,
Statue menhir The island was populated since the
Mesolithic (
Dame de Bonifacio) and the
Neolithic by people who came from the
Italian peninsula, especially the modern regions of
Tuscany and
Liguria. An important megalithic tradition developed locally since the
4th millennium BC. Reached, like
Sardinia, by
Polada culture influences in the Early
Bronze Age, in the
2nd millennium BC Corsica, the
southern part in particular, saw the rise of the
Torrean civilization, strongly linked to the
Nuragic civilization. The modern Corsicans are named after an ancient people known by the
Romans as
Corsi. The Corsi, who gave their name to the island, also inhatibed the Northeastern part of Nuragic Sardinia (
Gallura). According to
Ptolemy, the Corsi were made up of a large number of tribes that dwelt in Corsica (namely the
Belatones or
Belatoni, the
Cervini, the
Cilebenses or
Cilibensi, the
Cumanenses or
Cumanesi, the
Licinini, the
Macrini, the
Opini, the
Subasani, the
Sumbri, the
Tarabeni, the
Titiani and the
Venacini) as well as in the far north-east of Sardinia (the
Lestricones,
Lestrigones or
Lestriconi / Lestrigoni, the
Longonenses or
Longonensi). These Corsi shared the island with the
Tibulati, who dwelt at the extreme north of Sardinia near the ancient town of
Tibula. According to several scholars, they may have been a group of tribes affiliated to the ancient
Ligures, like the
Ilvates in the neighboring
Ilva island (today's
Elba in Italy), and may have spoken the old
Ligurian language.
Seneca claimed that the
Corsi were of mixed origin, resulting from the continuous mingling of various ethnic groups of foreign origin, like the Ligures, the
Greeks and the
Iberians. In the aftermath of the
battle of Alalia, Corsica was occupied by the
Etruscans. At the beginning of our era, Corsica underwent Romanization. In the Middle Ages, the local population of Corsica mixed with a minority of Byzantines, Germanic Ostrogoths, Franks and Lombards . In the 9th century, the established
Holy Roman Empire continually warred with the Saracens for control of the island. In 807, Charlemagne's constable Burchard defeated an invading force from
Al Andalus. In the 11th and 18th centuries the Pisans and the Genoese dominated the island. The indigenous population preferred to live in the central part of the island, which contributed to relative security and prevented them from mingling with foreigners.
Strabo says that when the Roman captains did some errands in Corsica and took a large number of slaves to Rome, one looked with admiration at the fact that the Corsicans were all savages and were more beast than man: for either they hunted each other to death in every way possible to them, or else they annoyed their masters so greatly with their impatience and lack of wit, that the said masters were angry for having put their money into it, although they would have cost them very little. For several centuries the Corsicans suffered raids from the Barbary and many captured Corsicans were enslaved in North Africa. Some of these slaves
converted to Islam and became renegades in the service of the
Ottoman Empire, they in turn captured other Corsicans. Among these renegades are
Hasan Corso, Mami Corso and
Murad I Bey (born Giacomo Senti) who founded the
Muradid dynasty, of Corsican origin and who reigned over the
Regency of Tunis from 1613 to 1702. At the end of the Middle Ages and at the beginning of the Renaissance, the Corsicans distinguished themselves in combat in many conflicts, many of them were then mercenaries (or
Condottieri) and fought for sometimes rival Kingdoms. Corsicans distinguished themselves in particular during the
Battle of Lepanto alongside the Holy League against the Ottoman Empire, others were mercenaries in the service of the Kingdom of France (including
Sampiero Corso who also served the
Kingdom of Naples and returned to his native land with the support of France, Naples, and the
Ottoman Empire to confront the Genoese occupiers). At the beginning of the 17th century, according to
Pierre Davity, the Corsicans were hardly civilized for the most part and there was not in them that politeness that one sees among the Italians. They are "extremely cruel" and still retain what
Caesar said of them for this look, nevertheless there are some very good soldiers and brave strong men among them. Moreover, they are so vindictive that the Italians have a common proverb which says that one should not trust a Corsican, neither alive nor dead, because as soon as someone has been killed, suddenly all his relatives come together to kill the murderer if it is possible for them.) is found in Italy, as well as in the fact that the
modern Corsican varieties, especially the
Northern ones, are linguistically considered part of
Tuscan. Because the island has been historically and culturally related to the Italian mainland up until then, the Italian populations from Northern and Central Italy have contributed to a significant degree to the modern Corsican ancestry. In 1891
Roland Bonaparte wrote in
Une excursion en Corse that the Corsicans particularly abhor injustice and since the Genoese who ruled the island for 500 years had erected the denial of justice into a principle of government, it followed that the Corsica was reduced to taking justice into his own hands: hence the
vendetta. Throughout the 19th century many Corsicans sympathized with the
Bonapartist doctrine and
French nationalism while other Corsicans took part in French political and military life. ==Demographics==