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Albania
INTERWAR ALBANIA, 1918-41
Albania
INTERWAR ALBANIA, 1918-41
Albania achieved real statehood after World War I, in
part
because of the diplomatic intercession of the United
States. The
country suffered from debilitating lack of economic and
social
development, however, and its first years of independence
were
fraught with political instability. Unable to survive in a
predatory world without a foreign protector, Albania
became the
object of tensions between Italy and the Kingdom of the
Serbs,
Croats, and Slovenes (Yugoslavia), which were both bent on
controlling the country. With the kingdom's military
assistance,
Ahmed Bey Zogu, the son of a clan chieftain, emerged
victorious
from an internal political power struggle in late 1924.
Zogu,
however, quickly turned his back on Belgrade and looked to
Mussolini's Italy for patronage. In 1928 Zogu coaxed the
country's parliament to declare Albania a kingdom and name
him
king. King Zog remained a hidebound conservative, and
Albania was
the only Balkan state where the government did not see fit
to
introduce a comprehensive land reform between the two
world wars.
Mussolini's forces finally overthrew Zog when they
occupied
Albania in 1939.
Data as of April 1992
