In 1923 the Fascist regime began a propaganda campaign by claiming the territories of Corsica and Malta, held by France and Great Britain, that were deemed to be Italian lands.
The Fascist regime produced literature on Corsica and Malta that justified that both islands were Italian lands based on historic, ethnic, and linguistic grounds. The Fascists quoted historical, geographical, linguistic, ethnographic and cultural relations between the Italian peninsula and the island elite during the nineteenth century, in order to present evidence of the Italianità of Corsica and Malta.
The Fascist regime activate cultural institutions and the majority of the Italian intellectuals in order to justify, on the ideological level, the irredentist and imperial ambitions in the Mediterranean basin.
This research aims to investigate the myth of the Risorgimento Mediterranean, a myth that was created in order to explain to Italian public opinion the Mussolini's foreign policy regarding Corsica and Malta.
The myth of the Risorgimento Mediterranean created a strong link between the imperial mission of ancient Rome and the "Mediterranean destiny" of the House of Savoy. It gradually became a prevalent subject in Fascist publications and writings of personalities of the Italian cultural life.
This study aims to examine the distance and the convergence between the mythological construction of the Risorgimento Mediterranean and the reality of the Fascist territorial claims in the Mediterranean, in particular on Corsica and Malta
