Petru Rocca (French : Pierre Rocca, Italian : Pietro Rocca; Vico, 1887 - Vico, 1966) was a Corsican politician and writer who supported Corsican independence from France. Initially he advocated regionalism for Corsica within the French state. He briefly supported Italian irredentism in Corsica, before returning to a position of French-Corsican regionalism before World War II.
Pietro (Petru in Corsican) Rocca was a printer by trade, and before 1914 contributed to the original Corsican cultural magazine A Tramuntana. Called up for military action in World War I he was wounded on multiple occasions and wrote about his wartime experiences. In recognition of his service he was decorated with the French Legion of Honor.
Corsica, like France's other heavily agricultural regions, was heavily affected by the casualties of the war. Rocca returned to Ajaccio and, with other combat veterans disillusioned in the French state and nation, founded the Corsican literary magazine A Muvra (the Muflon). This journal offered a home to a range of Corsican political projects, ranging from simple decentralisation within France, to an independent state, to merging into the Italian state. Differing political contexts during the interwar would lead to each of the currents gaining popularity at different times.
A Muvra led to the formation of the first Corsican regionalist party, the Partitu Corsu d'Azione (1922 to 1926), modelled on the Sardinian regionalist party in Italy, the Partito Sardo d'Azione. [1] Rocca highlighted the successful examples of other national movements in Europe: Home Rule and Sinn Féin in Ireland; the Mancomunitat and Generalitat in Catalonia, and the ongoing efforts of the Breton nationalist movement Breizh Atao in France.
But between 1925 and 1928, in the context of the Alsatian regionalist crisis, the French state adopted a severe stance towards regionalism. Petru Rocca and many of the PCA began to doubt the French state's goodwill towards self-rule for regional nationalities. He affirmed France to be a state formed by multiple nationalities - Alsatian, Basque, Breton, Catalan and Flemish, as well as Corsican - and demanded that these be granted regional self-rule within a multi-national French state. Petru Roccia therefore represented Corsica when, in 1926, the various regiona-national movements of France founded an umbrella association to coordinate their efforts, the Central Committee for the National Minorities of France.
In 1927 Rocca set up a more hardline party, the Partitu autonomista di Corsica, backed by monsignor Domenico Parlotti and Dr. Croce, director of the Archivi di Stato della Corsica.
During the late 1930s the crisis of the French state prompted many of the leaders of France's interwar national movements to slowly evolve from regionalism (greater self-rule within the French Republic) to separatism or irridentism with a neighbouring state, often losing patience with the French state and openly accepting the patronage of Nazi Germany. This was the case for Olivier Mordrel in Brittany, l'abbé Gantois in French Flanders et Hermann Bickler, who together coordinated their efforts through the journal Peuples et frontières (1936 to 1938) - the Corsican perspective was provided by Rocca.
During this period, Rocca's opinions followed a similar path. From 1935 Rocca and A Muvra began to openly reject the idea that Corsica had a place within the French state, a position developed in contact with other Corsican intellectuals such as Petru Giovacchini, Marco Angeli di Sartèna, and Marta Renucci. The end result was Italian irredentism, the idea that Corsica (through its language and long historical connections) was a culturally-Italic nation and would be better off merging into the Kingdom of Italy. This position was actively encouraged by Mussolini, who wished to acquire territories from France with historically Italic culture such as Corsica, Nice and Savoy. But whereas Italian linguists, sponsored by the Fascist government, presented the Corsican language as a mere dialect of Italian (with the political undertone that Corsica 'belonged' to Italy), Rocca maintained that Corsican and Italian were two distinct languages descended from a common ancestor. He was thus suspicious of Mussolini's plans to absorb Corsica just as France had done, and by World War Two had lost enthusiasm for the idea of Corsican union with Italy.
In any event Rocca had attracted the suspicion of French police, which made little distinction between full Italian-Corsican irredentists and French-Corsican autonomists. In 1938 he was stripped of his Legion of Honour. Around this time A Muvra began to publish articles against Freemasons and Jews, whom Rocca held responsible for the French 'occupation' of Corsica. In 1939, as war with Germany and Italy approached, Rocca was arrested and his journal suspended for the crime of "threatening the authority of France in the territories under its control". [2]
After the end of the world war and the foundation of the Fourth Republic, in 1946 Rocca was sentenced to 15 years of jail and sent to the forced labour camp on Devil's Island (French Guiana). [3] [4] When released, he quickly recreated his original Partitu Corsu Autonomista.
In 1953, Petru Rocca created an academy for the defense of the Corsican language and demanded that the French state officially recognise the Corsican people and language, and accede to the re-opening of the old university at Corte. Rocca remained a lifelong supporter of Corsican nationalism, a political movement that returned to the mainstream shortly after his death in 1966
Corsican is a Romance language constituted by the continuum of the Italo-Dalmatian dialects spoken on the Mediterranean island of Corsica (France) and on the northern end of the island of Sardinia (Italy). Corsican is related to the Tuscan varieties from the Italian peninsula, and therefore also to the Florentine-based standard Italian.
