The Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935
Cemented the nations shift of alliance and Trust from Britain France over to Germany who sought to expand their territorial and economic
Capabilities until they are strong enough to fight against Europe the German annexations of Austria and Czechoslovakia
Therefore tend to be aware. Most attention is given leading up to the Second World War
However, Italy shared the same territorial drive and following the end of the campaign Ethiopia set another
Nation in its sight in this video. We'll be talking about the Italian axon of Albania
This wasn't the first time that Italy had attempted to annex the nation in
1920 the two fought it won't be named the flora war
Where the Albanian smashed to gradually push the Italians out of native Albanian land
That they had occupied during the First World War
Following this failure and the unrest immediately following tens is between the two nations smooth somewhat and the Italian government
aimed to focus more on rebuilding after the near decade of constant or
However, with the rise of fascism within Italy in the mid 20s and Benito Mussolini's rise to power
interest in an Albanian annexation came back into a main focus
Many fascists within the nation aim to have eerie emergence of the Roman Empire
Italy began
penetration of the Albanians economy in 1925 when Albania agreed to allow
Italy to exploit its mineral resources in returns for substantial loans that the nation desperately needed
Italy also managed to infiltrate the Albanian army with many of its officers being from Italy and the army as a whole
trained by such officers
many of these men were also being placed in high positions within the out banging government in
1927 the two nations entered into a defensive alliance with one another even with this though
Albanian King Zog the first was more than aware of what the Italians were trying to do
He refused to bend fully to Italian pressure and managed to gain alliances with its neighbors in Greece and Yugoslavia
And he attempted to change the nation's economic dependency on Italy where over a third of the Albanian imports came from
after the German annexation of Czechoslovakia
Mussolini was a bit miffed and started to feel as a lesser within the pact to steal
against the wishes of Italian King Victor an
ultimatum was sent to Tirana on March the 25th of
1939 with it demanding that the nation's sub come to Italian occupation
The saw government tried to keep the new it under wraps
But he was leaked by unofficial sources to the public and hundreds of Italian planes dropped leaflets over the major cities
Instructing the citizens to succumb to the occupation this led to a massive amount of anti Italian
Demonstrations within the major cities and the Albanian army mobilized as the government fled the country on
April the 7th the Italians which numbered some
22,000 launched an invasion on four main opinion ports the albanian army numbered some 15,000
But they were all largely poorly equipped and many of the officers were had left their men
Leaving only half of them under direct leadership
Even with this though
Kings odd plan to station the nation's army within the mountains in to use the guerrilla in run and attrition
Tactics that had suit of the nation so well during the first world war
however, the Italian officers had matched a sabotage the plan as the artillery had been disabled and the army ended up like
an ammunition for many of the guns
this left roughly 3,000 under arms and a number of citizens to fight against the Italians at their
S500 Albanians tried to halt the Italian advance
They are armed with mostly small guns three machine guns and artillery from a patrol boat
But the match to hold off the Italians for a good portion of the day
Until the Italians managed to land a number of light tanks
The defenders couldn't knock out this resulted in the city falling within the next few hours
By 1:30 of that day. All of the ports have been occupied
King Zog with his family and a good portion of the nation's gold reserve fled to Greece and the public within
Tirana raised the PALS and liberate the prisoners during a riot
The italians marched into the city to mineral resistance the following morning
After this little resistance was met with the Romanian Albanians ordered to stand down
two officers and their men in should endure refused this order and they fought against the Italians the whole day until they ran out of
ammunition
The order to stand down didn't stop many partisans and nationalist groups from fighting against the Italians though
And they are proved to be a fatal thorn in their side and later the German occupiers on
April the 12th the Albanian Parliament voted to depose King Zog and put Albania under union with Italy
With King Victor the third gain the crown five days later in
general the Italian invasion was poorly planned badly executed and
succeeded only because Albanian a resistance was too weak the
nation withdrew from the League of Nations and
Mussolini declared the creation of the Italian Empire, hence after
With Albania being essentially installed as nother province within the nation
the region's trade in economic wealth was dominated by the
Italians and only Italy could conduct any agreements with third parties the
Nation was used as a base for the entire invasion of Greece in 1940. But that is a topic for another time. I