Corsican Republic

The Corsican Republic was proclaimed in July 1755 by Pasquale Paoli, who had driven the Genoese from most of Corsica except a few coastal towns. Paoli gave the island a constitution written in Italian, the first such document in that language, which combined Enlightenment ideas with local practice and briefly extended the vote to women, a provision revoked after the French conquest. His government created an administration, a justice system and an army, founded a university at Corte and issued coins at Murato bearing the Moor's head, the traditional emblem of Corsica. Corte served as the capital. The republic won sympathy from Rousseau, Voltaire and other philosophers, and James Boswell's Account of Corsica of 1768 made Paoli famous across Europe. France purchased Genoa's rights over the island in 1768, defeated the Corsicans at Ponte Novu in May 1769, and annexed Corsica; Paoli went into exile. The short-lived state became a symbol of national self-determination and of Italian-language political culture.