Issue: 2/2019

Croatian-Italian Disputes in the Summer of 1941

Authors:
Danilo Kovač

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This article deals with the diplomatic disputes between Italy and the Independent State of Croatia in the summer of 1941. The Treaties of Rome, signed on 18 May 1941, regulated relations between the two allies. The most important provisions in the treaties referred to the borders between the states. Unfulfilled Italian ambitions and atrocities committed by the Ustashe against Serbs influenced the Italian decision to reoccupy the First and the Second Zones. Nonetheless, the Italian plan encountered resistance from the Croatian authorities. In this article, various stages as well as the causes of the dispute are analyzed. The article demonstrates how the disagreement reflected the loose quality of the statehood of the Independent State of Croatia.