The invasion of Corsica was a campaign fought in the spring and summer of 1794 by combined British military and Corsican irregular forces against a French garrison, early in the French Revolutionary Wars. The campaign centred on sieges of three principal towns in Northern Corsica; San Fiorenzo, Bastia and Calvi, which were in turn surrounded, besieged and bombarded until by August 1794 French forces had been driven from the island entirely.
Corsica is a large island in the Ligurian Sea; naval forces stationed on the island have ability to exercise control over the waters off the coast of Southern France and Northwestern Italy. This was a principal theatre of the early French Revolutionary Wars, and the British commander in the region, Lord Hood, viewed control of Corsica as a vital component of his blockade of the French fleet based at Toulon. Corsica had been annexed by France in 1768, and the population had been resentful and rebellious ever since. The fervour of the French Revolution in 1789 had stirred their ambitions for independence, and their leader Pasquale Paoli appealed to Hood for support. Hood was initially distracted by the Siege of Toulon, but in early 1794 turned his attention to Corsica.
Combining naval bombardments with amphibious landings of British soldiers and marines, and supported by Corsican irregulars, the British forces attacked the defences of San Fiorenzo, forcing the French to abandon the town and retreat to Bastia. Hood then led a force around the island and laid siege to the town, which surrendered after 37 days of blockade. This victory was sufficient for the Corsican people, through Paoli, to pledge allegiance to Britain. British reinforcements then laid siege to the last French-held fortress on the island, at Calvi, which was bombarded for two months, finally surrendering 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.
Background
Corsica is a large, mountainous island in the Ligurian Sea, a region of the Mediterranean bordered by Western Spain, Southern France and Northwestern Italy. Control of the island, and in particular the harbour at San Fiorenzo, can allow a naval force to exercise regional dominance over this important waterway. Corsica was for centuries a part of the Republic of Genoa, although by the mid-eighteenth century it was de facto independent as the Corsican Republic, led by Pasquale Paoli. Unable to contest Paoli's control of the island, the Genoese sold Corsica to the Kingdom of France in 1768, and a French invasion swiftly captured and annexed the island.
Following the French Revolution in 1789 the chaotic political situation and fervent spread of republicanism revived the Corsican independence movement and encouraged Paoli, living in exile for 22 years, to return. Paoli swiftly defeated his political enemies on Corsica, including the prominent Bonaparte family, and assumed control of the island once more. By early 1793, during the political repression of the Reign of Terror in mainland France, Paoli found himself threatened with arrest by representatives of the French National Convention. In response, Paoli ordered his followers to form irregular partisan units which swiftly drove the French military garrison into the three northern towns of San Fiorenzo, Calvi and the capital of Bastia. Paoli then sought support from external allies.