"Filippo Antonio Pasquale de´ Paoli FRS (Italian: [fiˈlippo anˈtɔːnjo paˈskwaːle de ˈpaːoli]; French: Pascal Paoli; 6 April 1725 – 5 February 1807) was a Corsican patriot, statesman ...
and military leader who was at the forefront of resistance movements against the Genoese and later French rule in the island. He became the president of the Executive Council of the General Diet of the People of Corsica, and also designed and wrote the Constitution of the state.
The Corsican Republic was a representative democracy asserting that the elected Diet of Corsican representatives had no master. Paoli held his office by election and not by appointment. It made him commander-in-chief of the armed forces as well as chief magistrate. Paoli´s government claimed the same jurisdiction as the Republic of Genoa. In terms of de facto exercise of power, the Genoese held the coastal cities, which they could defend from their citadels, but the Corsican republic controlled the rest of the island from Corte, its capital." - (en.wikipedia.org 31.01.2020)
