14 October 1767 was not a day of conquest. It was a day of choice. That morning, a small Sardinian-Piedmontese garrison landed on the deserted island of Bocche di Bonifacio. They did not come to colonise. They came to defend: the Kingdom of Sardinia feared that revolutionary Corsica, led by Pasquale Paoli, would claim these strategic islands. But the soldiers did not find an empty island. They found a...
