French conquest of Corsica in the context of Pasquale Paoli

Carlo Maria Buonaparte (27 March 1746 – 24 February 1785), also known as Carlo Maria di Buonaparte and Charles-Marie Bonaparte, was a Corsican attorney and politician, best known as the father of Napoleon Bonaparte and grandfather of Napoleon III.

Initially a supporter of Corsican independence, he briefly served as an aide to Pasquale Paoli, fighting against the Republic of Genoa and later resisting the French invasion. After France annexed Corsica, he aligned with the new regime and in 1777 became the island’s representative at the court of Louis XVI. Twenty years after his death, his second surviving son, Napoleon, became Emperor of the French, elevating several of his siblings to royal status through marriage and noble titles.

Ajaccio is the capital and largest city of Corsica, France. It forms a French commune, prefecture of the department of Corse-du-Sud, and head office of the Collectivité territoriale de Corse (capital city of Corsica). It is also the largest settlement on the island. Ajaccio is located on the west coast of the island of Corsica, 210 nautical miles (390 km) southeast of Marseille.

The original city went into decline in the Middle Ages, but began to prosper again after the Genoese built a citadel in 1492, to the south of the earlier settlement. After the Corsican Republic was declared in 1755, the Genoese continued to hold several citadels, including Ajaccio, until the French took control of the island.

Louis Bonaparte (born Luigi Buonaparte; 2 September 1778 – 25 July 1846) was a younger brother of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French. He was a monarch in his own right from 1806 to 1810, ruling over the Kingdom of Holland (a French client state roughly corresponding to the modern-day Netherlands). In that capacity, he was known as Louis I (Dutch: Lodewijk I [ˈloːdəʋɛik]).

Louis was the fifth surviving child and fourth surviving son of Carlo Buonaparte and Letizia Ramolino, out of eight children who lived past infancy. He and his siblings were all born in Corsica, which had been conquered by France less than a decade before his birth. Louis followed his older brothers into the French Army, where he benefited from Napoleon's patronage. In 1802, he married his step-niece Hortense de Beauharnais, the daughter of Empress Joséphine (Napoleon's wife).

The Corsican Republic (Italian: Repubblica Corsa) was a short-lived state on the island of Corsica in the Mediterranean Sea. It was proclaimed in July 1755 by Pasquale Paoli, who was seeking independence from the Republic of Genoa. Paoli created the Corsican Constitution, which was the first constitution written in the Italian language. The text included various Enlightenment principles, including female suffrage, later revoked by the Kingdom of France when the island was taken over in 1769. The republic created an administration and justice system, and founded an army.