World War I in Albania

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World War I in Albania
Part of the Balkans theatre of World War I

Esad Toptani in Salonika
DateJuly 28, 1914 – 11 November 1918
Location
Albania
Result

Eventual Entente victory

Belligerents
 Albania
 Serbia
 France
 United Kingdom
 Greece
 Italy		  Austria-Hungary
 Bulgaria
 Germany
Albanian guerrillas
Commanders and leaders
Principality of Albania Essad Toptani
Kingdom of Serbia Radomir Putnik
French Third Republic Maurice Sarrail
Kingdom of Greece Georgios Kosmas
Kingdom of Italy Settimio Piacentini		 Austria-Hungary Hermann Kövess von Kövessháza
German Empire August von Mackensen
Kingdom of Bulgaria Georgi Todorov
Ahmet Zogu

In

retreated across the mountain passes of northern Albania, towards the Adriatic. Italian troops drove the Greeks from southern Albania and brought almost all Albanian territory under their control.[1]
Austrian forces invaded in June 1916; Austro-Hungarian forces remained in Albania until the end of the war when a multinational Allied force broke through and pushed them out in 1918.

Background

Main article: Principality of Albania

Albania was a country that declared its independence only two years before World War I. In the aftermath of the Balkan Wars Serbia, Montenegro and Greece all occupied and claimed parts of Albania. It was decided that Wilhelm of Wied, a German prince, would become the leader of the new Principality of Albania.[2] The principality under Wilhelm was established on 21 February 1914 and Prince Wilhelm arrived in Albania at his provisional capital of Durrës on 7 March 1914 along with the royal family. The security of Albania was to be provided by a gendarmerie commanded by Dutch officers. Inside Albania he was called King Wilhelm; outside Albania, Prince Wilhelm.

The southern part of the country,

corpus separatum) under the nominal Albanian sovereignty of Prince William.[3] The agreement of the Protocol was ratified by the representatives of the Great Powers at Athens on 18 June and by the Albanian government on 23 June.[4]

World War I

Main article: World War I
See also: Massacres of Albanians in World War I

Just one month after Protocol of Corfu was signed by the Albanians on June 23, 1914, war broke out in Europe. Officially starting on July 28, 1914, the war threw Albania into disarray. Throughout the war, occupying forces, of both Central and Allied powers, massacred the Albanian population on multiple occasions.

Revolt and departure of Prince William

Main article:
Peasant Revolt in Albania

One month after accepting the throne on 7 March, King William arrived in his provisional capital of

George Adamidi bey Frachery
, finances, and prince Aziz pacha Vrioni, agriculture).

His brief reign proved a turbulent one. Immediately following his arrival

revolts of Muslims broke out in central Albania against his Chief Minister, Essad Pasha, and against foreign domination. Meanwhile, Greece encouraged the formation of a "provisional government of North Epirus" in the southern part of the country. Although an agreement was made to grant extra rights to the Greek minority, the Hellenic Army occupied Southern Albania excluding Berat and Korçë. William's position was also undermined by his own officials, notably Essad Pasha himself, who accepted money from Italy to finance a revolt and to stage a coup against William. Pasha was arrested on 19 May 1914 and tried for treason and sentenced to death. Only the intervention of Italy saved his life and he escaped to Italy in exile.[6] The outbreak of World War I presented more problems for Prince William as Austria-Hungary demanded that he send Albanian soldiers to fight alongside them. When he refused, citing the neutrality of Albania in the Treaty of London, the remuneration that he had been receiving was cut off.[7]
Various tribal chiefs and self-styled warlords took control of central and northern Albania. In the Greek south, local leaders renounced the Protocol of Corfu and seized control. Prince William left the country on 3 September 1914.

Greek occupation of Northern Epirus (October 1914)

Old Map showing Greek parts of Albania
Map of Northern Epirus.
Main article: Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus § Aftermath

Sporadic armed conflicts continued to occur in spite of the

Saseno or Sazan Island.[12] In December Italy reiterated that Albania would remain neutral as stated at the London Conference and that Italian bluejackets were landed at Avlona with this objective.[13]

Serbian retreat and Austrian occupation (winter 1915)

Main articles:
Monastir Offensive

As anarchy grew in Northern Albania and the Greeks moved into the South, Italy sent its troops to occupy

attack against Serbia
on October 7 while on October 14, 1915, the Bulgarian Army attacked from two directions sending the Serbian armies into disarray.

After attacks from both Bulgaria and Austria, Serbian army leader

Vardar Offensive
of September 1918.

Austro-Hungarian occupation of Albania (1916–1918)

Durazzo
.

The Military Administration was established at

Scutari
.

Austro-Hungarian Military Commanders were:

Civil administrator was August Ritter von Kral.

