Charlemagne conquers Corsica in 774 AD and incorporates it into the Holy Roman Empire. It remains under Frankish control, with brief interludes of Lombard rule until the end of the 11th century.
The island declared independence in 1755, before being conquered by France 14 years later in 1769, who had bought the island from the Genoese in 1767. This purchase, an illegitimate act in the eyes of the Corsican Republic, is validated in the Treaty of Versailles of 1768.
The son of Giacinto Paoli, Pasquale followed his father into exile at Naples in 1739, studying at the military academy there and preparing to continue the fight for Corsican independence. After Genoa sold its claims to France, he was forced to flee to England in 1769. Appointed lieutenant general and military commandant during the French Revolution, Pasquale returned to Corsica in July 1790.
In December of 1793, the young General Bonaparte defeated the coalition army in Toulon, the British fleet refuged from the port, on the board with hundreds of royalists, and the remains of the British army. They needed a port, urgently. At the same time, the island of Corsica revolted against the French jacobinians. So, Corsica needed a helpful great power.
Pasquale led the fight for independence and, with British naval support, expelled the French in 1794. In the spring of 1794, the island of Corsica united with Great Britain and the Anglo-Corsican Kingdom is established.
The British turn to Corsica as a base of operations to counteract what they saw as the dangerous and unstable presence of the French in the Western Mediterranean.
For British, Corsica seemed to offer the strategic and diplomatic possibilities that Britain was seeking: its port of Sam Fiorenzo was 100 miles from Nice and Genoa, while Cape Corso was only 60 miles from Leghorn, one of the greatest centers of British trade in the Mediterranean.
After two years, in 1796, however, the British pull-out and French rule resume. In 1814, as the Napoleonic Wars come to an end, Corsica is occupied by British troops but is returned to France once the monarchy has been restored.
Anglo-Corsican Kingdom
