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C H A P T E R 2 THE CONSTRUCTION OF AN ITALIAN ALBANIA The Albania of 1939, which Ciano intended to make bloom and Mussolini hoped to use as a bulwark, presented a considerable challenge. There certainly had been some development since independence in 1912, particularly in terms of political stability and internal cohesion. But Zog’s limited constructive talent , his inability to grasp modern economics or ¤nd advisers who could, and his failure to comprehend the true magnitude of the peasant problem left his country far behind the rest of the continent. In 1939 Albania remained the poorest, most isolated, and most backward state in Europe. Agriculture and animal husbandry were the occupation of more than 80 percent of the population, though no more than 11 percent of the land was arable. Zog’s ineffective attempts at land reform left most of the land in the hands of religious orders and feudal Moslem landowners. A full three-¤fths of the arable land in Albania was owned by 150 landowners. At least 40 percent of the peasants were landless, living in grinding poverty. Agriculture and stockbreeding techniques remained medieval, with iron plows found only in the south and primitive crop-rotation systems requiring that 20 percent of the arable land lie fallow. Albanian peasants, as a result, were the least productive of all Balkan peasants, who in turn were the least productive of all European peasants.1 Consequently, large quantities of wheat, corn, and rice were still being imported (accounting for 23 percent of total imports in 1938) in an attempt to meet the basic needs of the Albanian people.2 Like agriculture, Albanian industry lagged far behind even the rest of the Balkans. In 1938, industry accounted for only 4.4 percent of the national income.3 There were no large industrial establishments, and what industry did exist was principally of the cottage variety, ful¤lling some basic household needs. Each of the half dozen leading towns in Albania had a ¶our mill and three or four additional factories such as dairies, distilleries, breweries, cigarette factories, ¤sh canneries, and wagon works.4 Virtually all needed manufactured goods, therefore, had to be imported, insuring that during the 1930s export values never exceeded 50 percent of import costs. Both the expansion of this 33 limited industrial base and the effective exploitation of Albania’s not inconsiderable timber and mineral wealth were severely hampered by a limited and primitive transportation network. In 1939 Albania possessed forty miles of narrow-gauge railroad and perhaps ¤ve hundred miles of surfaced road.5 The rest of the transportation network consisted of cart tracks and paths that virtually disappeared in the winter. Social conditions remained almost as primitive as economic conditions. In the north the Gegs, who made up close to two-thirds of Albania’s approximately one million people, remained tribal, still susceptible to the ravages of the blood feud, although here Zog had made some progress since the 1920s. In the south, home of the Tosks, impoverished peasants were still treated essentially as serfs by their feudal Moslem landlords. Only three towns, Durrës, Vlora, and Tirana, in any way resembled European cities, with Albania as a whole just over 15 percent urbanized.6 Tirana, which was named Albania’s capital shortly after World War I, had grown rapidly as a result, but still possessed just over thirty thousand inhabitants in 1939. The dirty streets of the capital presented the usual Balkan contrast of cheap modern structures interspersed with hovels. The Italians had superimposed a series of rather ostentatious government building in the center of town, along with the modern Hotel Dajti, and just outside the city in the middle of a wooded park, the yet un¤nished tall yellow royal palace.7 General living conditions in Tirana and elsewhere were poor; the people suffered from a bad diet that made them vulnerable to disease. Public health services were nonexistent, and education was still rudimentary. Albania had no university, few high schools, and an illiteracy rate of 85 percent, the highest in Europe.8 But these problems would have to wait; the ¤rst priority was the creation of an Italian Albania. Count Ciano, who had been responsible for the political preparation for the invasion, was also primarily responsible for the absorption of the newly conquered territory. Curiously, Ciano slowly developed a certain paternalistic affection for the Albanians, which manifested itself in keen interest not only in the planning for the integration of Albania...

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