By Russell Kelley
There are around 2,000 islands in the Mediterranean Sea. Fewer than 200 are populated. Only three have populations of more than one million. Two are island countries, and most of the rest belong to 16 countries that ring the Mediterranean.
We are currently visiting one that is among the least densely populated, in part because it is mainly mountainous, but with some beautiful beaches. Its dense forests are inhabited by wild boar.
Like so many islands in the Mediterranean, over the millennia it has been conquered by one invader after another: the Greeks, the Carthaginians, the Romans, the Vandals, the Byzantines, the Franks, the Moors, the Italians, the French, and even the English, before it ended up in its current home. To defend against attacks by Barbary pirates its rulers built defensive towers around its coast, and citadels to protect its harbors. It was even an independent republic at one time, with a constitution inspired by the Enlightenment that predated the American Constitution. The last time the island changed hands, it was not the result of conquest: The island was simply bought and sold.
Along with Romanian, the local language is one of the three that most closely resembles the Latin spoken by the Romans.
The islanders’ motto is “Often conquered, never submitted”. And they still have not submitted.
Where are we?
And the answer is: Corsica – the “Île de Beauté” (Island of Beauty) in French.
Corsica is the fourth largest island by surface area in the Mediterranean (after Sicily, Sardinia and Cyprus, and just before Crete), with a population of 350,000 (whereas the bigger islands have populations of 5 million, 1.7 million and 1.25 million, respectively). It is 184 km/114 miles long and 83 km/52 miles wide, with 1,000 km/600 miles of coastline with nearly 200 beaches on crystal clear waters. There are 200 peaks in Corsica higher than 2,000 meters/6,562 feet above sea level. The island is famous for its notoriously challenging GR20 hiking path that stretches 180 km/112 miles north-south across the mountains down the middle of the island.
Les Aiguilles (Needles) de Bavella in the Alta Rocca mountains in southern Corsica
From 1077 to 1284, Corsica was governed by Pisa, one of the four main historical maritime republics of Italy. From 1284 to 1768, it was governed by Genoa, another maritime republic. Between 1297 and 1434, Corsica was under constant attack by the Kingdom of Aragon (in today’s northeast Spain), and then by Barbary pirates from North Africa from the 16th to 18th century. It was during the 500-year rule of the Genoese that 85 defense towers were built around the island, citadels were built to protect six important ports, and one citadel was built in the interior city of Corte. The citadel in Bonifacio (see photo below), built atop steep limestone cliffs, was considered to be impregnable.
Bonifacio, on the southernmost tip of Corsica, within sight of Sardinia
After 25 years of resistance to Genoese rule, in 1755 Pasquale Paoli (1725-1807) declared the short-lived Corsican Republic, with a constitution based on Enlightenment ideas. The traditional “Bandera Corsa” flag was adopted as the national flag.
It is not clear why Paoli picked the Moor’s head for the flag of Corsica. One explanation harks back to the Kingdom of Aragon, which conquered Sardinia in the 14th century and contested Genoa’s ownership of Corsica into the 15th century. The lower left quarter of the Aragonese coat of arms features four Moors’ heads, a reference to the Battle of Alcoraz in 1096 when, according to tradition, the Kingdom of Aragon regained territory from the Moors. The Sardinian flag consists of four Moors heads. The Corsican flag has one. Why did Paoli pick a flag that referred to another country? Maybe Aragon became a symbol of liberation from Genoa – and liberation pure and simple – even if it meant rule by yet another foreign power.
In 1769, Genoa to ceded Corsica to France to pay the cost of sending French troops to put down the long-standing rebellion on the island.
Pasquale Paoli went into exile in England when the French took possession of Corsica. He briefly returned to Corsica in 1790 during the French Revolution, when he enlisted the help of the English king George III to liberate Corsica from French control. An Anglo-Corsican Kingdom was established in 1794, only for the English to withdraw from Corsica in 1796 and for Paoli to return to exile in England when France took control of the island once again, where he remained until his death in 1807. This year Corsica celebrates the bicentennial of the birth of the man they call the “Bappu di a Patria” (“The Father of the Country”).
Oh yes. Napoleone di Buonaparte was born in Ajaccio in 1769. But he made his reputation on the mainland.
The third language that most closely resembles Latin along with Corsican and Romanian is Sardu, the local language spoken in Sardinia, which is just 17 km/11 miles south of Corsica. One thing all three languages have in common is the suffix “u” at the end of so many words. Today it is estimated that only 10% of Corsica’s population speak Corsican (Corsu) natively, with only 50% having some sort of proficiency in it.
The independent spirit of the Corsicans lives on. In 1977, the militant group FLNC (Fronte di Liberazione Nazionale di a Corsica) was formed. Decades of on-and-off violent insurrection have followed, including the 1998 assassination of the French prefect Claude Érignac. Fifty years later, the militants are no longer seeking independence, but greater autonomy.
We met some Corsican singers who sang Corsican songs in Corsican, including one rousing anthem about “Libertà!” They would have been young men in 1977. They complained about the number of immigrants coming into Corsica and their failure to integrate into the local community. A familiar refrain these days. Only the immigrants they were referring to were not North Africans: they were from “le Continent” – that is, they were French.
Like the words to the Corsican anthem, the tourist remains oblivious to the political undercurrents swirling around him. He is too distracted by the natural beauty of this island in the Mediterranean, wedged geographically and culturally between France and Italy.
