Hotel camping cottage and guest room to sleep and see in Corsica, Corsica, Korsika, balagne, Porto Vecchio

"The past is a beacon that is transmitted ..."

F. Sarraveli-Retali

The history of Corsica was marked by great invasions, conquests, and a constant duality caused by its geography: the internal resistance (due mainly to agro pastoralism) and economic development in the sea through cited mainly founded by the Genoese. Dominated in turn by the Etruscans, Romans, Saracens, Pisan, Genoese, and finally the French, Corsica has a particularly troubled history, the equal of most other Mediterranean islands. The constant struggle against their conquerors, sometimes solicited and sometimes imposed, has shaped the soul of his people. What we offer here is a little trip back in time to better understand the intricacies of its history ...

The prehistory and the Greco-Roman

Thanks to the "Lady of Bonifacio", the skeleton of our oldest known ancestor, we know that the island is inhabited by men since 9 000 years. 5 000 years later appear farming communities and the first megalithic.

We are also still many, particularly in the region Sartenais (alignments and Paddaghju Stantari) and Valinco (site Filitosa). It is only 6 500 years later show delivery bronze objects and architecture of protection - I Castelli - including Cucuruzzu in the Alta Rocca. The Graeco-Roman will in turn marked by two important dates: 564 and 250 BC.

In 564 BC. JC. Greeks reach the mouth of Tavignanu and base nearby, the city of Alalia which will Aleria. They will operate mainly olive trees and vines whose products will be transported in amphorae (there is also still present in some of exploratory dives). 250 BC. JC. The Romans conquered and destroyed Alalia Corsica. They begin a war without thank you against the indigenous will last a century. The Romans and their descendants remain in Corsica nearly 700 years impregnating an indelible mark on Corsican culture particularly through culture and language.

The Christianization of the island

In 455, Vandals and Ostrogoths invade Corsica. Vandals destroy Aléria Mariana and then take control of the island. They occupy the coastal areas until the sixth century where they will be expelled by Justinian 1. Begins Byzantine occupation and the Christianization of the island. In 774, by donation of Charlemagne, Emperor of Western Christendom, Corsica becomes property of the Papal State. Corsica suffers raid Moors every year 806 to 813. They are really driven from Corsica, that to 1016 by the Pisan and Genoese.

The Pisan: 1077-1284

In 1077, Pope Gregory VII ordered the Bishop of Pisa to govern Corsica. The architecture and art Pisan expressed through the construction of many monasteries and churches (San Michele di Muratu San Ghjuvanni Carbini di San Michele di USIS, Santa Maria di u ... Nebbiu).

The reorganization of the island by the church divided into 90 Corsica Pieve (parish) with a priest at the head of each. In 1284, the Pisani were defeated by the Genoese in the Battle of the Meloria. Is that in 1296 Pope Boniface VIII calls the King of Aragon to dispute the possession of Corsica to Genoa. It fails to Bonifacio.

The Genoese: 1284-1768

Against a backdrop of unrest and anarchy that the Genoese foothold in Corsica, called by the notables of the island north of the island. These were raised under the banner of Sambucuccio Alando attempt to remove an end to disorder caused by low Pisan. The Genoese founded in 1268 Calvi, Bastia in 1383, St. Florent in 1440, Ajaccio in 1492 and Porto Vecchio in 1539. In 1405, Vincentellu of Istria, allied to the King of Aragon, tried to return to Corsica to Genoa. He was appointed viceroy of Corsica in 1420 and moved to Biguglia which became the capital of Corsica.

Much of the Corsican join except Bonifacio who remains faithful to the Republic of Genoa. In 1433, Vincentellu greatly increases taxes, causing a popular revolt. He must flee to Sicily where he was captured and beheaded.

Coming out of the Middle Ages, Corsica is not really known as feudalism. She remained a prisoner of Roman patronage which give birth to the clan. Pieve south of the island are run by the "corporal", small warlords, incapable of understanding while the North began a revolution under the rule of the Genoese Republic, which seeks to establish peace in Corsica a favorable the development of Corsica. A century and a half later, the troubles have not ceased. A resident of Bastelica, a former mercenary in the pay of the Medicis.

