History of Corsica government granted the island of Corsica limited autonomy, launching a process of devolution in an attempt to end the push for nationalism. Corsica served as the start of the 2013 Tour de France, the first time that the event was staged on the island. History of Corsica That the history of Corsica has been influenced by its strategic position at the heart of the western Mediterranean and its maritime routes, only from Sardinia, from the Isle of Elba, from the coast of Tuscany and from the French port of Nice, was first proposed by the 19th-century German theorist, Friedrich Ratzel.
Invasion of Corsica (1794) in August 1794. Corsica proved a mixed asset for the British; the island's anchorages provided some relief for a fleet operating at the end of a long supply chain, but the instability of Corsican politics and repeated French efforts to disrupt British control consumed valuable resources. By late 1796, with the French victorious in Northern Italy and the Spanish declaration of war on Britain following the Treaty of San Ildefonso, British control of Corsica was no longer tenable. British forces withdrew from the island, which was rapidly seized once more by the French. Corsica is a large, mountainous island in