Note: Censuses from 1886 to 1975 were falsified by the municipalities of Corsica to hide the population decline and maintain the level of financial benefits received from the French state. Figures from 1936 to 1975 in this table are the redressed figures calculated by INSEE to correct the overestimated population of the censuses at the time. In 2018, Corsica had the highest murder rate in France [21] due to blood feuds and vendettas between clans on the island. The most common victims of gun murders are prominent business people and local mayors. Hoping to extend the Continental System, his embargo against Britain, Napoleon invaded the Iberian Peninsula and declared his brother Joseph the King of Spain in 1808. The Spanish and the Portuguese revolted in the Peninsular War aided by a British army, culminating in defeat for Napoleon's marshals. Napoleon launched an invasion of Russia in the summer of 1812. The resulting campaign witnessed the catastrophic retreat of Napoleon's Grande Armée. In 1813, Prussia and Austria joined Russian forces in a Sixth Coalition against France, resulting in a large coalition army defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig. The coalition invaded France and captured Paris, forcing Napoleon to abdicate in April 1814. He was exiled to the island of Elba, between Corsica and Italy. In France, the Bourbons were restored to power.

Despite being the birthplace of the Emperor, the island was slightly neglected by Napoleon's government. [12] In 1814, near the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Corsica was briefly occupied again by British troops. The Treaty of Bastia gave the British crown sovereignty over the island, but it was later repudiated by Lord Castlereagh who insisted that the island should be returned to a restored French monarchy.

Costa, L. J.; Cécile Costa (2005). "Préhistoire de la Corse" (in French). Kyrnos Publications pour l'archéologie. Archived from the original on 7 October 2018 . Retrieved 26 April 2008.

Corsica has a population of 351,255 inhabitants (January 2023 estimate). [1] Historical population of Corsica Year He was moved to the Bureau of Topography of the Committee of Public Safety. He sought unsuccessfully to be transferred to Constantinople to offer his services to the Sultan. [57] During this period, he wrote the romantic novella Clisson et Eugénie, about a soldier and his lover, in a clear parallel to Bonaparte's own relationship with Clary. [58] On 15 September, Bonaparte was removed from the list of generals in regular service for refusing to serve in the Vendée campaign. He faced a difficult financial situation and reduced career prospects. [59] In 2000, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin agreed to grant increased autonomy to Corsica. The proposed autonomy for Corsica would have included greater protection for the Corsican language ( Corsu), the island's traditional language, whose practice and teaching, like other regional or minority languages in France, had been discouraged in the past. According to the UNESCO classification, the Corsican language is currently in danger of becoming extinct. [66] However, plans for increased autonomy were opposed by the Gaullist opposition in the French National Assembly, who feared that they would lead to calls for autonomy from other régions (such as Brittany, Alsace, or Provence), eventually threatening France's unity as a country. [67] Main article: French campaign in Egypt and Syria Bonaparte Before the Sphinx (c. 1886) by Jean-Léon Gérôme, Hearst Castle In March 2022, Corsica saw large protests and riots after Yvan Colonna, the murderer of Claude Érignac, was murdered in prison. [22]Guelfi, A.D. (April 1931). "Les Corses hors de Corse partout presents toujours unis". Saigon-Cyrnos: Bulletin de l'Amicale Corse de la Cochinchine et du Cambodge. 58: 13–14. Saul, John Ralston. 1992. Voltaire's Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West. New York: Free Press; Maxwell Macmillan International. ISBN 0-02-927725-6 a key date. The prelude to disgrace. At the end of September, during the legislative elections, in Corte, this mythical separatists' city where the nationalist gatherings are held even today, two men challenge each other. Paoli, totally devoted to his ambition of independence, ( 70) and Napoleon, a red-hot republican dreaming of a more advantageous future for the island and a dazzling one for himself. He needs political conditions, profitable to him. The establishment of the French State could provide him with such conditions. He wants to build bridges because he feels that the future – his own and that of the island – lies on the other side of the sea. The rivalry of the two men becomes irreversible. Paoli decides to confront the Bonaparte brothers.

