Ah, King Zog. Apparently he smoked 200 cigarettes a day. It’s impressive that he managed to reach the age of 65.
Kneel before Zog!
We miss you my king!
Rroftë e qoftë Mbreti Zog!
Dunno much about this dude, but at least he’s name sounds badass.
King Zog’s back from holiday, Mary Lupescu’s grey
And King Alexander is dead in Marseilles
Bridesmaids in uniform?
Hearts of Iron anybody?
>King Zog is probably one of the most underrated monarchs of the 20th century, and deserves a lot more credit than he gets. A lot of people seem to like him “for the meme”, because on a personal level he was such a wacky character, which he was and which is one of the big reasons I’m fascinated by him, however there is so much more. In practice, he is the founder of the modern Albanian state, an Albanian Ataturk of sorts, let me explain why.
>Between Albanian independence in 1912 (Zog being one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence, at age 17) and Zog’s ultimate ascent to power on 24 December 1924 in the Triumph of Legitimacy, Albania was in complete chaos, and was in effect only a state on paper. In the 10 year span between international recognition and the formation of the Principality of Albania in 1914 and Zog declaring the Albanian Republic in January 1925, Albania had 17 governments, lasting on average only 7 months. None of these governments had any effective control of the country; their authority was in reality mostly confined to the major cities of Vlorë, Durrës, and Tirana. In 1925, outside these major cities, which at best could be described as being stuck in the mid-19th century, Albania was in practice a medieval state no different to the age of Skanderbeg in the 15th century. The country had no effective government, no military, no school system, virtually no infrastructure, pretty much nothing. Literacy was at 2% and the peasantry lived as they had for hundreds of years.
>Zog‘s reign from 1925 until 1939, first as President of the Albanian Republic from 1925 until 1928, and after that as King of the Albanians, saw a massive change of the country. A centralised government was established, with the warlords an bandit chiefs who ruled the country being crushed. The major cities were brought into the 20th century: cities were electrified, and modern streets and cars entered the country for the first time. The countryside was modernised and the feudal structures gradually broken down. Thousands of schools were built, 1000 bridges were constructed and hundreds of kilometres of roads. Industry was set up, resources began to be extracted such as Oil at Kuçovë, agriculture boomed and a modern economy was developing. Literacy rose from 2% in 1925 to 30% in 1939.
>Zog abolished Islamic law and substituted it for a western law code. He bridged the considerable gap between Albanias religious communities (Christians, Sunni Muslims and Bektashi Muslims), which had been the main reason for the fall of Prince Wilhelm zu Wied from the Albanian throne in 1914. He secularised the state in order to emphasise common Albanianness, rather than religious identity. He famously swore his oath as king with his hand on both the Quran and Bible, and married a Catholic despite himself being a Sunni Muslim, and banned the chador.
>He navigated the treacherous waters of Balkan politics; keeping Albania from being absorbed by Yugoslavia, and stopping Greece from claiming orthodox-majority southern Albania. Despite Albania’s economic reliance on Italy, he repeatedly stood up to Mussolini. In 1931 he refused to renew the Treaties of Tirana or to allow for Italian takeover of the Albanian Gendarmerie, which caused Italy to cut all support to Albania and to send a fleet to intimidate him, which failed. Mind you, this was at the height of the great depression, which had hit Albania‘s export-oriented economy harder than most countries. Despite this Zog refused to yield to Italian pressure, and successfully managed a slow rebuilding of the economy. Relations with Italy weren’t re established until 1936, and then under much more favourable terms. It was Zog’s resistance to Italian influence which triggered the 1939 invasion, because they were tired of him standing in their way. All of this is of course completely contrary to the unfortunately far too commonly held view (and most common criticism) propagated by the Hoxha communist dictatorship after the war that Zog was some kind of Italian puppet who sold out the country.
>In summary, before Zog Albania was pretty much nothing. It had an on-paper government with no authority, and the country was stuck in the Middle Ages. Zog centralised and westernised Albania, quelled the long-standing religious tensions, built infrastructure and a modern state, and made Albania a functional country. All this while having to navigate between 3 larger Neighbours all eyeing his country.
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Ah, King Zog. Apparently he smoked 200 cigarettes a day. It’s impressive that he managed to reach the age of 65.
Kneel before Zog!
