From the creation of the Albanian state to today . In the 20th century, the intersection of Balkan nationalisms and the alternating events of the European powers determined a very fluid situation in Albania In 1913 the conference of ambassadors in London created an Albanian free state, under the principality of the German William of Wied, who however found himself immediately against the autonomous government, in fact Greek, of Gjirokaster, and the revolt of the partisans of Esad Pasha, so much so that in 1914 he gave up power. After the First World War, in 1920 the conference of ambassadors in Paris reconfirmed the independence of the Albania, which became a constitutionally Republic. But from 1920 to 1924 there were coups of the various political leaders (Ahmed Zogu Ahmed bey Toptani, Shefqet bey Verlaci, Fan Noli), until in 1924 Zogu managed to secure power. Leaning on Italy (1927), mbret, i.e. king (1928); in fact, the to. it was now under Italian tutelage, and as soon as it tried, under French and English pressure, to get rid of it, the Italian government occupied its territory, in five days, with the expedition starting on 7 April. 1939, and Vittorio Emanuele III assumed the crown. In 1941, under the leadership of E. Hoxha, a resistance movement arose against the Italian occupation and therefore against the German one (1944). In February 1945 the National Liberation Front proclaimed the Albanian People’s Republic and in dec. the same year he confirmed his power in the elections. On the international level, the Albania at first he pursued a policy of close alliance with Yugoslavia (1946-48), then after the break between Tito and Cominform he sided with the USSR, immediately receiving technical and economic and military aid. These relationships lasted until 1961, when the Albanian regime turned to popular China; in 1968 he withdrew from the Warsaw Pact. In 1974 the formation of a new government, from which the pro-Chinese Minister of Defense B. Balluku was excluded, marked the cooling of Sino-Albanian relations, definitively interrupted in 1978. In 1981 the suspicious death of Prime Minister M. Shehu, supporter of the ‘opening to the West, opened a serious crisis, which was followed by a rigid closure towards the outside.

According to collegesanduniversitiesinusa, R. Alia, head of state since 1982 and secretary of the Communist Party after Hoxha’s death (1985), attempted moderate liberalizations, also re-establishing international diplomatic relations. In the 1991 elections, in which several political forces participated, the Labor Party won a large majority; the new parliament re-elected Alia as head of state, he drafted a provisional Constitution and in June voted for a coalition government formed by the Labor Party (since then the Socialist Party of Albania) and the Democratic Party, the major opposition force. The coalition, however, went into crisis at the end of 1991 and in 1992 the elections gave the majority to the Democratic Party. Alia was replaced as president by S. Berisha, who decisively continued on the path of complete liberalization of the economy, with the support of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Berisha’s growing authoritarianism, the spread of corruption and the continuous exodus of the population to Italy, however, heralded a new internal crisis.

In 1994 the project for a new Constitution, supported by the government and submitted to a popular referendum, was rejected; in 1996 the Democratic Party won the elections, but the opposition parties withdrew from the competition requesting its cancellation; in 1997 the numerous financial companies born at the beginning of the nineties, in which a large part of the population had invested their savings, went bankrupt. This provoked a wave of protests that soon took on the characteristics of an anti-government revolt. After the failure of a provisional coalition government, from the 1997 elections, held in the presence of international observers protected by a multinational force sent by the European Union with the consent of the UN, the Socialist Party emerged victorious. The leader socialist F. Nano, head of the new executive, and the President of the Republic R. Mejdani (elected after Berisha’s resignation) tried to restore public order, to restore the national economy and to regulate the exodus of the population, which it continued uninterrupted throughout 1997. But the stability of the country was put to the test again in 1998, first by an insurrection attempt promoted by Berisha, then by the crisis in Kosovo, which resulted in the NATO war against Yugoslavia (1999). Hundreds of thousands of refugees poured into the country, increasing the consistent and uninterrupted flow of immigrants to Italy. Italy became the center of humanitarian activities deployed by Western countries and the huge resources linked to international aid contributed to increasing the already widespread illegality. The administrative elections of 2000 and the political elections of 2001 confirmed the majority of the Socialist Party, which remained in government until 2005 when, after the elections won by a large majority by the Democratic Party, the President of the Republic Albania Moisiu (elected in 2002) entrusted Berisha with the task of forming the new government. The 2006 elections brought a member of the Democratic Party, B. Topi, also to the presidency of the Republic. In the same year, a stabilization and association agreement created a free trade area between Albania and the European Union, constituting the first step towards its accession to the EU. In 2008 the Albania joined NATO. In the same year, a stabilization and association agreement created a free trade area between Albania and the European Union, constituting the first step towards its accession to the EU.