Bulgarian occupation of Albania (1916–1917)

Main article: Bulgarian occupation of Albania

On December 10, 1915, the

Shkodra and Lezhë.[16]

There was a rivalry between the

Essad Pasha Toptani to leave his proclaimed Republic of Central Albania on February 24, 1916, when he again declared war against Austria-Hungary.[16]

In September 1917 the French troops commanded by general Maurice Sarrail undertook an action against the armies of Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria in Albania. Although the armies of Bulgaria and Austria-Hungary were joined by Albanians, led by Hysejn Nikolica,[16] French troops captured Pogradec, ending the Bulgarian occupation of Albania.[16]

French and Italian protectorate over Southern Albania (Autumn 1916)

Main article:
French army occupied Korçë and its surrounding areas on November 29, 1916. The Italian (in Gjirokastër) and French forces (in Korçë), according mainly to the development of the Balkan Front, entered the area of former Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus
(controlled by the Greek minority) in autumn 1916, after approval of the Triple Entente.

The establishment of the

Opar
and Gora in eastern Albania.

On December 12, 1916,

Shkodra
.

The Kingdom of Italy did the same when proclaiming independence of Albania under its protectorate on June 23, 1917, in

Gjirokastra.[19] General Giacinto Ferrero proclaimed on that day the Italian Protectorate and the next weeks entered Greece and occupied Ioannina in Epirus.[20] Neither Great Britain nor France had been consulted beforehand, and they did not give any official recognition to the Italian Protectorate.[21] This Albanian republic under the leadership of Turhan Përmeti, protected by 100,000 soldiers of the Italian Army, adopted officially a red flag with a black eagle in the middle, but raised a storm of protests, even in the Italian Parliament.[22]

In autumn 1918, the Italians expanded their Protectorate (without adding anything officially to Albania) to areas of northern

Krusevo deep inside western Macedonia.[23]

Macedonian Front (1916–1918)

Main article:
Monastir Offensive
Map of Balkans showing troops movement
The movement of armies on the Macedonian Front

The

Bulgarian Army, which was at various times bolstered with smaller units from the remaining Central Powers. The Macedonian Front remained quite stable, despite local actions, until the great Allied offensive
in September 1918.

In September 1918, Entente forces finally broke through the Central Powers' lines north of Thessaloniki and within days Austro-Hungarian forces began to withdraw from Albania. On October 2, 1918, the city of Durrës was shelled on the orders of Louis Franchet d'Espèrey, during the Battle of Durazzo. According to d'Espèrey, the Port of Durrës, if not destroyed, would have served the evacuation of the Bulgarian and German armies, involved in World War I.[24] When the war ended on 11 November 1918, Italy's army had occupied most of Albania; Serbia held much of the country's northern mountains; Greece occupied a sliver of land within Albania's 1913 borders; and French forces occupied Korçë and Shkodër as well as other regions with sizeable Albanian populations.

Under the secret Treaty of London signed in April 1915, Triple Entente powers promised Italy that it would gain Vlorë (Valona) and nearby lands and a protectorate over Albania in exchange for entering the war against Austria-Hungary. Serbia and Montenegro were promised much of northern Albania, and Greece was promised much of the country's southern half. The treaty left a tiny Albanian state that would be represented by Italy in its relations with the other major powers.

Aftermath

Main article: Congress of Durrës

Albania's political confusion continued in the wake of World War I. The country lacked a single recognised government, and Albanians had reasonable fears that Italy, Yugoslavia, and Greece would extinguish Albania's independence and carve up the country. Italian forces controlled Albanian political activity in the areas that they occupied. The Serbs, who largely dictated Yugoslavia's foreign policy after World War I, strove to take over northern Albania, and the Greeks sought to control southern Albania.

In 1918, the Serbian army devastated 150 villages in the Drin valley in northern Albania.[25] There were series of massacres carried out in the regions of Podgor, Rozaj, Gjakova, Rugova, and Gusinje and Plav with the goal of suppressing the local resistance movement.[26]

US President

Washington, DC, and on December 17, 1920, the League of Nations
recognised Albania's sovereignty by admitting it as a full member. The country's borders, however, remained unsettled.

In the meantime, the Italian army had been chased out of Albania by an Albanian volunteer force during the

Ahmet Zogu
.

References

  1. ^ a b Richard C. Hall 2014, p. 7.
  2. ^ Young, Hodgson & Young 1997
  3. ^ Miller 1966, p. 519
  4. ^ Stickney 1924, p. 50
  5. ^ Heaton-Armstrong 2005
  6. ^ Pearson 2004, pp. 50, 64, 292
  7. ^ Kola 2003, p. 16
  8. ^ Ruches 1965, p. 94
  9. ^ Leon 1970, p. 74
  10. ^ Guy 2007, p. 117
  11. ^ New York Times 1914
  12. ^ The New York Sun 1914, p. 1
  13. ^ New-York Tribune 1914, p. 1
  14. ^ Tucker & Roberts 2005, pp. 1075–6
  15. ^ Encyclopedia 1914–1918 2015
  16. ^ a b c d e f g Pearson 2004, p. 103
  17. ^ Thomas & Babac 2001, p. 17
  18. ^ Popescu 2014
  19. ^ Ollé 1996
  20. ^ storiologia.it 2014
  21. ^ Stickney 1924, p. 66
  22. ^ Stickney 1924, p. 65
  23. ^ GDF 2014
  24. ^ Kabashi 2012
  25. ISBN 978-0-14-196048-7
    . Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  26. ISBN 978-0-85772-641-4
    . Retrieved 31 December 2019.

Sources

Further reading

External links

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