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The Albanian Kingdom (Gheg Albanian: ''Mbretnija Shqiptare'', Standard Albanian: ''Mbretëria Shqiptare'') was the official name of Albania between 1928 and 1939. During this period, Albania was a ''de facto'' protectorate of the Kingdom of Italy.〔Aristotle A. Kallis. ''Fascist ideology: territory and expansionism in Italy and Germany, 1922–1945''. London, England, UK: Routledge, 2000. Pp. 132.〕〔Zara S. Steiner. ''The lights that failed: European international history, 1919–1933''. Oxford, England, UK: Oxford University Press, 2005. Pp. 499.〕〔Roy Palmer Domenico. ''Remaking Italy in the twentieth century''. Lanham, Maryland, USA: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2002. Pp. 74.〕 Albania was declared a monarchy by the Constituent Assembly, and President Ahmet Bej Zogu was declared King Zog I. The kingdom was supported by the fascist regime in Italy, and the two countries maintained close relations until Italy's sudden invasion of the country in 1939. Zog fled into exile and never saw his country again. The Communist Party of Labor of Albania liberated the country toward the end of World War II, installed a Communist dictatorship and formally deposed Zog. ==Zog's kingdom== In 1928, Zogu secured the parliament's consent to its own dissolution. A new constituent assembly amended the constitution, making Albania a kingdom and transforming Zogu into Zog I, "King of the Albanians." International recognition arrived forthwith. The new constitution abolished the Albanian Senate, creating a unicameral Assembly. Although nominally a constitutional monarch, in practice King Zog retained the dictatorial powers he had held as President Zogu. Civil liberties remained more or less nonexistent, and political opponents were frequently imprisoned and killed. Thus, for all intents and purposes Albania remained a military dictatorship. Soon after his coronation, Zog broke off his engagement to Shefqet Vërlaci's daughter, and Verlaci withdrew his support for the king and began plotting against him. Zog had accumulated a great number of enemies over the years, and the Albanian tradition of blood vengeance required them to try to kill him. Zog surrounded himself with guards and rarely appeared in public . The king's loyalists disarmed all of Albania's tribes except for his own Mati tribesmen and their allies , the Dibra. Nevertheless, on a visit to Vienna in 1931, Zog and his bodyguards fought a gun battle with would-be assassins on the Opera House steps. (see: Assassination attempts on King Zog I) Zog remained sensitive to steadily mounting disillusion with Italy's domination of Albania. The Albanian army, though always with 15,600-strong, sapped the country's funds, and the Italians' monopoly on training the armed forces rankled public opinion. As a counterweight, Zog kept British officers in the Royal Albanian Gendarmerie despite strong Italian pressure to remove them. In 1931 Zog openly stood up to the Italians, refusing to renew the 1926 First Treaty of Tirana. During the crisis of 1929–1933, Zog asked the Italians for a loan of 100 million gold francs in 1931, and the request was approved by the Italian government. In 1932 and 1933, Albania could not make the interest payments on its loans from the Society for the Economic Development of Albania. In response, Rome turned up the pressure, demanding that Tirana name Italians to direct the Gendarmerie; join Italy in a customs union; grant Italy control of the country's sugar, telegraph, and electrical monopolies; teach the Italian language in all Albanian schools; and admit Italian colonists. Zog refused. Instead, he ordered the national budget slashed by 30 percent, dismissed the Italian military advisers, and nationalized Italian-run Roman Catholic schools in the northern part of the country. By June 1934, Albania had signed trade agreements with Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Greece, and Benito Mussolini had suspended all payments to Tirana. An Italian attempt to intimidate the Albanians by sending a fleet of warships to Albania failed because the Albanians only allowed the forces to land unarmed. Mussolini then attempted to buy off the Albanians. In 1935 he presented the Albanian government 3 million gold francs as a gift. Zog's success in defeating two local rebellions convinced Mussolini that the Italians had to reach a new agreement with the Albanian king. Relations with Italy were improved in 1936. A government of young men led by Mehdi Frashëri, an enlightened Bektashi administrator, won a commitment from Italy to fulfill financial promises that Mussolini had made to Albania and to grant new loans for harbor improvements at Durrës and other projects that kept the Albanian government afloat. Soon Italians began taking positions in Albania's civil service, and Italian settlers were allowed into the country. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Albanian Kingdom (1928–39)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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