Chapter 2

Corsica, a Genoese Island

In May 1768 France and Genoa signed the Treaty of Versailles, which saw control of Corsica pass from the latter to the former. At the time, the island was enjoying what is regarded as its fifteen years of independence and it was not until the defeat of the now-iconic Pasquale Paoli and his troops at the battle of Ponte Nuovo in May 1769 that the rule of Louis XV was formally established as far south as the Sardinia-facing Straits of Bonifacio. Paoli quit the island (albeit only for five years) and Corsica’s new phase as a French island effectively began.1 In the centuries preceding the Treaty of Versailles, Corsica had been conquered by a series of invaders seeking to capitalise on its strategic significance. During the Middle Ages, Pisa and Genoa had been the dominant forces in this part of the Mediterranean, and control of Corsica had been in the hands of both city states, as well as under the sovereignty of the Kings of Aragon during the fifteenth century and of Henri II of France a hundred years later.