Bonaparte the Jacobin

Abstract

Eighteenth-century Corsica was a wild, mountainous island inhabited by feuding clans, illiterate shepherds, and a succession of foreign garrisons. Its sparse population of about 120 000 lived mainly on what was produced by its own coastal farmers. Except for a few olives and chestnuts, and a little wine, Corsica’s main exports were soldiers and sailors. Like Bonaparte, they sought their fortune outside the island in the armed forces of France, Genoa or Naples. There were few roads and no industry but an abundance of clerics. According to the English traveller Boswell, mid-century Corsica had no less than sixty-five convents of friars.¹ Kinship networks dominated social and political life. They demanded absolute loyalty from relatives and clients, for whom they operated as sources of patronage and huge mutual aid societies. Although occupying forces might control the ports, real power in the interior tended to lie with local groups of brothers or cousins. In the hereditary vendetta, they exacted a brutal vengeance against their enemies, the sons of their enemies, and the sons of their enemies’ sons.