The Corsican: A Diary of Napoleon's Life in His Own Words

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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 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] There is a work entirely on this theme, José Gil, Corsica between freedom and terror, Paris, La différence, 1991.

Loughlin, John. 1989. "Regionalism and Ethnic Nationalism in France: A Case-study of Corsica". Thesis. San Domenico, Italy: European University Institute. The first special statute is of the 28th October 1814. We must also mention “The Castellare appeal” of 1973, the decentralization law of G. Defferre of 1982, and the Joxe statute of 1991. On 2 March 1982, a law was passed that gave Corsica the status of territorial collectivity ( collectivité territoriale), abolishing the Corsican Regional Council. Unlike the regional councils, the Corsican Assembly has executive powers over the island. IMG1B – Population immigrée par sexe, âge et pays de naissance en 2013" (in French). INSEE . Retrieved 11 February 2022.French ( Français) is the official and most widely spoken language on the island. Corsican, the native tongue and an Italo-Dalmatian language, is recognized as one of France's regional languages. Italian is also widely spoken. A Corsican's life is all dissension, antagonism, rivalry, a permanent conflict of elements that can and must surely undermine and destroy each other. The practice of hostilities that defines the belligerent soul of Corsican susceptibility,( 90) the vendetta – practiced as a primary form of justice – is the most articulate affirmation of the origin and exploitation of hatred. What Corsicans call “mother violence” is the expression of this hatred, but it is also a weapon in the service of honour and justice. The ambivalence of values is entire.

Despite all that, during those years the Corsicans began to feel a stronger and stronger attachment to France. The reasons for that are manifold: the knowledge of the French language, which thanks to the mandatory primary school started to penetrate among the local youth, the high prestige of French culture, the awareness of being part of a big, powerful state, the possibility of well-paid jobs as civil servants, both in the island, in the mainland and in the colonies, the prospect of serving the French army during the wars for the conquest of the colonial empire, the introduction of steamboats, which reduced the travel time between mainland France from the island drastically, and – last but not least – Napoleon himself, whose existence alone constituted an indissoluble link between France and Corsica. Thanks to all these factors by around 1870 Corsica had landed in the French cultural world. [14]On 3 October, royalists in Paris declared a rebellion against the National Convention. [60] Paul Barras, a leader of the Thermidorian Reaction, knew of Bonaparte's military exploits at Toulon and gave him command of the improvised forces in defence of the convention in the Tuileries Palace. Bonaparte had seen the massacre of the King's Swiss Guard there three years earlier and realized that artillery would be the key to its defence. [27] All the measures taken up to this day by the Government – left or right – have not prevented the political and social impasse that the relations with Corsica have suffered for a quarter of a century, ( 113) in spite of the great internal autonomy it has been granted. The island keeps vampirising France while whingeing and pestering. The demands oscillate between independence, ( 114) aid, adherence to Europe and insularity. Destiny is torn between Samaritans and Judases of all creeds: Mafia-style outlaws, independentist desperados, parliamentarians of all social strata, separatists of all trends, big names of modernity, seasoned nationalists. ( 115) The insular diaspora pretending to be enlightened. The debate, often verbalized by kalachnikovs, is paralyzed by the inability the Corsicans show to determine the future of the island. It is known that, due to their history, Corsicans have no experience of holding power. We are confronted with a repertoire of polymorphic ambitions and contradicting claims rather than with a univocal and limpid project for the island's future, elaborated in harmony with the sensitivity proper to its inhabitants, shaped by their culture, their memory, their ancestry and their alienation. The heritage of the past that could be mobilizing. Napoleon: “There are no anterior laws that the people (…) cannot abrogate”. ( 116)

Napoleon escaped in February 1815 and took control of France. [6] The Allies responded by forming a Seventh Coalition, which defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815. The British exiled him to the remote island of Saint Helena in the Atlantic, where he died in 1821 at the age of 51. Yet, this enthusiasm will not succeed in tempering the Corsicans' attachment to the past, deeply anchored in the decay of their clannish existence, saturated with its confused nationalist passion, its parochial intrigues, its twitches of fanatical and uncompromising politics.The Region of Corsica". french-at-a-touch.com. Archived from the original on 23 March 2014 . Retrieved 23 March 2014. Napoleon had an extensive impact on the modern world, bringing liberal reforms to the lands he conquered in Europe, especially the regions of the Low Countries, Switzerland, modern Italy and Germany. He implemented many liberal policies in France and Western Europe. [c] Napoleon also sold the Louisiana Territory to the United States in 1803, instantly doubling the size of the United States. [2] [13] His role in the Haitian Revolution and decision to reinstate slavery in France's overseas colonies are controversial and affect his reputation. [14] Early life Napoleon's father, Carlo Buonaparte, fought for Corsican independence under Pasquale Paoli, but after their defeat he eventually became the island's representative to the court of Louis XVI. Main article: Italian campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars Bonaparte at the Pont d'Arcole, by Baron Antoine-Jean Gros, ( c. 1801), Musée du Louvre, Paris Chevènement, speaking of Corsica: “The only valid theory in Corsica is the theory of chaos” ( Le Nouvel Observateur, 2.8.2000, p.29). 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.