Italian irredentism was a political movement during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Italy with irredentist goals which promoted the unification of geographic areas in which indigenous peoples were considered to be ethnic Italians. At the beginning, the movement promoted the annexation to Italy of territories where Italians formed the absolute majority of the population, but retained by the Austrian Empire after the Third Italian War of Independence in 1866. During World War One the main "irredent lands" were considered to be the provinces of Trento and Trieste and, in a narrow sense, irredentists referred to the Italian patriots living in these two areas.
The Corsican Assembly is the unicameral legislative body of the territorial collectivity of Corsica. It has its seat at the Grand Hôtel d'Ajaccio et Continental, in the Corsican capital of Ajaccio. After the 2017 territorial elections, the assembly was expanded from 51 to 63 seats, with the executive council expanding from 9 to 11 members.
The Corsicans are a Romance ethnic group. They are native to Corsica, a Mediterranean island and a territorial collectivity of France.
Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of the French mainland, west of the Italian Peninsula and immediately north of the Italian island of Sardinia, which is the land mass nearest to it. A single chain of mountains makes up two-thirds of the island. As of January 2023, it had a population of 351,255.
The Party of the Corsican Nation is a Corsican nationalist and autonomist political party on the French island of Corsica. It was founded in Corte in 2002 by members of three nationalist parties, Union of the Corsican People (UPC), A Scelta Nova and A Mossa Naziunale.
Italian irredentism in Corsica was a cultural and historical movement promoted by Italians and by people from Corsica who identified themselves as part of Italy rather than France, and promoted the Italian annexation of the island.
Petru Giovacchini was a Corsican activist, born in Canale-di-Verde to an old family of the Corsican nobility with deep-rooted pro-Italian feelings. Giovacchini was the most renowned of the Corsican Italians, who actively promoted the unification of Corsica to the Kingdom of Italy during the Fascist years.
Arbori is a commune in the Corse-du-Sud department of France on the island of Corsica.
Sari-Solenzara is a commune and municipality in the French department of Corse-du-Sud, on the island of Corsica. It is delineated by several natural borders: the Tyrrhenian Sea to its east, the River Solenzara to its north, and to its west the Aiguilles de Bavella, a beautiful mountain at the heart of the island. A rural district, it essentially consists of two settlements: the larger seaside village of Solenzara, and the smaller hilltop village of Sari. Smaller outlying hamlets include Togna, Canella, Tarcu and Favona. Highly mountainous and forested, Sari-Solenzara falls partially within the Alta Rocca district of the Corsican Regional Nature Reserve.
The Anglo-Corsican Kingdom, also known as the Kingdom of Corsica, was a client state of the Kingdom of Great Britain that existed on the island of Corsica between 1794 and 1796, during the French Revolutionary Wars.
Marcel Francisci was a French politician and an alleged member of the Unione Corse who was accused of masterminding the French Connection drug network. As a young man, Francisci fought in World War II and was awarded the Croix de Guerre. Following the war, he developed a business empire that included casinos in Britain, France and Lebanon. Francisci served in the general council of the Corse-du-Sud (UDR) and was a member of the Civic Action Service (SAC), a Gaullist militia. He was assassinated in Paris in 1982.
The Genoese towers in Corsica are a series of coastal defences constructed by the Republic of Genoa between 1530 and 1620 to stem the attacks by Barbary pirates.
Corsican nationalism is a nationalist movement in Corsica that advocates more autonomy for the island, if not outright independence from France.
The Italian occupation of Corsica refers to the military occupation by the Kingdom of Italy of the French island of Corsica during the Second World War, from November 1942 to September 1943. After an initial period of increased control over the island, by early spring 1943 the Maquis had begun to occupy the hinterland. In the aftermath of the Armistice of Cassibile, the Italian capitulation to the Allies, some Italian units sided with German troops sent to replace the Italian garrison and some defected to the Maquis and Free French Forces.
Marco Angeli di Sartena (1905-1985) was a politician from Corsica, who wrote in the famous Literary Review "A Muvra". He was an active irredentist, supporting the union of Corsica to Italy.
Simon Petru Cristofini (1903–1943), also known as Pietro Simone Cristofini, was a Corsican soldier who commanded the Phalange Africaine during Tunisia Campaign in World War II and was executed for treason by French authorities because of his support for Italian irredentism in Corsica during the Italian occupation of Corsica.
The Corsican Donkey, French: Âne corse, Corsican: U sumeru corsu, is a breed of domestic donkey from the Mediterranean island of Corsica, a région and territorial collectivity of France. It is not recognised by the Ministère de l'agriculture, de l'agroalimentaire et de la forêt, the French ministry of agriculture, or by the Haras Nationaux, the French national stud; nor is it reported to the DAD-IS database of the FAO. Its numbers have fallen alarmingly; two associations are seeking its official recognition as a breed.
The cuisine of Corsica is the traditional cuisine of the island of Corsica. It is mainly based on the products of the island, and due to historical and geographical reasons, has much in common with Italian cuisine, and marginally with those of Nice and Provence.
Pè a Corsica was a Corsican nationalist political alliance in France, which was calling for more autonomy for Corsica. More specifically, it was a coalition of the two Corsican nationalist parties active on the island; that is, the moderately autonomist Femu a Corsica and the strongly committed separatist Corsica Libera. The party was led by the autonomist Gilles Simeoni. The alliance was renewed for the 2017 territorial election. However, the alliance was dissolved for the 2021 territorial election.