Florence, became a colonel in the army of the king of France, Sampieru Corsu, can invade Corsica with the financial assistance of King Henry II of France. He captured Bastia, Corte, Ajaccio and Calvi. Corsica is finally restored to France by the Genoese after the Treaty of Le Cateau in 1559. But Sampieru decides to continue the fight with his troops, he defeated the Genoese to Vescovato, Porto-Vecchio in 1564 and became master of the interior of the island. But in 1567, he was killed in an ambush by the family of his young wife he strangled (Vannina), and whose tragedy inspire the famous play by William Shakespeare: Othello. From 1569 to 1729, the Genoese govern Corsica unchallenged.

The war of "thirty years": 1729-1769

This war, revolution Corsican compelled Genoa, declining to make successive calls to the Austrians and the French. Various uprisings shook Corsica. Of these violent events will arise, with the chef Jean-Pierre Gaffori a national sentiment that will lead to fifteen years of independence under the chair of General Pascal Paoli. 1735: Corsica is proclaimed independent power in a sponge Consulta (assembly) convened at Corte. 1751: Jean-Pierre Gaffori is elected leader of the nation but was assassinated in 1753. 1755: Pascal Paoli was elected leader of the Corsican Nation July 14 at the Consulta di di a San'Antone Casabianca. Independence was proclaimed in November that year.

Paoli, progressive man, trying to adapt the ideals of the Enlightenment to the realities of the eighteenth century Corsica. The hearing of Corsica and its leader is thus relays in the works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and James Boswell (An Account of Corsica). Pascal Paoli endows the capital of Corsica - Corte - and a university, it puts in place the structures of a state in which the "Corsican nation is sovereign. 1768: the Treaty of Versailles, the Republic of Genoa cedes Corsica to France with the guarantee of a right back as soon as the debt owed to King Louis XV will be refunded. Mined by the divisions of Corsican and face an unequal power relationship, the troops of P. Paoli fought at Ponte Novo 8May 1769. Corsica becomes the possession of the kingdom of France.

Inclusion in France: 1789

On August 15, 1769: born in Ajaccio, Napoleon Bonaparte became emperor of the French in 1804. It hardly takes care of his native island except to submit to military law. November 30, 1789: a decree proclaimed Corsica "part of the French Empire" to prevent the right of return claimed by Genoa. This decree has been urged by Pascal Paoli then exiled to London, to the constituent assembly because he feared that Genoa will request the return of Corsica in its fold. On July 14, 1790, Pascal Paoli returned to Corsica, welcomed by all who have kept the memory of the republic in 1755. Pascal Paoli declared enemy of the nation by the French Assembly, must once again go into exile to England. He then left for Corsica and still leaves room for a short-lived Anglo-Corsican kingdom that remain one year. In 1796, General Napoleon Bonaparte, took possession of Corsica in the name of the French Republic. The island seems to find the path of progress and a certain modernity under Napoleon III. But this is only apparent because the island has indeed missed the industrial revolution.

Photo credits: Bruno Delacotte

The tumult of the twentieth century and the emergence of separatist movements

The governments of the Third Republic abandoning Corsica: the embryo of declining industry, agriculture has stagnated and the economy deteriorates. Lack of local opportunities, the Corsicans emigrate to the mainland where they enter the terminal but also to the Americas or the African and Asian colonies. The war of 1914-1918: the Great War caused the deaths of 12 000 young islanders.

The Spanish flu of 1919 is adding to the carnage and decimating the weakest. Once again, the flower of youth embarked for the continent, where the administration has opened hundreds of thousands of posts to fill the gaps caused by war. 1920: on the margins of social protest and political autonomy movements are emerging, including the "Partitu Corsu of Azzione, which became in 1927 Pieve" with the emblem MUVR (the sheep). He seeks autonomy for the island under the protection of France but sink relatively early in a fascist drift that will bring in the thirties to support the policy that Mussolini claimed as Corsica Italian soil. The war of 1939-1945: Corsica occupied by 80 000 Italians from the month of November 1942 is the first French department to have released October 9, 1943. 12 000 armed Corsican involved in fighting for the liberation of the island. The martyrs of the Resistance are Fred Godfrey Scamaroni who committed suicide in March 1943 not to talk under torture that he inflicted the Italian fascists in the Prison of Ajaccio and Jean Nicoli, run by the Blackshirts in August 1943.

