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History
> World War II
Using Albania as a military base, in October 1940,
Italian forces invaded Greece, but they were quickly
thrown back into Albania. After Nazi Germany defeated
Greece and Yugoslavia in 1941, the regions of Kosova
and ,ameria were joined to Albania, thus creating
an ethnically united Albanian state. The new state
lasted until November 1944, when the Germans--who
had replaced the Italian occupation forces following
Italy's surrender in 1943--withdrew from Albania.
Kosova was then reincorporated into the Serbian
part of Yugoslavia, and ,ameria into Greece. Meanwhile,
the various communist groups that had germinated
in Zog's Albania merged in November 1941 to form
the Albanian Communist Party and began to fight
the occupiers as a unified resistance force. After
a successful struggle against the fascists and two
other resistance groups--the National Front (Balli
Kombtar) and the pro-Zog Legality Party(Legaliteti)--which
contended for power with them, the communists seized
control of the country on Nov. 29, 1944. Enver Hoxha,
a college instructor who had led the resistance
struggle of communist forces, became the leader
of Albania by virtue of his post as secretary-general
of the party. Albania, which before the war had
been under the personal dictatorship of King Zog,
now fell under the collective dictatorship of the
Albanian Communist Party. The country became officially
the People's Republic of Albania in 1946 and, in
1976, the People's Socialist Republic of Albania.
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