In the first months of 1928 the House and the Senate proposed some changes to the Statute and to do this they decided that elections were necessary. In June of the same year, an attack on Zogu was foiled, which received many demonstrations of esteem from all the people. This increased its prestige and on 1 September the Constituent Assembly, chaired by Pandeli Vanjeli, proclaimed the monarchical form of the state and assigned the title of “Mbret”, equivalent to that of sovereign, in Zogu, in recognition of the great services rendered To the country. On the same day the sovereign swore an oath of allegiance before the Assembly, while work proceeded for the elaboration of a new Statute. Years of moral and material settlement for the new nation followed, under the guidance of the king.
Thus there was a well-equipped army, a good agrarian reform, schools, banks and industries were founded, first of all that of oil, paths were transformed into roads and poor villages into charming small towns. The port of Durres was well equipped with modern means. In November 1937 Albania celebrated the 25th anniversary of independence and on April 27, 1938 King Zogu contracted marriage with the Countess Geraldina Apponyi.
According to Abbreviationfinder, an acronym site which also features history of Albania, the strong dependence of Albania on Italy, while on the one hand allowed the small state to continuously improve, on the other hand tended to decrease the autonomy of that government and of the king himself.
Following the establishment of theRome-Berlin axis, it was clear that Italy would force Albania to military on its side in case of conflict; King Zogu then clearly perceived the change in the situation of this alliance, which was now more convenient for Italy, and under the pressure of the allied governments, French and English, he tried to exempt himself from the impending duties, without considering that in doing so he gave Mussolini the sorry for invading the territoio. This occurred on April 6, 1938. Two days later, with the mere loss of 12 soldiers, behind a paltry resistance, the Italian army entered Tirana, where it implanted a provisional government presided over by Shefqet Verlaci. King Zogu had fled to Greece. On April 12 the Crown of Albania was offered to the king of Italy, Vittorio Emanuele III, who delegated the powers to the already ambassador Francesco Jacomoni.
Albania at the beginning of the Second World War was useful for the displacement of the Italian troops, sent to fight against Greece, and could also enlarge its territory by annexing Ciamuria, an area bordering Greece, Kosovo and part of Macedonia.
At first, very weak isolated oppositions occurred against Italy. But in 1941 in Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria arose departments of partisans who managed to conquer the Albanians for their cause, commanded by Enver Hoxha, great organizer.
Illegality began. And the armed struggle. When ItalySeptember 8, 1943 signed the separate armistice with the Allies, the Germans came to occupy the Italian positions in Albania.
The occupation lasted fourteen months, always opposed by the partisan struggle. The Albanian loss of life was very serious but freedom was regained in May 1944. In October of that same year a democratic government was formed presided over by Enver Hoxha who assumed command of the whole army and quickly defeated the Germans. And everything was done without the Allies having been involved. For this reason Albania was not forced to follow the directives of the other countries to deliberate on its own country and therefore could immediately transform the state from monarchy to People’s Republic on its own. This new state was recognized by all countries and an agreement between Belgrade and Tirana was made in July 1946. In foreign policy, Albania immediately oriented itself towards the Balkan countries.
There was also the possibility for Albania to join the Yugoslav republics, led by Tito.
Instead, when the latter interrupted the treaty of friendship with Cominform, that is the supreme body of all the communist countries of the world, Albania sided with the Soviet Union and replaced all the Yugoslav technicians present in the country with as many Russians. Thus a new addiction was born. The study of Russian language and literature was compulsory in all schools and relations with the Albanian Catholic Church and the Holy See were cut off. Hence, by its very position, Albania was a natural intermediary for the passage of communist militants to Greece in aid of the insurgents. So much so that in September 1949 a special United Nations Commission declared Albania the “main responsible of the peace treaty in the Balkans”, and ordered it to stop sending forces and aid to the rebels. In December 1955, at the end of the conflict in Greece, Albania was admitted to the United Nations. However, he maintained close contacts with Moscow, while establishing relations with the various western countries.
Moscow continuously provided incentives of all kinds for the development and improvement of the economic situation, and meanwhile had total control of the Albanian armed forces, organized with the same system as the Russian ones.
