The creation of the Kingdom of Croatia in 1941 on the pages of the periodical "L'illustrazione Italiana"

With the May 18th 1941 agreement, the fascist Italy recognized the institution of the Kingdom of Croatia, and had also designated Aimone di Savoia as its sovereign, that was suppose to found a new dynasty, able to guide the country towards a renaissance, after twenty years of the Croatian population’s being tormented ever since Versailles. This study does not aim to analyse the historic context that has seen the birth and formation of this new state, tightly allied with the Axis powers, and also limited by their political and territorial interests, nor it aims to investigate its ephemeral existence which ended with Germany’s defeat; but it does aim to verify how the creation of this political subject was treated by the periodical “L’illustrazione italiana”, one of the Mussolini regime’s biggest means of propaganda. After an analysis of its articles dedicated to the Kingdom of Croatia, and after comparing that to the reality provided and documented by other sources, it shows how obviously the Italian state tried to acquire an hegemony on the Adriatic, all the while basing such intent upon historical and cultural motivations, and how this attempt was presented as both the result of an unbreakable friendship between Italians and Croats, and as an operation aiming to guarantee a new European order in the name of the justice. The reality was, as it is well known, that even though the Kingdom of Croatia was born as an Italian protectorate, during its short existence it “slipped” slowly towards German influence, considering the incompatibility between its own and the Italian geopolitical interests.