Italian irredentism in Corsica corse" in 1934 and Bertino Poli wrote "Il pensiero irredentista corso e le sue polemiche" in Florence in 1940. Small list of renowned Corsican Italians: Italian irredentism in Corsica Italian irredentism in Corsica was a cultural and historical movement promoted by Italians and by people from Corsica who identified themselves as part of Italy rather than France, and promoted the Italian annexation of the island. Corsica was part of the Republic of Genoa for centuries until 1768, when the Republic ceded the island to France, one year before the birth of Napoleon Bonaparte in the capital city of Ajaccio. Under
Ancient Corsica the name derives from the Phoenician term "Korsai", meaning 'wooded'. Settlement of Corsica is attested as far back as the 8th millennium BC. The original inhabitants of Corsica were hunter-gatherers from :Liguria, who walked to the island over a land bridge created by the modern islands of Elba and Capraia. Around 6000 BC, they were replaced by the Neolithic Cardium pottery culture. As a result of the Würm glaciation the sea level was about 100 metres lower and the island extended closer to the mainland. Until around 5000 BC, it was connected to Sardinia. In the south of the island,