In April 1961, Sino-Albanian relations intensified so that Albania could also benefit from Chinese support, especially in the chemical, metallurgical, electrical and building industries. In the same year a commercial relationship was also signed with Italy and then gradually with Greece, Switzerland, Belgium and Tunisia.
The 1974 elections established a marked change in the country’s domestic politics. Following the thaw between China and the United States, a cooling of Sino-Albanian relations had started to develop in Albania and therefore there was the fall of its supporters. Some ministers were dismissed; a new constitution was promulgated in 1976 that proclaimed a People’s Socialist Republic in Albania, where the “dictatorship of the proletariat” was exercised; any form of private property was prohibited; atheism was supported and imperialism was opposed.
In 1976, with the death of Mao Tse Tung, relations with China ceased completely and Albania continued its foreign policy in the name of rapprochement with the West. He re-established relations with France and in 1985 with Great Britain, in 1986 with Spain, in 1987 with Germany.
Meanwhile, however, in 1985, after the death of the head of state, Enver Hoxha, R. Alia had assumed power, which immediately began a process of softening domestic politics. He began by limiting capital punishment, no longer condemned crimes for religious propaganda and liberalized the issue of passports.
In November 1990 a new electoral law was passed whereby the vote became secret and the candidates could also be outside the main party which was the Albanian Workers’ Party. Then some opposition parties were born such as the Democrat, the Republican and the Ecologist.
In 1991 there were new elections that awarded the victory to the Communist Party and Alia remained head of state. Despite this, there were good placings of the Democratic Party while that of the Workers conquered the country centers.
The government, chaired by F. Nano of the Labor Party, promoted privatization and liberalization in large sectors of industry and this resulted in an immediate increase in unemployment, due to the dismissal of the redundant staff.
Street demonstrations, strikes and unrest led to the establishment of a national solidarity government, also including the Democratic Party, pending the repetition of the elections that would take place in December 1991.
Instead the elections were carried out in March 1992 and assigned the victory to the Democratic Party. Alia resigned and the head of the winning party, S. Berisha, was elected President of the Republic, while the democratic coalition government was chaired by A. Meksi.
The new president continued the work of liberalizing foreign trade with the help of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. In internal politics he completely eliminated communism, purged all former leaders from various positions, imprisoning the most representative under the accusation of corruption and embezzlement.
In September 1995, Berisha ratified the “genocide law” which banned all public offices until 2002 from those who had committed crimes against humanity in the communist period.
In that same year and in the following 1996 the friendship with Greece was restored, which had already deteriorated for some time due to problems with the Albanian minorities expelled from that country. But in the meantime the domestic economic situation had worsened, despite the help of European countries, and a continuous exodus had been taking place, especially towards Italy.
In May 1996 there were new elections and in the first round the Democratic Party won. However, allegations of irregularities and rigging arose and they were repeated and in the second round of June 2nd the same party won.
The situation in the country worsened; at the beginning of 1997 many financial companies went bankrupt and all those who had invested the capital staged an anti-government demonstration so strong that Berisha had to resort to the mediation of the Italian government to restore order.
A provisional coalition government was chaired by B. Fino, but it didn’t help much. The state continued to disintegrate and the United Nations was forced to send a protection force to the scene which carried out the “Alba Mission”, under Italian control. Between June and July 1997 the new elections brought to power the Socialist Party, whose leader Nano became the head of the executive and president was R. Mejdani, in place of Berisha, who resigned.
Their duties proved extremely difficult; it was necessary to: restore the national economy by reimbursing the citizens for the losses they suffered in the financial failures; to fight against the mafia that had formed in the meantime; confiscate the weapons that the rioters had stolen in the barracks and military depots and restore the law at all levels.
In September 1998, in the midst of this unstable situation, Nano resigned from the position that was taken on by P. Majko.
In March-June 1999, following the conflict between NATO and Yugoslavia, which had attacked Kosovo, the country found itself facing the entry into its territory of many Kosovar refugees, but also the clandestine emigration of many Albanians. towards the Apulian coasts of Italy.
At the same time, it became the main collection center for humanitarian aid destined for Kosovo, which stimulated the already wide-ranging situation of illegality which still constitutes the priority problem of Albanian society.