The period leading up to the First World War in the Balkans was a time of great confusion.
Most of the nations there had only recently become independent from the Ottoman Empire
and national, ethnic, and religious tensions ran high.
Nowhere did this hold true more, though, than the principality of Albania.
I’m Indy Neidell; welcome to a Great War special episode about Albania in World War
One.
Albania was actually the last of the Balkan nations to declare its independence from the
Ottomans, but let’s go back a bit.
In the decades before the war, as countries like Serbia and Bulgaria were becoming independent
themselves, Albania was in a precarious position.
It had its own independence movement, but several of the other newly independent nations
considered Albanian land their for the taking.
Albania had, for the most part, fought alongside the Ottomans in the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78,
and the treaty of San Stefano after that had assigned Albanian land to Montenegro and Greece.
As the new century began, Albanian demands for greater freedoms and rights began to cause
frequent revolts, but when the first Balkan War erupted in 1912, Albania, still part of
the Empire, saw its cities and villages occupied in all directions, by Serbs, Montenegrins,
Greeks, and Bulgarians.
This finally prompted the Albanian declaration of independence November 28th, 1912, which
was immediately ignored by all of the occupying neighbors.
But when the war ended in May 1913, Albanian independence was recognized - though under
international control and with half the lands Albania had claimed.
The second Balkan War began a month later, and ended in August with a strengthening of
the Serbian position in the region, and Serbian acquisition of Western Macedonia, with a predominantly
Albanian population.
The Balkan Wars, though overshadowed by WW1 today, got a lot of attention in the west,
particularly because of the wartime atrocities committed by all sides.
In fact, the Carnegie Endowment for International peace specifically wrote about atrocities
committed against Albanians in order to transform the ethnic character of regions inhabited
by them.
Numbers vary widely in various sources, but as many as 120,000 Albanians were killed in
the regions occupied by Serbian forces during the wars, as Serbia sought access to the sea.
Now, the non-occupied regions of Albania drifted into pretty much total chaos at this time.
The Great Powers tried to bring some order to this chaos with an international commission
that would govern the country until a Prince could be found.
This commission was created October 15th.
The following day, Essad Pasha, an Ottoman loyalist supported by Serbia, declared the
independence of the Republic of Central Albania, with the goal of reuniting it with the Ottoman
Empire.
He held this “republic” until February 1914.
He agreed to step down under pressure from the Great Powers, in exchange for a strong
position in the government of William of Wied, a German officer and noble, who had been finally
chosen as Prince of Albania.
That month, though, the Greek minority of southern Albania, not wishing to be stuck
in a country that was predominantly Muslim, declared the Republic of Northern Epirus,
which included most of Southern Albania.
William of Wied arrived in Albania March 7th, 1914, and tribal leaders pledged allegiance
to him.
He formed a government with Essad Pasha as Minister of War, and signed the Corfu Protocol,
which gave the rebellious Greek minority autonomy within Albania.
Then he began making reforms, such as separating church and state, which were hugely unpopular
with the people.
In addition, Islamists viewed the him as a crusader.
The Prince, for his part, accused Essad Pasha of double service and conspiracy and had him
arrested and taken to Italy.
Within days, Central Albania was in insurrection.
By the time the First World War broke out, William had lost control of most of the country.
In addition, the Austro-Hungarian Empire demanded he send troops to fight for them, and when
he refused, the financial aid he’d been receiving from the empire was cut off.
William would leave the country of September 3rd, eventually joining the German army on
the Eastern Front.
So: power vacuum.
Essad Pasha returned from Italy and made a deal with Serbian Prime Minister Nicola Pasic
that ceded mostly Christian Northern Albania to Serbia in exchange for financial and military
support.
Essad took over central Albania with little resistance.
Meanwhile, Greek Prime Minister Venizelos made a deal with British Foreign Secretary
Edward Grey that allowed Greece to officially invade southern Albania.
Shortly after that, Muslim leaders in Central Albania rose up against Essad Pasha and by
late November he was surrounded in the capital, Durazzo.
He was rescued by Italian warships, and indeed Italy invaded Valona in December, and soon
took control of most of the coast from Valona to Durazzo.
No major European power protested this invasion because at this time both sides wanted Italy
to join them in the First World War.
Much of Albania was now under the rule of local chieftains or the Central Muslim movement,
while in the north, the Kachaks fought a guerrilla war against the Serbs.
In April 1915, the Pact of London was signed that brought Italy into the war.
The pact gave Italy a protectorate of most of Albania, southern Albania to Greece, and
Northern Albania to Serbia and Montenegro.
By the end of June, Northern Albania had been occupied, though the Albanians resisted the
invasion and there was some fierce fighting.
In October, Serbia withdrew from Albania to fight the Central powers invading Serbia,
only to return weeks later in the retreat to the sea that would see tens of thousands
of Serbian refugees and soldiers die of the freezing weather, starvation, and guerrilla
attacks from Albanian forces.
Soon Austria-Hungary controlled all of northern Albania, and the future King Zog of Albania
- history’s heaviest smoker, look it up, and the only modern monarch to pull out his
own gun and return fire on would-be assassins, true story - joined them in taking Durazzo.
Many Albanians viewed the Austrians as saviors, but that took a real blow in April 1916, when
the Austrians ordered the Albanians to surrender all weapons.
You would think that Italy and Austria-Hungary, both occupying Albania, would fight each other
there, but you’d be wrong, except for small skirmishes.
By autumn 1916, the Allies were beginning to move in the Balkans.
The French soon occupied Korcha and declared it an autonomous republic.
This meant that French and Italian forces were now connected and an Albanian rifle regiment
was even created in the French army.
In June 1917, Italy declared Albanian independence and ousted Essad Pasha.
Interestingly enough, especially considering what had gone on prior to the war, there was
still no major fighting in Albania.
Not till mid 1918, when an Italian offensive captured the Berat region.
A month later, though, the Central powers recaptured most of the territory, which is
quite interesting because it was the final real military success by the Central Powers
in the war.
On September 15th, the Allies began the final offensive on the Salonika front, soon defeating
Bulgaria and forcing the Austrians to retreat.
The Allies destroyed the port of Durazzo on October 2nd, the final major confrontation
on Albanian soil, and by November 5th, the whole country was in allied hands.
And what happened then?
Well, the political confusion continued.
Albania didn’t have a recognized government and Albanians feared that Italy, Greece, and
Yugoslavia would carve it up.
It was US President Woodrow Wilson who spoke up for Albanian independence and in December
1920, the League of Nations recognized Albania as a sovereign nation and admitted it as a
member.
Okay, even though this is probably really confusing, it was still only a general outline
of what was happening in Albania during the war.
You should definitely look it up yourself for a deeper understanding because it’s
really interesting, and almost mind-blowingly confusing.
Of all the countries that took part in the First World War, it was in Albania that the
Game of Thrones was played the most.
Thank you to Lirm Bllaca for helping us out with this episode.
If you want to learn more about the situation on the Balkans during Serbias retreat, you
should check out our episode about that right here.
If you want to help telling the story of your country in World War 1 on our channel, get
in touch with our social media guy Flo on Facebook or through our official website.