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Should corsica be given independence?



Corsican nationalists hope their new power will allow the island population 320,000 to follow Scotland and Catalonia along the road to greater autonomy and maybe, one day, complete independence. To the fury of the French government, the installation of the new president of the Corsican assembly last week became a grand-standing festival of pro-independence statements and gestures.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/corsica-islands-new-nationalist-government-sparks-concern-in-paris-amid-renewed-calls-for-a6787016.html

should they? i wonder if it happens will napoleon's tomb move to corsika from les invalides
(edited 8 years ago)
Reply 1
I'm for the self-determination of peoples, but it would be stupid of them to take it, considering the subsidies they receive from Paris.
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Reply 2
Depends if the Corsican people want independence or not.

It's worth noting, though, that Corsica only became part of France in 1769, and that was done through outright aggressive conquest. Unlike in the cases of Scotland or Catalonia, neither the Corsican state or people were at all involved in the decision annexing the island to France, and they refused to give French rule any legitimacy for years afterwards until the defeat of Napoleon. Indeed, Napoleon himself was often reviled as a traitor on the island for all that he did to crush Corsican nationalism during the revolutionary period.
Original post by Arbolus
Depends if the Corsican people want independence or not.

It's worth noting, though, that Corsica only became part of France in 1769, and that was done through outright aggressive conquest. Unlike in the cases of Scotland or Catalonia, neither the Corsican state or people were at all involved in the decision annexing the island to France, and they refused to give French rule any legitimacy for years afterwards until the defeat of Napoleon. Indeed, Napoleon himself was often reviled as a traitor on the island for all that he did to crush Corsican nationalism during the revolutionary period.


Interestingly enough, Napoleon was a Corsican nationalist in his youth and hated France, but after the miserable failure of an attempted uprising to oust his former hero Paoli, the Corsican leader, he and his family were banished from the island and he considered himself French from then on.
Original post by Cato the Elder
Interestingly enough, Napoleon was a Corsican nationalist in his youth and hated France, but after the miserable failure of an attempted uprising to oust his former hero Paoli, the Corsican leader, he and his family were banished from the island and he considered himself French from then on.


The financial crisis seemed to have results in blinkered nationalists appearing on the political spectrum.

If the want independence then they're out of the will and have to rejoin.

It'll be interesting to see how Corsica expects to pay its way.
Reply 5
My general view remains the same for most. It is in the interests of the UK to be as large as possible while having a Europe with lots of tiny states as part of a bigger federal structure. So long as Corsica and Catalonia support Euro-zone integration then our self interest is satisfied. We get a powerful Europe but one in which our relative power increases.
Reply 6
Napoleon is infinitely more important to France than Corsica.

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