Italian irredentism in Corsica
Corsican Italians are the Italian speaking populations of the island of Corsica (Corse in French), who promoted the union of Corsica to Italy. They were so termed by Irredentists in the Kingdom of Italy after Italian unification in the late 19th century and during the Fascist period.
History
Corsica was fully Italian (ethnically, linguistically and historically) until 1768, when the Republic of Genoa ceded the island to France, exactly one year before Napoleon Bonaparte was born in the capital Ajaccio. Since then the Italian language has been slowly but steadily substituted by the French, mainly after 1870.[1]
Giuseppe Garibaldi promoted the unification of the Corsican Italians to Italy when Rome was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy, but Victor Emmanuel II did not agree to it.
The process of the Italian irredentism affected marginally Corsica and only during the Fascism of Mussolini were started in Corsica the first organizations promoting strongly the unification of the island to the Kingdom of Italy.[1]
Before WWI in Livorno (Leghorn) professor Francesco Guerri founded the review "Corsica antica e moderna", inspired on the "Archivio storico di Corsica" of Gioacchino Volpe. Petru Rocca created in the 1920s the Partito autonomista of Corsica (of which was segretary) with the support of monsignor Domenico Parlotti and dr. Croce, director of the "Archivi di Stato della Corsica".
Before and during WW2 there were Corsican intellectuals making pro-Italian propaganda and cultural activities in Italy (mainly in the "Gruppi di Cultura Corsa"), like Marco Angeli, Bertino Poli, Marchetti, Luccarotti, Grimaldi and Petru Giovacchini (he was later chosen as possible governor of Corsica if Italy had annexed it).[2] The most renowned was Petru Giovacchini, who considered Pascal Paoli (the hero of Corsica) as the precursor of the Corsican irredentism in favor of the unification of the island to Italy.[2]
In November 1942 the VII Army Corps of the Regio Esercito (WWII) pacifically occupied Corsica, still under the formal sovereignty of Vichy France. Because of the lack of partizan resistance and to avoid problems with Petain, no Corsican units were formed under the Italian control (except for a labour battalion formed in March 1943).
Some Corsican military officials collaborated with Italy, as the retired Major Pantalacci (and his son Antonio), colonel Mondielli and colonel Petru Simone Cristofini (and his wife, the first Corsican female journalist Marta Renucci).[3]
After WWII nearly one hundred collaborators or autonomists (included the intellectuals) were put on trial by the French authorities in 1946 and found guilty, 8 of them were sentenced to death, but only colonel Cristofini was executed.
Actually the Italian irredentistic movement in Corsica has disappeared, but has evolved in some independence movements from France (like the Corsica Nazione, Partitu di a Nazione Corsa and the rebel organization called National Front for the Liberation of Corsica).
A Corsican Irredentist
Colonel Petru Simone Cristofini was born in Calenzana (near Calvi, Corsica) on 26 May 1903 and in 1939 he was a captain of the 3rd Algerine Fusiliers regiment. He was initially a supporter of Petain. After the Allied occupation of French North Africa he commanded the Phalange Africaine.
In Tunisia he was wounded in an eye and, before returning to Corsica (where he supported pro-Italy secessionists), he met Mussolini in Rome and actively collaborated with the Italian forces in Corsica during the first months of 1943. In the island he worked with Petru Giovacchini (the possible governor of Corsica if the Axis had won the war). Cristofini, as head of the Ajaccio troops, helped the Italian Army to control successfully the Resistance opposition in Corsica, before the Italian Armistice in September 1943.
Colonel Cristofini was put on trial for treason after the Allied occupation of Corsica and sentenced to death. He tried to kill himself, and was executed while he was dying in November 1943. [4]
Language
The first Corsican Constitution was written in Italian (the language of culture in Corsica until the end of XIX century) for the short-lived Corsican republic, established in 1755 by Pascal Paoli (who proclaimed that the Italian was the official language of Corsica).
Even the second Corsican Constitution of Pasquale Paoli, for the Anglo-Corsican Kingdom in 1794, was in Italian.[3]
While most Corsicans spoke the Corsican dialect at home, until the first half of the XIX century the Italian was the language most publicly spoken and written in the island.
