Italian Invasion of Albania (1939)

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ITALIAN INVASION OF ALBANIA
The Italian invasion of Albania was a brief military campaign launched in 1939 by the Kingdom of Italy on the Kingdom of Albania. Albania was easily overrun, its ruler King Zog I was forced to go into exile in neighboring Greece, and the country was made a part of the Italian Empire as a protectorate in personal union with the Italian Crown.
ITALIAN INVASION OF ALBANIA - Timeline
October 1922 - Benito Mussolini comes to power in Italy, and draws up plans to bring the small country of Albania under Italian control
1926 - Albanian President Ahmet Zogu, wanting to modernize Albania, establishes closer ties with Italy; two bilateral treaties are signed
September 1928 - Albania converts into a monarchy, with Zogu becoming monarch as King Zog; in subsequent years, Italian control of Albania increases, and Italian loans are used to finance Albania’s infrastructure development, including transportation and communications systems, and to prop up the Albanian economy; Italian military advisors also train and equip the fledging Albanian Army
1931 - King Zog, wanting to loosen the Italian stranglehold on Albania, allows the five-year First Treaty of Tirana to lapse without renewal
1933 - Because of the ongoing Great Depression, hard-hit Albania defaults on its loan payments to Italy; Mussolini attempts to impose harsh measures on Albania, which are rejected by King Zog
1934 - Albania tries to forge closer ties with neighboring Greece and Yugoslavia, as well as with the other major European powers: Britain, France, and Germany, but these initiatives do not succeed
Late 1930s - Albania is again fully dependent on Italian financial support
1938 - Mussolini actively pursues his long-held ambition of bringing Albania under full Italian control because of Germany’s recent spectacular political and territorial achievements
March 1939 - Mussolini issues an ultimatum to King Zog, demanding that Albania accept Italian military occupation; in the following days, Italy issues more ultimatums, with the threat that it would invade on April 7, 1939; King Zog spurns the Italian threats, but pleads intervention by Britain, France, and the United States, which goes unheeded
April 7, 1939 - Italian forces consisting of 20,000 troops, 400 planes, 300 light tanks, and a fleet of warships invade Albania; by April 12, the whole country comes under Italian control, with King Zog fleeing with his family into exile abroad
April 12, 1939 - The Albanian Parliament meets and ends its recognition of King Zog, and proposes that Albania be joined politically with Italy as a separate kingdom in personal union with the Italian crown
April 17, 1939 - In Rome, Italian King Victor Emmanuel III is crowned as “King of the Albanians”

[@WarsOfThe20thCentury]

World War II - czcams.com/play/PLUXfpu44ghbAXlF5w2rOmz_N5qdrQA20d.html

[@iliadmalka]

And they ended up ; us savint 20k italian soldiers from hitler's germans....hidding them in our own houses...

[@WarsOfThe20thCentury]

Thanks!

[@muhammadnoorbinrohani6711]

1 Europe 🇪🇺.