Pasquale Paoli was a Corsican patriot and leader, the president of the Executive Council of the General Diet of the People of Corsica. Paoli designed and wrote the Constitution of the state.
Background
Paoli was born on April, 6 1725 in the hamlet of Stretta, Morosaglia commune, part of the ancient parish of Rostino, Haute-Corse, Corsica. He was the second son of the physician and patriot Giacinto Paoli, who was to become one of three "Generals of the People" in the Corsican nationalist movement that rebelled against rule by the Republic of Genoa, which at that time they regarded as corrupt and tyrannical. Prior to that century Corsicans more or less accepted Genoan rule.
Education
At the age of 14, following the reestablishment of Genoese supremacy in Corsica, he accompanied his father, Giacinto Paoli, a leader in the Corsican revolt of 1734, into exile in Naples, and there he received his early education and served in a Neapolitan regiment of Corsican exiles, of which his father was colonel.
Career
Upon the assassination of Don Luigi Giafferi (1680 - 1745), leader of the Corsican independence movement, by the Genoese, Paoli returned to Corsica and assumed command of the rebellion against the Genoese. At the same time that he was successfully driving the Genoese from one coastal town after another, Paoli, as head of the Corsican government, introduced a democratic constitution and many other liberal reforms, founded the port of L'Île-Rousse, L'Ile-Rousse, and established the University of Corte. In 1756 and in 1765, however, the Genoese sought France's aid to garrison the island and in 1768 sold it to France. Paoli was finally defeated at Ponte Nuovo in 1769, and was forced to seek refuge in England. He remained in London for 22 years, during which time he was welcomed into English literary and social circles and became an intimate friend of James Boswell and Dr. Samuel Johnson. On the outbreak of the French Revolution the Corsican exiles were permitted to return, and in 1791 Paoli landed at Bastia as governor of the island, having previously accepted French sovereignty. But his enemies in Corsica, some alienated by his moderation and others by fear that he wanted to become king of the island, persuaded the French government to depose Paoli on grounds of treason (Apr. 2, 1793), and a civil war ensued, in which Paoli invoked British aid against the French occupation. With British help, the Corsicans expelled the French, and the island remained under British rule for two years, but the British failed to name Paoli governor, placing the island instead under Sir Gilbert Eliot. Finally, in 1795, Paoli accepted an invitation from George III to come to London, where he spent the remainder of his life on a pension from the British government.
Achievements
Connections
Pasquale Paoli was the second son of the physician and patriot Giacinto Paoli.