to Bonifacio on Corsica. On September 12, 1943, Hitler ordered the evacuation of Corsica. The German troops, in addition to the 90th Panzer Grenadier Division, was also the SS Sturmbrigade Reichführer-SS in Corsica, withdrew to Bastia and formed a contested bridgehead from which they finally crossed to Italy. The Corsican partisans and the soldiers of the FFL together liberated the island by October 5, 1943, making it the fourth French department to be liberated from the occupiers after Algiers , Oran and Constantine . With this, the liberation had moved from the south to mainland France. The memory of one's own role in the Resistance is very vivid in Corsica to this day.
After 1945, the poor and underdeveloped island was able to benefit modestly from the French economic miracle Trente glorieuses , but this also increased the immigration of mainland French , while at the same time more Corsicans left the island to work on the mainland . The threatened end of the French colonial empire in the 1950s led to economic fears among many Corsicans, so that, unlike in other regions of France, the Putsch d'Alger against the independence of Algeria in May 1958 was met with sympathy. The putsch military planned to expand their uprising with the Opération Résurrection on the island; Corsica subsequently became a center of Gaullism . The hopes placed in Charles de Gaulle were not fulfilled when, after his return and the founding of the Fifth Republic, with the support of the large majority of the French, he agreed to an end to the Algerian war and the independence of Algeria. In the years after independence in 1962, 17,000 French displaced and fled from Algeria ( pieds-noirs , literally: black feet) were specifically settled along the east coast, so that the Corsicans feared they would become a minority on their own island. At the same time, the Corsican language was pushed back further and further through its banishment from school and public life.
The increasing fear of one's own identity brought a great boost to the nationalist movement , which initially opposed the actual or supposed preference of the pieds-noirs over the long- established inhabitants of the island, as well as against the increasing tourism, which was mostly in the hands of the mainland French . From 1964, and increasingly from 1968, there were attacks on the property of pieds-noirs . In the early 1970s, several political parties emerged as the "legalist" wing of the regionalist movement. One of them, the Front régionaliste corse , published the book Main basse sur une île in 1971 , in which the economic situation of the island was compared with that of a colony and a "Corsican socialism" was called for. Initiatives to preserve and revitalize the Corsican language and culture emerged as part of the Riacquistu (“ reappropriation ”) movement and created a new awareness of Corsican cultural identity.
In connection with the economic difficulties, the nationalist movement radicalized from the mid-1970s. The occupation of the winery of a pied noir winemaker near Aléria in 1975 is considered a beacon of the independence movement . Another demand was the (re) opening of the Corsican university, which had existed in the 18th century under Pasquale Paoli, what 1981 was implemented. Some decentralization measures followed, such as the establishment of the Collectivité régionale with an elected regional parliament in 1982, but the French government strictly rejected demands for bilingualism, autonomy or even independence because they feared that they would threaten the unity of France. Some supporters of Corsican independence, in particular the FLNC , which was founded on May 5, 1976 , tried to force the government to grant independence through bombings and murder.
At the same time, tourism grew rapidly in these years , as Corsica, due to its pristine natural landscapes, became more and more popular, especially with mainland French, Italians and Germans; however, tourism development and the construction of second homes met with - sometimes violent - rejection by the nationalists. In the 1990s the violence escalated in Corsica, when various armed groups fought each other and the mafia organizations on the island tried to gain influence themselves. In February 1998 the Prefect of the island, Claude Erignac , was murdered in Ajaccio: The act startled the French public because the impression was created that the French state had lost control of the situation in Corsica.
Current developments
In 2000, the then Prime Minister Lionel Jospin agreed to greater autonomy in Corsica in exchange for an end to violence as part of the Matignon trial . This was opposed by the Gaullist opposition in the French National Assembly , who feared that other regions ( Brittany , Basque Country or Alsace ) could also demand autonomy and that this would result in the division of France. The proposed autonomy for Corsica included greater protection of the Corsican as a central point of identification for the island's population. France, however, traditionally rejects the use of regional or minority languages, as the predominance of the French language is seen as a safeguard for the existence of the French state. On July 6, 2003, almost 51% of the Corsicans voted against the Matignon trial in a referendum . Although it was not politically binding, the French government respected the vote and stopped further implementation of the project. The failure was mainly blamed on Jospin; Through negotiations with representatives of the independence movement, he legitimized the violence exercised by parts of the same. At no point did the majority of the islanders support the demand for independence.
Armed groups are largely inactive today. However, in the last few years after the crisis of the 2000s they have regained popularity, partly because of disappointment with the corruption in established politics. In the regional elections in November 2015 , the alliance of moderate (for autonomy) and radical nationalists (for independence) won a majority in the regional parliament, the Assemblée de Corse . In the parliamentary elections in June 2017 , the nationalists won three out of four seats. The region was hit by forest fires in 2017 .
In April and May 2018, the island suffered from a garbage crisis. In previous years, the amount of waste had increased significantly without appropriate administrative measures being taken. In mid-April, the two largest landfills threatened to overflow. The municipalities on whose territory these landfills are located refused to accept any more rubbish and closed the gates of the landfills. In the weeks that followed, piles of rubbish piled up on the streets, and some of them were set on fire. A temporary improvement, but no fundamental solution, resulted when the two landfills reopened on May 9th.
literature
- Circonscription des antiquités pré historiques de Corse. In: Eugène Bonifay and others: Prehistoire de La Corse. Center Regional de la Documentation Pédagogique, Ajaccio 1990, ISBN 2-86620-50-3 .
- Daniel Eisenmenger: The forgotten constitution of Corsica from 1755 - the failed attempt to build a modern nation. In: History in Science and Education. Volume 61, H. 7/8, 2010, pp. 430-446.
Individual evidence
- ^ Roger Grosjean: Filitosa. Stronghold of prehistoric Corsica. 1978.
- ^ Ferdinand Gregorovius: History of the city of Rome in the Middle Ages: from V to XVI. Century . In: Waldemar Kampf (Ed.): History of the city of Rome in the Middle Ages: from the 5th to the 16th. Century band 1 . CH Beck, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-406-07107-4 (716 pages, limited preview in the Google book search).
- ↑ Daniel Eisenmenger: “The forgotten constitution of Corsica of 1755 - the failed attempt to create a modern nation”, in: GWU 61 (2010), H. 7/8, pp. 430–446.
- ↑ a b cheminsdememoire.gouv.fr
- ↑ Bastia. In: volksbund.de. Retrieved December 19, 2019 .
- ↑ Crise des déchets. Source est la situation in Corse? In: Corse Matin . May 8, 2018 (French, corsematin.com [accessed May 13, 2018]).
- ↑ Crise des déchets - Les poubelles flambent à Bastia . In: France 3 Corse ViaStella . May 5, 2018 (French, francetvinfo.fr [accessed May 13, 2018]).
- ↑ Crise des déchets en Corse: normalization d'ici trois semaines . In: Europe 1 . May 9, 2018 (French, europe1.fr [accessed May 13, 2018]).