The revival of the postwar Corsica

- 1959: recovery of regional claims, actions of protests against the increasing abandonment of Corsica. A new regionalist claim is accurate and gives birth to "regional front Corsica", who will split the creation of the "Corsican Regionalist Action (ARC). 1960: a project to establish a center for atomic experiments near Calvi is expected. Mobilization scuppered the project. 1962: the population is mobilized against the removal of the railway in Corsica. The first attacks were committed against the line electrification "carbo-Sardinian. The end of the war in Algeria is signified by the signing of the Evian and causes the arrival on the island many returnees. 1973: formation of the underground movement of "Patriotic Front of Corsica Liberation (FPCL) who commits the first bombing, and" Paolina Ghjustizia. 1974: the protest is growing against spill off Cape Corse from "red mud" which are the mercury waste from the chemical plant of Montedison (Italy). One of these vessels is plastic bins by FPCL.

The revolt of 1975

In the late fifties, the SOMIVAC (enterprise company for the development of Corsica) bought some 3 000 hectares located on the east coast between Fiumorbu Casinca and to entrust the cultivation of young farmers Corsican.

To do this, they should benefit from loans at preferential rates. But history decided otherwise. For the arrival of returnees causes a reversal of government decisions that assign these loans to Blackfoot. Born then resentment among young farmers island which these loans had been refused. They accept that difficult and, moreover, the work of returnees is shown as a model for better branding "laziness" island. The two underground organizations then take over the blowing up. Follows the scandal of enrichment wine (process of adding sugar in the wort to double production in wine and increase profits) and bank embezzlement going to "explode the pot." The separatists denounce these practices with top Simeoni brothers, founders of the ARC (Action Regionalist Corsican who became Azzione per a rinascita di a Corsica). On August 21, 1975, activists of the CRA occupy the cellar of one of these growers alleged crooks, leading the attack gendarmes and killed two of them. A week later, a riot policeman was killed in Bastia in riots caused by the dissolution of the Council of Ministers of ARC. Imprisonment of Dr. Simeoni and many occupants of the cave will cause a wave of unprecedented solidarity. Therefore, young Corsican farmers will occupy much land, while in May 1976, the separatists are creating the most radical underground organization: u "di Fronte Liberazione Naziunale di a Corsica (FLNC). Thirty years later, the Corsican problem has still not been solved. The traditional and elected politicians are endorsing mainland nationalists.

This ongoing violence. These retorting that it was the underdevelopment of Corsica, which allows the violence to continue. Yet it is clear that the various governments that they are right or left have repeatedly end the unrest in Corsica seeking institutional solutions: May 1976: then what created the Front de Liberation National Corsica, President of the Republic, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, recognizes "the Corsican soul." End 1976: the island, which is a region since 1975, is divided into two departments: Haute-Corse and Corse-du-sud. May 1981: François Mitterrand's election as head of the French Republic. Establishment of special status sought by the Minister of Interior Defferre also responsible for decentralization. August 8, 1982: First Assembly of Corsica, elected by universal suffrage. The list "Unione di u Populu Corsu" Edmond Simeoni received 11% of the votes and 7 elected. This Assembly will be dissolved in June 1984 for failure. 1984-1996: five new elections to the Corsican Assembly. The nationalist idea is gaining ground, culminating in 1992 with 25% of the votes cast scattered on both lists, which foreshadowed the bloody division of the original nationalist movement. In 1993, war broke out between the two FLNC, the historic Canal and the Canal usual. It will mean 14 people and the decline of this movement. On February 6, 1998, the prefect of Corsica, Claude Erignac, was killed in Ajaccio. a previously unknown underground movement claimed the assassination. The island manifests so impressive against violence. May 1999: Following an arson committed by the police against a restaurant in Cala d'Orzu (the famous hut "at Francis'), the prefect of the region, Bernard Bonnet, was indicted and imprisoned. 1999-2000: the government of Lionel Jospin is committed to a process of discussion with the only elected Corsican, a process that will take nomde "Matignon process" meetings known as "Matignon", initiated by the government. January 2002: CTC (Territorial Collectivity of Corsica) sees his skills significantly enhanced through the decentralization law, the result of a transfer of the state. This included the possibility of proposing to Parliament for legislative experiments. July 2003: The Raffarin government has decided to propose the deletion of Corsica General Tips in favor of a Unitary Authority. The voting result is negative. The Corsican electorate voted not to change the system. This puts an end to any institutional changes. April 2004: territorial elections give a short head start on the left disunited. The nationalists are playing cards right and promote the election of Camille de Rocca Serra (UMP) to chair the meeting; Ange Santini (UMP) was elected head of the executive.