Pepin the Short, king of the Franks and Charlemagne's father, expelled the Lombards and nominally granted Corsica to Pope Stephen II. This made it a dependency of the March of Tuscany, which used it as an outpost against the Saracens. Briefly recovered by the Byzantines, it soon became part of the Kingdom of the Lombards. In the fifth century, the western half of the Roman Empire collapsed, and the island was invaded by the Vandals and the Ostrogoths. Corsica was integrated into Roman Italy by Emperor Diocletian ( r. 284–305). During the diffusion of Christianity, which arrived quite early from Rome and the Tuscan harbors, Corsica was home to many martyrs and saints: among them, the most important are Saint Devota and Saint Julia, both patrons of the island. Administratively, the island was divided into pagi, which in the Middle Ages became the pievi, the basic administrative units of the island until 1768. Moreover, it was known for its cheap wines, exported to Rome, and was used as a place of relegation, one of the most famous exiles being the Roman philosopher Seneca. The island produced sheep, honey, resin and wax, and exported many slaves, not well considered because of their fierce and rebellious character. The Romans, who built a colony in Aléria, considered Corsica as one of the most backward regions of the Roman world. In the 2nd millennium BC Corsica, the southern part in particular, saw the rise of the Torrean civilization, strongly linked to the Nuragic civilization in Sardinia.Īfter a brief occupation by the Carthaginians, colonization by the ancient Greeks, and an only slightly longer occupation by the Etruscans, it was incorporated by the Roman Republic at the end of the First Punic War and, with Sardinia, in 238 BC became a province of the Roman Republic. The permanent human presence in Corsica is documented in the Neolithic period from the 6th millennium BC. To the Ancient Greeks it was known as Kalliste, Corsis, Cyrnos, Cernealis, or Cirné.Ĭorsica has been occupied since the Mesolithic era. The origin of the name Corsica is subject to much debate and remains a mystery. Main article: Prehistory of Corsica Carthage and its dependencies in 264 BC Corsica was a part of Carthage The medieval influence of Pisa in Corsica can be seen in the Romanesque-Pisan style of the Church of Aregno. Corsica is the least populated region of metropolitan France, and the third-least populated overall after Mayotte and French Guiana. Corsican, the native tongue and an Italo-Dalmatian language, is recognised as one of France's regional languages. Because of Corsica's historical ties to Tuscany, the island has retained many Italian cultural elements and many Corsican surnames are rooted in the Italian peninsula. The future Emperor of the French, Napoleon Bonaparte, was a native Corsican, born that same year in Ajaccio: his ancestral home, Maison Bonaparte, is today a visitor attraction and museum. In 1768, Genoa officially ceded it to Louis XV of France as part of a pledge for the debts incurred after enlisting French military help in suppressing the Corsican revolt as a result France annexed the island in 1769. Corsica's second-largest town is Bastia, the prefecture of Haute-Corse.Ĭorsica was ruled by the Republic of Genoa from 1284 to 1755, when it seceded to become a self-proclaimed, Italian-speaking Republic. As such, Corsica enjoys a greater degree of autonomy than other French regional collectivities for example, the Corsican Assembly is permitted to exercise limited executive powers. Although the region is divided into two administrative departments, Haute-Corse and Corse-du-Sud, their respective regional and departmental territorial collectivities were merged on 1 January 2018 to form the single territorial collectivity of Corsica. The island is a territorial collectivity of France. As of January 2023, it had a population of 351,255.
A single chain of mountains makes up two-thirds of the island. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of the French mainland, west of the Italian Peninsula and immediately north of the Italian island of Sardinia, which is the land mass nearest to it. Corsica ( / ˈ k ɔːr s ɪ k ə/ KOR-sik-ə, Upper Corsican:, Southern Corsican:, Italian: French: Corse ( listen) Ligurian: Còrsega) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France.
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