Napoleon was born the year France annexed his island home
Genoa ruled Corsica for centuries until a rebel republic flared in 1755; debt forced Genoa to cede the island to Louis XV in 1768, and France annexed it in 1769—the same year Napoleon Bonaparte arrived in Ajaccio. Mountains still cover two-thirds of France's Mediterranean island region.
Fourth-largest Mediterranean island, Corsica sits southeast of mainland France, west of Italy, and just north of Sardinia. Population stood at 365,636 as of January 2026. Ajaccio is the capital; Bastia ranks second. Since 1 January 2018, Haute-Corse and Corse-du-Sud operate as one territorial collectivity with an assembly holding limited executive powers and more autonomy than typical French regions. A single mountain chain dominates the interior.
Mesolithic foragers and Neolithic farmers left early traces from the sixth millennium BCE. Carthaginians, Greeks, Etruscans, then Rome after the First Punic War shaped the coasts—colonies at Mariana and Aléria—while the interior stayed loosely controlled. Vandals, Ostrogoths, Byzantines, Lombards, Pisa, and Genoa followed. Meloria in 1284 ended Pisan primacy; Genoese rule, contested by Aragon and locals, hardened after 1450. Chestnut planting improved diets even as heavy taxes and closed nobility fuelled resentment. The island was famous for its soldiers: in 1743 more than 4,600 Corsicans, about 4 percent of the population, served in outside armies such as those of Genoa and Venice. The independence struggle began in 1729 under Luiggi Giafferi and Giacinto Paoli and was later led by Pasquale Paoli, who in 1794 invited British forces under Lord Hood to expel the French.
The 1755 Italian-speaking republic, Genoa's 1768 pledge, and 1769 annexation framed modern Corsica. Maison Bonaparte is now a museum. Regionalism in the 1960s and a 1975 armed standoff opened decades of FLNC-linked conflict until a 2014 truce among major factions. Italian cultural residue—surnames, speech echoes—persists beside French institutions.
Source: Corsica
