The Throne of Zog: Monarchy in Albania 1928-1939 | History Today - 0 views
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September 1st, 1928, Europe gained a new kingdom and its only Muslim king: thirty-two year-old Zog I of Albania
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the birth of the Kingdom of Albania – a native monarchy, not an alien imposition – did attract a flicker of international attention
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The modern state of Albania came into being as a result of the Balkan Wars of 1912-13 after 500 years of Ottoman Turkish rule
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Nominally neutral during the First World War, and without a recognised government, the country was overrun by seven foreign armies
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Like other Balkan states, it should repudiate the legacy of the Ottoman period and strive to catch up with the rest of Europe
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He had first been fascinated by the story of Napoleon Bonaparte during his schooldays in Istanbul. King Ahmed sounded too exclusively Islamic, so the new monarch adopted his surname (which means ‘bird’)
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In 1928, Zog purported to be filling Skanderbeg’s throne, left vacant for 450 years, and he claimed the medieval hero’s helmet and sword as regalia
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Prince Xhelal, his half-brother, played no part in royal events, remaining largely forgotten in Mati
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The day-to-day lifestyle of Zog did not seem so lavish to upper middle-class Western European diplomats
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Great Britain, France, and the US had greeted the kingdom with a modicum of politeness. They wanted to believe Zog when he assured them that monarchy would help promote peace and stability
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Though Albania was legally a sovereign nation, it was wholly subordinate to Italy in all its foreign affairs
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Zog had always wanted a Christian queen, as a Westernising influence and a mark of approval for mixed marriages in general
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Albanian resistance was minimal, King Zog fled abroad with a considerable fortune, and the monarchy stood revealed as a failure as great as most of his other modernising schemes
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King Zog himself had sometimes observed that his homeland was ‘centuries behind the rest of Europe in civilisation’