The Vulture
Banned
With a post-1800 POD, how can we have Corsica be independent until at least 1920?
Perhaps if it's occupied by Britain during the Napoleonic wars and never returned to France... That seems quite unlikely, but not impossible...
That way there would also be less French influences on Corsican culture anf with british influence replacing it, Corisca would probably end up quite different from both France and Italy. It probably wouldn't be peacefully independent from Britain until the 60's, but a nationalist rebellion on Corsica when Britain is busy somewhere else?
Another Mediterranean power could support the rebels hoping to create a client state on the island (perhaps failing?). Maybe it would be like on Ireland? A rebellion leading to independence, but with Corsica remaining in the british sphere
Corsica had female suffrage?? That's the first I've heard of it!I think the British are the best route. Maybe an invasion post-Trafalgar to restore the Anglo-Corsican_Kingdom. Then the British just hold onto it (nominally at least) after the war. Sort of like Malta with more autonomy. Though personally I'd love to see a revival of Paoli's Corsican Republic. Its just such a quixotic idiosyncratic state, a Republic that was actually a monarchy with the Virgin Mary as its sovereign, female suffrage a constitution etc all in the 1760s. Reminds me of inter-war Hungary a landlocked Monarchy with no King and an Admiral standing in as Regent, though in that comparison Corsica comes out as perhaps more progressive.
Corsica had female suffrage?? That's the first I've heard of it!
(Relevant to my interests because the Republic gets restored after the alt-French Revolution in my TL).
Oh I definitely agree it was ahead of its time, it's just I don't think they would have had female suffrage, especially not in writing.Well that's debatable actually. Women traditionally had greater power and rights in the rural communities of the interior where Paoli's Republic was based so theoretically they may have been able to vote/influence the political process to a greater extent than women elsewhere. I was just trying to make a point. The Corsican Republic was in someways a generation ahead of its time, with a written constitution, an elected legislature and legal framework greatly influenced by the enlightenment. Paoli even established a University a la Thomas Jefferson. Much of the credit for this has to go to Paoli considering that Corsica was still pretty rural and clannish outside the Genovese citadels on the coast. Certainly he did better than 'King' Theodore.