Italian protectorate of Albania

The Italian protectorate of Albania was the Kingdom of Albania in personal union with Fascist Italy from 1939 to 1943. Italy had long treated Albania as a sphere of influence, and on 7 April 1939 Mussolini's forces invaded and quickly occupied the country. King Zog fled, and the Albanian assembly offered the crown to King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy. The two kingdoms were joined in personal union, with a separate Albanian government, administration and army under Italian supervision. Italian authorities introduced the fascist party structure and encouraged Italian settlement, while Albanian laws and customs were partially preserved. In 1941, after the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia, Albanian territory was enlarged with Kosovo and western Macedonia. The union collapsed in September 1943 when Italy capitulated to the Allies and German troops occupied Albania. A liberation movement then fought both Germans and Albanian collaborators, and a communist government took power in 1944. The protectorate was a brief episode of Italian imperial expansion in the Balkans.