Corsican

The Corsicans are the Romance people of the Mediterranean island of Corsica, heirs of the ancient Corsi who gave it its Roman name, later mixed with Roman, Lombard and Frankish settlers. In 1337 the island was held by Genoa, after Pisa's rule; coastal villages suffered centuries of Barbary slave raids, while the pastoral interior kept a society of clan loyalty and vendetta.

Corsicans served as mercenaries and condottieri, fighting at Lepanto in 1571, and Sampiero Corso led French-backed revolts against Genoa in the 1550s. Their Corsu tongue is an Italo-Dalmatian language akin to medieval Tuscan, and Italian long remained the island's written and official language.

In 1755 Pasquale Paoli proclaimed a Corsican Republic, with a constitution and university at Corte, but Genoa sold its rights to France in 1768 and French troops overran the island in 1769, Napoleon Bonaparte's birth year at Ajaccio.