WI:Napoleon lived in Genoa

France took Corsica from Genoa in 1768,one year before Napoleon was born.In 1755 a full-fledged Corsican Republic was founded under Pasquale Paoli, and in 1764 Genoa asked France to send troops.What if Genoa takes Corsica back alone,and Napoleon is born in Genoese Corsica.Would he just remain a minor noble?
 
France took Corsica from Genoa in 1768,one year before Napoleon was born.In 1755 a full-fledged Corsican Republic was founded under Pasquale Paoli, and in 1764 Genoa asked France to send troops.What if Genoa takes Corsica back alone,and Napoleon is born in Genoese Corsica.Would he just remain a minor noble?
Probably. He could become a leader in the Republic of Genoa at best.
 
Have you glanced at the King Theodore's Corsica TL; it's my personal favorite at the moment and delves into an alt-outcome of the earlier Corsican rebellion; highly recommend.

In that the Bonapartes haven't really played a huge role in the rebellion; although it is years and years before Napoleon was born.

Anyone can argue that Napoleon might not be born with a POD before his birth; but if there is I do not see him amounting to much.

Genoa wasn't a society where social mobility was that easy, and he won his battles and fame in continental armies with continental tactics not the style one would see on Corsica.
 
Napeoleon Bonaparte is not necessarility going very far on his career. Circumstances were totally in Genoa compared to revolutionary France.
 
There is no way that Genoa reconquers Corsica on its own in the 1760s. They had been trying and failing for 30+ years at that point, and the only success they had ever achieved was when a foreign army was intervening on their behalf (and that only ever lasted as long as the foreign army was willing to stick around). They simply did not have the military power or the resources. That's not to say that an end to the rebellion under Genoese rule isn't possible, only that it could not be achieved with purely military means.

IMO the last possible POD for a peaceful Genoese restoration in Corsica is 1757, when Paoli's men killed Mario Emmanuele Matra. Matra was Paoli's chief rival for power in the national movement, but nevertheless had sought the aid of the Genoese to fight Paoli's supporters. Matra came very close to killing Paoli in 1757, and if he had done so, it's possible that he could "win" the civil war. Even then, I don't think a reconciliation is likely because once Paoli is dead Matra doesn't need the Genoese anymore, but it's at least plausible that a Matra victory in 1757 might make the national movement less militant and independence-oriented such that Corsica eventually, somehow or other, returns to the Genoese fold.

As for Napoleon's altered future, one must keep in mind that while Genoa may have been a republic, it was by no means a meritocracy. Genoa was an aristocratic republic with an emphasis on the "aristocratic" part. You tend to see the same family names rotating in and out of the Dogeship and senatorial positions, because leadership was confined to a handful of old Genoese aristocratic families who generally did not let outsiders into their club. The Buonaparte family was important locally, regularly holding civic elder positions in Ajaccio, but that's a very far cry from power in Genoa itself. That they were "noble" matters very little. Undoubtedly young Napoleon could have enjoyed some moderately high-status career like being a doctor or lawyer or something, but the military would have been unattractive, as the Genoese military was a sad little affair in which most officers were Genoese (read: not Corsican) noblemen and foreign mercenaries. There were a few Corsican battalions but Corsicans were discriminated against in the officer corps and tended to have their careers ended early.

That said, however, Corsica had a long tradition of "exporting" soldiers to other states, especially Venice but also the Papal States, Naples, France, and Sardinia. If you were an ambitious Corsican who wanted an officer's career you didn't work for Genoa, you went abroad. If Napoleon is born in a Genoese Corsica, and if he still ends up in a military career, then the most likely outcome is that he ends up as a Venetian or Neapolitan captain or something. The best outcome he could probably hope for would be to get into the French Regiment Royal-Corse, which was actually a military unit that did things, but then you've put Napoleon back in France and presumably that's not what you're looking for in this thread. Elsewhere, and in Venice especially, there's not all that much of an opportunity to win military glory, nor for a foreign soldier to attain any kind of political power.
 
Could he end up in the Austrian service? After all the Austrian Milanese is right next door.

Austria didn't recruit Corsicans at this time (AFAIK), but they did raise a few units in the Milanese and Tuscany (a possession of Emperor Francis) over the course of the 18th century, and officers in the 18th century were a nationally fluid bunch. If a young Corsican-born officer had a friend at Vienna who could get him a court introduction and a commission, there's no reason they wouldn't take him.

In fact Emperor Francis tried to get Corsica for himself IOTL so he could have a royal title of his own, but he wasn't very committed to the idea and was a rather inept political player in general. Nevertheless, it's possible to imagine a scenario in which Corsica is annexed to Tuscany in the 18th century,* either by purchase, trade, or conquest, in which case Napoleon (provided he's still born, etc.) would presumably be a subject of the Habsburg-Lorraine Grand Duke (and future emperor) Leopold. I should think that the Habsburgs, if they acquired Corsica, would be very likely to raise a regiment there just as the French and Neapolitans did from Corsican expatriates.

*Although technically it might be Tuscany annexed to Corsica, as Corsica was notionally a kingdom and Tuscany was "merely" a Grand Duchy. Basically a Sardinia-Piedmont scenario.
 
Probably. He could become a leader in the Republic of Genoa at best.
Genoa was a nobility Republic, so unless there is social Revolution, he as a minor noble outsider without money might be not " good enough" or lacks influence/networks to become the Doge.
 
Genoa was a nobility Republic, so unless there is social Revolution, he as a minor noble outsider without money might be not " good enough" or lacks influence/networks to become the Doge.
Well, Napoleon can become a very good military leader and marry in one of the first family of Genoa and/or marrying one of his pretty sisters (so Paola or Annunziata or both) in some important families and get from the new in-laws the support needed for becoming Doge
 
Genoa was a nobility Republic, so unless there is social Revolution, he as a minor noble outsider without money might be not " good enough" or lacks influence/networks to become the Doge.

There was actually a "social revolution" in 1746 in which the Senate was briefly overthrown by an assembly of artisans and tradesmen who had taken the lead in expelling an Austrian garrison from the city. The assembly claimed, for a time, to rule Genoa in the place of the aristocratic Senate, but the assembly found itself with no friends (as Genoa's wartime allies, Bourbon France and Spain, were hardly going to support a popular revolution) and was eventually suppressed with the help of the French.

A 1740s POD is inconvenient for a TL which is supposed to have Napoleon in it, but the 1746 "revolution" at least demonstrates that Genoa was susceptible to popular upheaval if the pressures upon the Republic were great enough. I wouldn't call it a "powder keg," exactly, but certainly a late 18th century revolution there is possible under the right conditions.
 
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