The Corsican Crisis of 1793: Paoli’s Dismissal, Rebellion, and the Threat of Secession

The Paulists are fighting to retake the citadels of Bastia and Calvi. The Convention fears a secession after the extraordinary consulta of Corte. Decreed “traitor to the Republic”, Paoli then turns to England

On April 14, 1793, Christophe Saliceti, envoy of the Convention with Delcher and Lacombe Saint-Michel, was received by Pasquale Paoli in Corte. Their discussions will last several days. Saliceti is responsible for determining Paoli’s role in the failure of the Sardinia expedition, a failure shared by the young artilleryman Napoleon Bonaparte sent to the front line. However, from April 2, Paoli, suspected of wanting to deliver Corsica to the English, was dismissed from his position as head of the 23^e military region, and decreed under arrest. Asked to come to Paris to explain himself, the general “sniffing out a trap, refuses, claiming ” advanced age and the ailments that have been familiar to me for some time ».

This decree of the arrest of Paoli triggers the storm: ” This was going to be a general outcry throughout Corsica: surprise, indignation, incomprehension, anger, revolt and mobilization. All the municipalities of the island were to protest against the decree, including those which were ultimately to support the party of the Convention against the most famous of their compatriots, unjustly condemned. » (1)

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The consensus around Paoli, threatened with the wrath of the Convention, should in theory have opened the way to a general reconciliation. ” Provided that the supporters of the Convention, starting with the three commissioners, have the courage, and above all the possibility, to express themselves in this direction. However, the particular atmosphere of Parisian terrorism hardly allowed them to do so. » (2)

A standoff then began between Paoli’s supporters and the Convention members, to the point that the administration of the department sent emissaries to Paris to demand the cancellation of Paoli’s dismissal, and the Convention members responded by withdrawing all power from this assembly, replacing it with a provisional committee. The Paolist militias take up arms against the Republicans who manage to take control of the citadels of Bastia, Saint-Florent and Calvi. On April 26, Paoli wrote to the Convention

denouncing the charges against him, while saying he was ready to leave Corsica if this attitude could appease the spirits.

However, at the end of April 1793, the political situation was more blocked than ever: “ The Paolists can hardly hope to take the three citadels, having only little siege artillery. As for the Republicans, refugees inside these citadels, after their banishment from Corsica, they have little hope of extending their zone of influence. » (3)

Faced with a danger of secession, the Convention reacted through the voice of Bertrand Barère, an active member of the Committee of Public Safety, proclaiming: “ It is essential to break this Cunsulta whose power will soon rise against yours, and to annul all its acts as detrimental to the will of the people. From then on, the growing tensions between Paolists and Republicans will turn into a confrontation in two stages.

The Convention suspends the decree of arrest, but the rupture proves to be inevitable

On May 17, a plan to invest the citadel of Ajaccio by sea came to an end: ” The expedition was to be prepared from Saint-Florent, by Saliceti and Lacombe Saint-Michel, with the participation of Napoleon and Joseph Bonaparte, whose family property had been ransacked in Ajaccio, and the house in town burned. (4) On June 3, a similar expedition was led by the Paolists against the citadel of Calvi, defended by a thousand French soldiers. Despite heavy artillery fire that lasted twelve hours, the attackers withdrew with losses.

In this turbulent context, Paoli convened an extraordinary consultation on May 26 in Corte, dragging in its wake a delirious crowd amid salvoes of musketry. Under the aegis of Pozzo di Borgo named ” citizen Attorney General trustee “, measures are enacted: dismissal of the envoys of the Convention, suspension of the decree of April 2 implicating Paoli. Thus, the Paolists express their refusal to submit. Misinformed of the situation in Corsica, the Convention then decided to send two new commissioners and four thousand men there. ” The National Convention appoints Antiboul and Bô on May 30, 1793 as new commissioners in Corsica and suspends its decree of April 2, on June 5. This last appointment, published in Bastia by Etienne Batini, is however not followed by any reality. The former commissioners have separated: Delcher and Saliceti leave Corsica, Lacombe Saint-Michel remains alone in Corsica. » (5)

Paoli, who still refused to break with the Convention, was worried about the fate of Corsica, which he considered linked to that of France, shaken by the tumults, writing in particular to Father Andrei: ” The liberty of France will never be an indifferent object. If this country returns to slavery, farewell forever to any hope of freedom, especially for the small states. This will always be

my way of thinking… “For him, Corsica pays for the events that take place in France. Paoli continues to support the Revolution, even claiming to pray ” for the freedom of the French because if the despots succeed in bringing it down and introducing an arbitrary government in this vast country, no other nation will be able to flatter themselves with preserving their freedom “. (6) The Corsicans do not fail to make the difference between the absolutist Old Regime and revolutionary France hostile to all despotism or feudalism, as evidenced by their adherence to the decree of November 30, 1789, stipulating, at the request of Saliceti, that there ” Corsica is part of the French Empire ».

However, four years later, at the consulta of May 1793, an attempt was made to renew the ties between the Convention and Paoli, while denouncing the considered seditious attitude of Saliceti and the Convention members. ” Until July, some texts still attempted to demonstrate the islanders’ attachment to “the cause of this freedom they shared with the French nation of which they were now a part” or to recall that resistance to oppression was justified by the values ​​of 1789 and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen… » (7)

Paoli was outlawed by decree of the Convention of July 17, 1793. When France suffered the regime of Terror established by Robespierre, Corsica entered into secession, called to a new destiny through the Anglo-Corsican Kingdom, resulting from reciprocal interests: On the Corsican side, Paoli is not master of the maritime strongholds; it cannot long hope to maintain a governo separato without the aid of a great power. On the British side, the Royal Navy needs a strategic site that will allow it to monitor the movements of the French fleet from Toulon or Golfe-Juan, and to protect Livorno, where British traders are well established and prosperous.. » (8)

On January 16, 1794 in Murato, Paoli discussed the fate of Corsica with Commissioner Plenipotentiary George Elliot, future viceroy of the island.

(1, 2, 3, 4) Francois Paoli. Christophe Saliceti, a Corsican conventioneer from Paris to Naples. Imp. Sammarcelli (5, 6) AM Graziani. An island in revolution in the history of Corsica. Ed. pitch (7) Antoine Franzini. A century of Corsican revolutions. Vendémiaire (8) Francis Beretti. GF Galeazzi. A notable in the revolutionary turmoil. Ed. pitch