break of World War I and the difficulties caused by
the unruly feudal beys. As a consequence, Albania's independence came to
an end, and for the next four years the country served as a battleground
for the warring powers.

CREATION OF MODERN ALBANIA

At the end of World War I Albania was occupied by the Allied armies,
mostly Italian and French. The Secret Treaty of London, concluded in
1915 and published by the Russian Bolsheviks after the October 1917
Revolution, provided for the partition of nearly all Albania among
Italy, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece. Another accord, known as the
Tittoni-Venizelos Agreement, concluded between Italy and Greece in 1919,
also called for the dismemberment of Albania. At the 1919-20 Paris Peace
Conference Greece laid claim to southern Albania; Serbia and Montenegro,
to the northern part; and Italy, to the port of Vlore and surrounding
areas. But President Woodrow Wilson's principle of self-determination
and his personal insistence on the restoration of an independent Albania
saved the country from partition. In the summer of 1920 an Albanian
partisan army drove the Italians from Vlore, and the Italian government
recognized Albania's independence.

In the meantime, in January 1920 a congress of representatives met in
Lushnje, in central Albania, and created a government and a Council of
Regency composed of representatives of the four religious denominations
prevailing in Albania: the two Muslim sects (Sunni and Bektashi), Roman
Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox (see ch. 5, Social System).

From 1920 to 1924 there was political freedom in the country along with
extreme political strife. A group of statesmen and politicians, mostly
from the old Turkish bureaucracy, attempted to lay the foundation of a
modern state, but there was a bitter struggle between the old
conservative landlords and Western educated or inspired liberals. The
landowners, led by Ahmet Zogu, advocated the continuance of feudal
tenure and opposed social and economic reforms, especially agrarian
reforms. The liberals, led by Bishop Fan S. Noli, a Harvard University
graduate who had founded the Albanian Autocephalous Orthodox Church in
Boston in 1908 and had returned to Albania in 1920, favored the
establishment of a Western-type democracy. The country was torn by
political struggles and rapid changes of government revealed
considerable political instability.

In June 1924 the liberals staged a successful coup against