Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and
politically one of the 18 regions of France. It lies southeast of the French
mainland, west of the Italian Peninsula, and immediately north of the Italian
island of Sardinia, the land mass nearest to it. A single chain of mountains
makes up two-thirds of the island. The
island is a territorial collectivity of France. The regional capital is
Ajaccio. 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. 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. Corsica’s
second-largest town is Bastia, the prefecture city of Haute-Corse. Corsica was ruled by the Republic of Genoa
from 1284 to 1755, when it became a self-proclaimed Italian-speaking Republic.
In 1768, Genoa officially ceded it to Louis XV of France as part of a pledge
for debts and in 1769 France forcibly annexed it. Napoleon Bonaparte was a
native Corsican, born that same year in Ajaccio, and his ancestral home, Maison
Bonaparte, is today a significant visitor attraction and museum. Because of
Corsica's historical ties to the Italian peninsula, the island retains many
Italian cultural elements, and the native tongue is recognized as a regional
language by the French government.
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