There was also the Eastern Coast Railway [ fr] along the Tyrrhenian seacoast; that line was heavily damaged during World War II, and subsequently closed for good. [56] Seaports [ edit ] Port of Ajaccio Looking north across the Strait of Bonifacio from the northern tip of Sardinia; the southern coast of Corsica is barely visible through the haze of distance. Tourism plays a big part in the Corsican economy. The island's climate, mountains, and coastlines make it popular among tourists. The island has not had the same level of intensive development as other parts of the Mediterranean and is thus mainly unspoiled. [ why?] Tourism is particularly concentrated in the area around Porto-Vecchio and Bonifacio in the south of the island and Calvi in the northwest. [ citation needed] Gregorovius, Ferdinand (1855). Wanderings in Corsica: its history and its heroes. Thomas Constable and Company. p. 196. René Le Mée (1971). "Un dénombrement des corses en 1770". Annales Historiques de la Révolution Française. 203: 39. doi: 10.3406/ahrf.1971.4025 . Retrieved 11 March 2023.Sometimes a married couple. Sampiero was assassinated in 1567 by Corsicans commanded by the family of his wife whom he had killed in 1563. The weapons of the 50 members of Armata Corsa (emerged from anonymity in June 1999) are impressive: AK47s made in China, Italian Benelli 12s, American Mossbergs calibre 2, AR15s made in USA, Israeli Uzis and Swiss Sigs. At a search of the home of Charles Piéri, Santoni's successor as head of Cuncolta, loaded pistols and kalachnikovs were found as well as explosives, scanners, masks and forged documents. During village fairs, children play with combat weapons, and in night clubs they fire at the ceiling or at bottles. Louis Charles-René, Count, General (1712-1786). The same person who entered Nebbio in Corsica at the head of 5000 French soldiers on the 30th July 1768. (93) Pozzo di Borgo, an ardent Paolist, launched a vendetta without mercy against the Bonapartes.

Some have reproached the Bonapartes for their cupidity. It is notorious that in Corsica the relation to money is not condescending. “Too much stake in big cash”. ( 96) It often stays in the first line of priorities and constitutes the primary reason for great civil catastrophes. It is thought that it is the expectation of prosperity in France that may have made the Bonapartes lose their interest in Corsica. A letter of 10th November 1790 from Joseph Bonaparte to his friend James could be seen as proof of this. “There is no wealth in Corsica”, he wrote. ( 97) Thus, it has been said, they decided to seek it elsewhere. En route to Egypt, Bonaparte reached Malta on 9 June 1798, then controlled by the Knights Hospitaller. Grand Master Ferdinand von Hompesch zu Bolheim surrendered after token resistance, and Bonaparte captured an important naval base with the loss of only three men. [80] Battle of the Pyramids on 21 July 1798 by Louis-François, Baron Lejeune, 1808 Angrand, Marc; Overstraeten, Benoit Van (18 August 2022). "Three killed as violent storm hits Corsica". Reuters . Retrieved 18 August 2022. Extinct mammals formerly native to Corsica include the Sardinian dhole, the mustelid Enhydrictis galictoides, the deer Praemegaceros cazioti, the Corsican giant shrew, Tyrrhenian mole, Sardinian pika, Tyrrhenian vole, and the Tyrrhenian field rat.

The crushing defeat experienced by Pisa in 1284 in the Battle of Meloria against Genoa had among its consequences the end of the Pisan rule and the beginning of the Genoese influence in Corsica: [5] this was contested initially by the King of Aragon, who in 1296 had received from the Pope the investiture over Sardinia and Corsica. [6] A popular revolution against this and the feudal lords, led by Sambucuccio d'Alando, got the aid of Genoa. After that, the Cismonte was ruled as a league of comuni and churches, after the Italian experience. [6] The following 150 years were a period of conflict, when the Genoese rule was contested by Aragon, the local lords, the comuni and the Pope: finally, in 1450 Genoa ceded the administration of the island to its main bank, the Bank of Saint George, which brought peace. [7] Abalain, Hervé, (2007) Le français et les langues historiques de la France, Éditions Jean-Paul Gisserot, p.113