History of Corsica dislodge Paoli were futile, in 1764 by secret treaty Genoa sold Corsica to the Duc de Choiseul, then minister of the French Navy, who bought it on behalf of the crown. On the quiet, French troops gradually replaced Genoese in the citadels. In 1768, after preparations had been made, an open treaty with Genoa ceded Corsica to France in perpetuity with no possibility of retraction and the Duc appointed a Corsican supporter, Buttafuoco, as administrator. The island rose in revolt. Paoli fought a guerrilla war against fresh French troops under their commander, Comte de Marbeuf, but was defeated in the
Italian occupation of Corsica was executed while he was dying in November 1943. Petru Giovacchini was forced to hide after the Free French and Allied invasion retaking the island. Prosecuted by a French tribunal in Corsica, he received a death sentence in 1945 and went into exile in Canterano, near Rome. He died on September 1955 as a consequence of former combat wounds, and since his death the Italian irredentist movement in Corsica is considered finished. Italian occupation of Corsica Italian-occupied Corsica refers to the military (and administrative) occupation by the Kingdom of Italy of the island of Corsica during World War II. It