In the second half of the XIX century the French language substituted the Italian, mainly because of Napoleon III, but at the same time the Corsican dialect started to be used by many Corsican intellectuals.
The actual corsican language is directly related to the Tuscan dialect of Pisa, an Italian city that dominated the island before Genoa . In the north of the island (Calvi), there it is a local dialect very similar to the medieval genoese.
In the mountainous interior of Corsica there are many villages were nearly everybody speaks the Corso, practically a medieval Pisan dialect mixed with many Sardinian words.[4]
The extreme similarity of the Corso with the Italian can be understood in this phrase: Sò natu in Corsica è g'aghju passatu i megli anni di a mio ghjuventù (Corso)/ Sono nato in Corsica e ci ho passato i migliori anni della mia gioventù (Italian).
The irredentist Marco Angeli di Sartèna wrote in 1924 the first book in "Corso" (titled Terra còrsa) and many lyrics in this dialect (titled Malincunie) in Ajaccio. He created and wrote even the newspaper «Gioventù» of the "Partito Corso d'azione", partially in Italian and Corsican.
Actually nearly 12% of the Corsicans speaks even the Italian language, while 3/4 understand it thanks to the television programs from nearby Italy. [5]
Pasquale Paoli and the Italian Irredentism
Pascal Paoli was considered by Niccolo Tommaseo, who collected his Lettere (Letters), as one of the precursors of the Italian irredentism.
The "Babbu di a Patria" (father of Corsica), as was nicknamed Pasquale Paoli by the Corsican Italians, wrote in his Letters [6] the following message in 1768 against the French invaders: We (Corsicans) are Italians because of birth and feelings, but first of all we feel Italians because of language, roots, traditions and all the Italians are all brothers for History and for God....As Corsicans we do not want to be slaves nor "rebels" and as Italians we have the right to be treated like all the other Italian brothers.... Or we 'll be free or we'll be nothing...Or we'll win or we'll die (against the French) with the arms in our hands...The war against France is holy and right as holy and right is the name of God, and here on our mountains will appear for all Italy the sun of the liberty.. ("Siamo còrsi per nascita e sentimento ma prima di tutto ci sentiamo italiani per lingua, origini, costumi, tradizioni e gli italiani sono tutti fratelli e solidali di fronte alla storia e di fronte a Dio… Come còrsi non vogliamo essere né schiavi né "ribelli" e come italiani abbiamo il diritto di trattare da pari con gli altri fratelli d’Italia… O saremo liberi o non saremo niente… O vinceremo con l’onore o soccomberemo (contro i francesi) con le armi in mano... La guerra con la Francia è giusta e santa come santo e giusto è il nome di Dio, e qui sui nostri monti spunterà per l’Italia il sole della libertà…")
Pasquale Paoli even wanted the Italian language to be the official language of his Corsican Republic. His Corsican Constitution of 1755 was in Italian and was used as a model for the American constitution of 1787. Furthermore, in 1765 Paoli founded in the city of Corte the first University of Corsica (where the teaching was done in Italian).
Literature
The Italian language, promoted by the Corsican Italians, was the language of culture in Corsica since the Renaissance. Many Corsican authors wrote an extensive Literature in Italian in the last centuries.
In the XIV century there was La Cronica of Giovanni della Gorda (1388-1464), Pier Antonio Monteggiani (1464-1525) and Marcantoni Ceccaldi (1526-1559). Storia di Corsica was published in 1594 by Anton Pietro Filippini. In the XV and XVI centuries there were Ignazio Cardini (1566-1602), Pietro Cirneo (1447-1507), Guiglielmo Guglielmi di Orezza (1644-1728) with A Malannata and Ottave giocose.
In the XVII century in Bastia was founded the Accademia dei Vagabondi, following the model of the Italian "Accademie". Angelo Francesco Coloma wrote Commentario della glorie e prerogative dei Regno e Popoli di Corsica in 1685.
During the Corsican Republic of Pasquale Paoli there were Giulio Matteo Natali (Disinganno intorno alla Guerra de Corsica in 1736), Don Gregorio Salvini (Giustificazione della Revoluzione di Corsica (1758-1764)) and the same Pascal Paoli (Corrispondenza (published only in 1846).