We miss you my king!
Rroftë e qoftë Mbreti Zog!
Dunno much about this dude, but at least he’s name sounds badass.
King Zog’s back from holiday, Mary Lupescu’s grey
And King Alexander is dead in Marseilles
Bridesmaids in uniform?
Hearts of Iron anybody?
>King Zog is probably one of the most underrated monarchs of the 20th century, and deserves a lot more credit than he gets. A lot of people seem to like him “for the meme”, because on a personal level he was such a wacky character, which he was and which is one of the big reasons I’m fascinated by him, however there is so much more. In practice, he is the founder of the modern Albanian state, an Albanian Ataturk of sorts, let me explain why.
>Between Albanian independence in 1912 (Zog being one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence, at age 17) and Zog’s ultimate ascent to power on 24 December 1924 in the Triumph of Legitimacy, Albania was in complete chaos, and was in effect only a state on paper. In the 10 year span between international recognition and the formation of the Principality of Albania in 1914 and Zog declaring the Albanian Republic in January 1925, Albania had 17 governments, lasting on average only 7 months. None of these governments had any effective control of the country; their authority was in reality mostly confined to the major cities of Vlorë, Durrës, and Tirana. In 1925, outside these major cities, which at best could be described as being stuck in the mid-19th century, Albania was in practice a medieval state no different to the age of Skanderbeg in the 15th century. The country had no effective government, no military, no school system, virtually no infrastructure, pretty much nothing. Literacy was at 2% and the peasantry lived as they had for hundreds of years.
>Zog‘s reign from 1925 until 1939, first as President of the Albanian Republic from 1925 until 1928, and after that as King of the Albanians, saw a massive change of the country. A centralised government was established, with the warlords an bandit chiefs who ruled the country being crushed. The major cities were brought into the 20th century: cities were electrified, and modern streets and cars entered the country for the first time. The countryside was modernised and the feudal structures gradually broken down. Thousands of schools were built, 1000 bridges were constructed and hundreds of kilometres of roads. Industry was set up, resources began to be extracted such as Oil at Kuçovë, agriculture boomed and a modern economy was developing. Literacy rose from 2% in 1925 to 30% in 1939.
>Zog abolished Islamic law and substituted it for a western law code. He bridged the considerable gap between Albanias religious communities (Christians, Sunni Muslims and Bektashi Muslims), which had been the main reason for the fall of Prince Wilhelm zu Wied from the Albanian throne in 1914. He secularised the state in order to emphasise common Albanianness, rather than religious identity. He famously swore his oath as king with his hand on both the Quran and Bible, and married a Catholic despite himself being a Sunni Muslim, and banned the chador.
>He navigated the treacherous waters of Balkan politics; keeping Albania from being absorbed by Yugoslavia, and stopping Greece from claiming orthodox-majority southern Albania. Despite Albania’s economic reliance on Italy, he repeatedly stood up to Mussolini. In 1931 he refused to renew the Treaties of Tirana or to allow for Italian takeover of the Albanian Gendarmerie, which caused Italy to cut all support to Albania and to send a fleet to intimidate him, which failed. Mind you, this was at the height of the great depression, which had hit Albania‘s export-oriented economy harder than most countries. Despite this Zog refused to yield to Italian pressure, and successfully managed a slow rebuilding of the economy. Relations with Italy weren’t re established until 1936, and then under much more favourable terms. It was Zog’s resistance to Italian influence which triggered the 1939 invasion, because they were tired of him standing in their way. All of this is of course completely contrary to the unfortunately far too commonly held view (and most common criticism) propagated by the Hoxha communist dictatorship after the war that Zog was some kind of Italian puppet who sold out the country.
>In summary, before Zog Albania was pretty much nothing. It had an on-paper government with no authority, and the country was stuck in the Middle Ages. Zog centralised and westernised Albania, quelled the long-standing religious tensions, built infrastructure and a modern state, and made Albania a functional country. All this while having to navigate between 3 larger Neighbours all eyeing his country.
Fantastic summary of Zog’s reign taken from here: https://old.reddit.com/r/monarchism/comments/rlje9c/what_do_monarchists_think_king_zog_of_albania/hpgtmoo/
Receding echoes of a barking seal
Just watch out for his first wife, Dagmar, who’s a witch that is going to turn everybody into stone