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The Castagniccia

corsican_the_castagniccia

Past Genoese occupation heavily promoted the cultivation of the chestnut tree, particularly in the central highlands. This has created a unique culture around the tree that provides the population with a reliable, low labor food source that is immune to the grain price fluctuations of the Mediterranean market. Such abundance gives the Corsicans incredible strategic autonomy; they can retreat into the mountains and subsist indefinitely on chestnut flour, making them immune to the standard naval blockades and 'siege by starvation' tactics employed in the past by the Genoese maritime fleets.

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