During the XIX century in Bastia Salvatore Viale wrote La Dionomachia in 1817, Canti popolari corsi in 1843 and Dell'uso della lingua patria in Corsica in 1858.
Many Corsican authors (who wrote in Italian) were influenced by the ideals of the Italian Risorgimento during the second half of the XIX century, like Giuseppe Multado, Gian Paolo Borghetti, Francesco Ottaviano Renucci (Storia della Corsica dal 1789 al 1830 and Novelle storiche corse). Even the Italian Nicolo Tommaseo collected the Canti popolari corsi (with points of view of Italian irredentism) and made a compilation of the letters (Lettere di Pasquale de Paoli) of Pascal Paoli.
Santu Casanova founded the famous literary review A Tramuntana (published in Ajaccio between 1896 and 1914) and wrote in Italian Meraviglioso testamento di Francesco in 1875 and La morte ed il funerale di Spanetto in 1892. He is considered the link between the old generations of Corsican writers who wrote in Italian language and the new ones, who started to use the Corsican language.
During the first half of the XX century the most important Corsican publication in Italian was the literary review A Muvra of Petru Rocca. Other Corsican authors in Italian were Versini Maiastrale, Matteu Rocca (I lucchetti in 1925), Dumenicu Carlotti (Pampame corse in 1926), Ageniu Grimaldi and Ugo Babbiziu (Una filza di francesismi colti nelle parlate dialettali corse in 1930).
The Corsican Italians who promoted the ideal of Corsican irredentism published mainly in Italy, because of the persecutions from the French regime in the island in the first half of the XX century.
So, Petru Giovacchini wrote the poems Musa Canalinca and Rime notturne in 1933 in Corsica, but successively wrote and published Aurore, poesie corse, Corsica Nostra and Archiatri pontifici corsi in Rome (the last, while he was in exile in 1951, a few years before his premature death).
The irredentist Marco Angeli published in Milano Gigli di Stagnu and Liriche corse in 1934 and Bertino Poli wrote Il pensiero irredentista corso e le sue polemiche in Florence in 1940.
Main Corsican Italians
Small list of renowned Corsican Italians:
- Petru Giovacchini, irredentist candidate for Governor of Italian Corsica during WWII.
- Petru Rocca, founder of the Partito autonomista of Corsica and director of A Muvra literary review.
- Petru Simone Cristofini, colonel irredentist executed in 1943.
- Marta Renucci, first Corsican female journalist.
- Marco Angeli di Sartèna, founder of newspaper «Gioventù» of the "Partito Corso d'azione" and writer/poet.
References
- ^ Melillo, A.M. Profilo dei dialetti italiani: Corsica. pag 48
- ^ Mastroserio, Giuseppe. Petru Giovacchini – Un Patriota esule in Patria. pag 114
- ^ Vita e Tragedia dell'Irredentismo Corso, Rivista Storia Verità
- ^ Il Martirio di un irredento: il colonnello Petru Simone Cristofini. Rivista Storia Verità
- ^ Vignoli, Giulio. Gli Italiani Dimenticati. pag 126
- ^ N. Tommaseo. "Lettere di Pasquale de Paoli" (in Archivio storico italiano, 1st series, vol. XI).
Bibliography
- Durand, Olivier. La lingua còrsa. Paideia Editrice, Brescia, 2003 ISBN 88-394-0674-3
- Fusina, Jacques. Parlons Corse. Éditions L'Harmattan, Paris, 1999
- Mastroserio, Giuseppe. Petru Giovacchini – Un Patriota esule in Patria. Editrice Proto. Bari, 2004.
- Melillo, A.M. Profilo dei dialetti italiani: Corsica. Pacini Editore. Pisa, 1977.
- Saint-Blancac, C. La Corsica. Identità Etnico-Linguistica e Sviluppo. CEDAM, Padova, 1993
- Tommaseo, Niccoló. Lettere di Pasquale de Paoli. Archivio storico italiano, 1st series, vol. XI. Roma
- Vignoli, Giulio. Gli Italiani Dimenticati Ed. Giuffè. Roma, 2000
- Vita e Tragedia dell'Irredentismo Corso, Rivista Storia Verità, n.4, 1997
- Il Martirio di un irredento: il colonnello Petru Simone Cristofini. Rivista Storia Verità, n.11, 1998.