QUALESTORIA. Rivista Di Storia Contemporanea. L'italia E La
«Qualestoria» n.1, giugno 2021, pp. 123-137 DOI: 10.13137/0393-6082/32188 https://www.openstarts.units.it/handle/10077/21200 123 Struggle for supremacy in Adriatic. Italy, SHS Kingdom and the Albanian question di Alberto Basciani The challenge for the predominance in Albania and, therefore, in the lower Adriatic was the other (less known) aspect of the Italian-Yugoslavian rivalry that arose after the First World War. The article analyzes the stages that, from the Paris negotiations to the Treaty of Tirana of 2 November 1927, characterized the harsh political and diplomatic confron- tation between Rome and Belgrade, resolved by the superior economic means available to Italy’s ambitions and by King Zog’s desire to have a munificent protector who was, however, geographically at a safe distance. Keywords: Italian expansionism, Albania, Kingdom SHS, National Bank of Albania Parole chiave: Espansionismo italiano, Albania, Regno SHS, Banca nazionale d’Albania It is well known how the Albanian question influenced Italian-Serbian relations already in the years before the First World War. Two powers, Italy and Austria- Hungary, that were in theory allies, actually fierce rivals particularly in the Balkan quadrant, managed to find a relatively easy agreement in their desire to block access to the Adriatic Sea to Serbia, a regional power in strong expansion that was about to emerge victorious from the Balkan wars of 1912-1913. This event was meant to favour the birth of the Albanian state1. The independence of Albania, effectively proclaimed in Vlore on 28 November 1912 by a handful of notables, remained for a long time more theoretical than real.
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