Invasion of Corsica (1794) the Ligurian Sea, a region of the Mediterranean bordered by Western Spain, Southern France and Northwestern Italy. Control of the island, and in particular the harbour at San Fiorenzo, can allow a naval force to exercise regional dominance over this important waterway. Corsica was for centuries a part of the Republic of Genoa, although by the mid-eighteenth century it was "de facto" independent as the Corsican Republic, led by Pasquale Paoli. Unable to contest Paoli's control of the island, the Genoese sold Corsica to the Kingdom of France in 1768, and a French invasion swiftly captured and annexed the island.
Cuisine of Corsica Renaissance: in the Gallery of Maps in the Vatican, which depicts the regions of Italy and its surrounding islands, the 16th century Italian cosmographer Ignazio Danti wrote above the map of Corsica: "Corsica has received four major gifts from Nature: its horses, its dogs, its proud and courageous men and its wines, most generous, that princes hold in the highest esteem!" In 1887 the vineyards of the island were hit by the Phylloxera. A dramatic change in the island's viticulture happened at the beginning of the 1960s. At that time about 20,000 pied-noirs (French colonists from Algeria) had to leave