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Bonjour, bon Dimanche à tous ☕️ 🥐 🥝

La Cathédrale Santa Maria Assunta d' Ajaccio ⛪️ Corse

Photo de Jean-Claude Camü-Dapelo

#photooftheday #photography #jean claude camü dapelo #ajaccio #corse #santa maria assunta #cathédrale #pape en corse #bonjour #bon dimanche #fidjie fidjie

PATRIMOINE | Tour de la Parata : tour génoise fortifiée au nord du golfe d’Ajaccio ➽ https://tinyurl.com/Tour-Parata En amont d’un projet de restauration et de mise en valeur porté par le Syndicat mixte du Grand Site des Îles Sanguinaires et de la pointe de la Parata, une équipe de l’Inrap a réalisé une opération d’archéologie préventive ayant pour objectif de documenter les différents espaces composant la tour dite « di Terra », ainsi que ses abords

#Tour #génoise #fortifiée #Parata #golfe #Ajaccio #archéologues #vestiges #archéologique #fouilles #Inrap #patrimoine

Napoleon Bonaparte During the Early French Revolution (1789-1794)

Of all the careers that soared to meteoric heights during the chaotic decade of the French Revolution (1789-1799), none was more spectacular nor impactful than that of Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821). From an unremarkable birth into minor Corsican nobility, Napoleon would find in the Revolution a path to fame, military success, and ultimately, to his role as Emperor of the French.

A quick glance at his career would be enough to show how intertwined his fate would become with the Revolution. His promising performance at the Siege of Toulon in 1793 would lead to his brilliant command of the Army of Italy, which in turn would help provide him with enough popularity and influence to seize control of the government in the Coup of 18 Brumaire, the event which many scholars consider to be the end of the Revolution. To understand this version of Napoleon, it is necessary to look at the person he was at the start of the Revolution; hardly the picture of a dashing military commander or French patriot, the Napoleon of 1789 was a thin, awkward man who did not yet even consider himself French.

Indeed, in 1789, 20-year-old Napoleon was in something of an identity crisis, looking to reconcile his ambitions of literary fame with his education as a soldier, his devotion to French revolutionary ideals with his Corsican nationalism. The early Revolution was undoubtedly a time of personal development for the young artillery lieutenant, the outcome of which would not only affect his own future but also the fate of all of Europe.

The Corsican

In 1768, the year before Napoleon's birth, the Kingdom of France purchased Corsica from the Republic of Genoa, which had distantly ruled it for the previous few centuries. Although nominally under Genoese control, the Corsicans had been used to effectively ruling themselves. They had recently claimed independence, declaring the Corsican Republic in 1755, but such aspirations to self-rule would come to an end with the arrival of the French. In Napoleon's own words, he was born "as the fatherland was dying. Thirty thousand Frenchmen, vomited upon our coasts, drowning the seat of liberty in torrents of blood" (Bell, 18).

There was resistance, of course. Led by Pasquale Paoli (1725-1807), the Corsicans were initially successful at beating back the French Expeditionary Force that landed on their shores in 1768. However, this success would not last, as the French had the advantage in manpower and supplies; the French victory at the Battle of Ponte Novu in 1769 destroyed the Corsican will to fight. Although sporadic guerilla warfare continued, Paoli fled to Britain, and Corsica was annexed by France.

Although this defeat was lamented by many Corsicans, some were able to take advantage of this regime change. Napoleon's father, Carlo Buonaparte, was one of them. A former ally of Paoli, Carlo chose to abandon the patriotic cause to ensure a future for his family. His gamble paid off, as Carlo's devotion to the new government allowed him to secure minor nobility status for his family under French law, which in turn allowed him to send his oldest sons to receive education in French royal academies. Because of his father's change in loyalties, ten-year-old Napoleon was educated at the military academy of Brienne in northern France, where he learned French and excelled in mathematics. Paoli, however, would not forget nor forgive Carlo's apparent betrayal.

Despite reaping the benefits of French occupation, teenaged Napoleon remained a staunch Corsican nationalist. He idolized the exiled Paoli as a freedom fighter and clung to dreams of an independent Corsica. Such a demeanor, along with his strange accent and difficult-to-pronounce name (recorded in the school registry as Neapoleonne Buonaparte), quickly alienated Napoleon from his French classmates. Much of his time was spent alone, and he would soon develop a “thoughtful and gloomy” nature, according to his headmaster (Roberts, 11). Lacking companions, Napoleon would find company amongst his books. He adored poetry and history, although he also took an interest in the Enlightenment philosophers, who were so popular at the time. He became especially fond of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, perhaps because of Rousseau's own support of the Corsican plight. Napoleon adopted many of Rousseau's ideas, which would soon become the same ideas that fueled the Revolution.

In 1786, the year after he graduated from the prestigious Ecole Militaire as an artillery lieutenant, 16-year-old Napoleon embarked on something of a literary career. An exceptionally ambitious young man, it did not seem likely that he, as a Corsican-born man of minor nobility, would amount to much in the French army. To compensate, Napoleon sought literary glory instead. Over the next ten years, he would write over 60 essays, novellas, and letters. His first known essay, written on 26 April 1786, argued that Corsica had an undeniable right to resist the French, while a follow-up essay entitled On Suicide was an interesting mixture of nationalistic pride and teenaged angst:

My fellow countrymen are weighed down with chains, while they kiss with fear the hand that oppresses them…you Frenchmen, not content with having robbed us of everything we hold dear, have also corrupted our character. A good patriot ought to die when his fatherland has ceased to exist. (Roberts, 22)

Although borderline treasonous, especially for an enlisted officer in the French army, Napoleon continued espousing his nationalism in his writings over the next few years. He spent months, on and off, writing a comprehensive history of Corsica, in which he compared his countrymen to the virtuous ancient Romans, while also penning a novella entitled New Corsica, which was, in the words of biographer Andrew Roberts, little better than a graphic "Francophobic revenge fantasy" (Roberts, 31). He would find little publication luck, and for a time, it appeared the young artillery lieutenant may be doomed to literary as well as military obscurity.

Then, in 1789, the course of history shifted. The Estates-General of 1789 declared themselves a National Assembly, wresting authority from the king. In July, the commoners took matters into their own hands with the Storming of the Bastille. The French Revolution had begun.

#History #1789 #Ajaccio #ArmyofItaly #WHE #[#]