Independent Albania () was a parliamentary state declared in Vlorë (at the time part of Ottoman Empire) on 28 November 1912 during the First Balkan War. Its assembly was constituted on the same day while its government and senate were established on 5 December 1912.
The delegation of Albania submitted a memorandum to the London Conference of 1913 requesting international recognition of independent Albania. At the beginning of the conference it was decided that the region of Albania would be under Ottoman suzerainty but with an autonomous government. The requests by the delegation for recognition based on the ethnic rights of Albanians were rejected and the Treaty of London was signed on 30 May 1913, partitioning a major part of the claimed lands between Serbia, Greece and Montenegro, leaving as independent territory only a central region, which was put under the protection of the Great Powers. The ambassadors of six Great Powers met again on 29 July 1913 and decided to constitute a new state, the Principality of Albania, as a constitutional monarchy. Finally, with the Treaty of Bucharest being signed in August 1913, this new independent state was established, leaving about 40% of the ethnic Albanian population outside its borders.
Name The name of the state used in the text of declaration of independence of Albania is Shqipëria (). It is also referred to as the "independent Albania" (), the "Albanian State" () or the "independent state of Albania" ().
Political system The independent Albania established on 28 November 1912 is the first Albanian state in modern history. It was a parliamentary state. Some sources refer to it as the Republic of Albania or the Albanian Republic.
Albania became an independent state through four constitutional decisions of the Assembly of Vlorë made on 28 November 1912: Albania, as of today, should be on her own, free and independent under a provisional government that a council of elders (senate) be elected to assist and supervise the government a commission is to be sent to Europe to defend Albanian interests among the Great Powers
Territory The authority of the state was limited to the regions of Vlorë, Berat and Lushnjë. The claimed territory was much larger than the territory of contemporary Albania and than the territory over which the Provisional Government exercised its power. It comprised the territories of Kosovo Vilayet, Monastir Vilayet, Shkoder Vilayet and Janina Vilayet. The Treaty of London, signed on 30 May 1913, reduced the territory of Albanian state to its central regions after partitioning a significant part of territory claimed by Albania between the Balkan allies (a major part of the northern and western area was given to the Serbia and Montenegro while the southern region of Chameria became part of Greece). Kosovo was given to Serbia at the London treaty at the insistence of Russia.
During the First Balkan War the kingdoms of Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria and Montenegro aspired to incorporate the entire region into their states (completely denying the Albania's independence), so most of the captured territory was occupied by their armies. Independent Albania did however exercise control over one pocket of land which included Vlorë, Berat, Fier and Lushnjë.
History
Albanian Vilayet
Until September 1912, the Ottoman government intentionally kept Albanians divided within four ethnically heterogeneous vilayets to prevent Albanian national unification. The reforms introduced by the Young Turks provoked the Albanian Revolt of 1912 which lasted from January to August 1912. In January 1912, Hasan Prishtina, Albanian deputy in the Ottoman parliament, publicly warned members of the parliament that the policy of the Young Turks' government would lead to a revolution in Albania. The Albanian revolt was successful and until August 1912 rebels managed to gain control over whole Kosovo vilayet (including Novi Pazar, Sjenica, Pristina and even Skopje), a part of the Scutari Vilayet (including Elbasan, Përmet and Leskovik), Konitsa in Janina Vilayet and Debar in Monastir Vilayet. The Ottoman government ended the Albanian revolt on 4 September 1912 by accepting all demands related to establishing an unified autonomous system of administration and justice for Albanians within one vilayet—the Albanian vilayet.
First Balkan War
The success of the Albanian revolt sent a strong signal to the neighbouring countries that the Ottoman Empire was weak. Besides, the Kingdom of Serbia opposed the plan for an Albanian vilayet, preferring a partition of the European territory of the Ottoman Empire among the four Balkan allies. In the meantime it was agreed that the conquered territory was to have the status of a condominium.
Albanian leaders, including Faik Konitza and Fan Noli, organized a large meeting on 7 October 1912 in Boston. They decided that Albanians should "unite fully with the Ottoman government against the enemies of the Empire" because "if Turkey is defeated, the Balkan states would shred Albania." That decision was risky, because if the Ottomans were defeated, Albanian participation in the Balkan war on the Ottoman side would serve as justification for the Balkan allies to partition Albania as an Ottoman province. Albanians who were mobilized in the Ottoman army fought for their country rather than for the Ottoman Empire.
During the First Balkan War the combined armies of the Balkan allies overcame the numerically inferior and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies and achieved rapid success. They occupied almost all the remaining European territories of the Ottoman Empire including the territory of the Albanian Vilayet.
At the beginning of November 1912, Albanian leaders appealed to Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary, explaining the difficult situation in their country because parts of the four vilayets were also claimed by the Balkan League who were present on the disputed lands. Austria-Hungary and Italy strongly opposed the arrival of Serbian army on the Adriatic Sea because they perceived it as a threat to their domination of the Adriatic and feared that a Serbian Adriatic port could become a Russian base. Ismail Kemal, who had been an Albanian deputy in the Ottoman parliament, secured the support of Austria-Hungary for the autonomy of Albania within the Ottoman Empire, but not for its independence.
All-Albanian Congress
Ismail Kemal invited the representatives of all parts of Albanian Vilayet to attend the All-Albanian Congress held in Vlorë on November 28, 1912. At the beginning of the session, Kemal referred to the threatened Albanian rights gained during the Albanian revolts in the previous four years, and explained to the participants of the congress that they should do whatever was necessary to save Albania. After his speech they began by checking the documents because it was decided that each kaza of Albanian Vilayet would be counted as one vote, regardless of the number of its delegates. Participants of this congress are regarded as Founding Fathers of Albania.
After the declaration of independence
The first notification about the proclaimed independence was sent to the command of Serbian Army in Ohrid. On 29 November 1912, the army of the Kingdom of Serbia captured Durrës without any resistance and established Durrës County with four districts (): Durrës, Lezha, Elbasan and Tirana. New Serbian authorities were faced with big difficulties in governing a new county because all secluded army garrisons with small number of soldiers were destroyed in a couple of days. Although some tribal chieftains proposed to organize an armed resistance against troops of Serbia in the occupied parts of Albania, the provisional government of the Independent Albania decided to avoid unnecessary casualties and concluded agreement (besa) to maintain harmony in occupied territory.
The international relations of Albania began to function on a state level after it was proclaimed independent and the first diplomatic efforts of its government were requests for the international recognition of the Albanian state. In December 1912, a delegation of Albania submitted a memorandum to the London Conference of 1913 insisting on the ethnic rights of Albanians and requested an international recognition of the independent Albania composed of Kosovo, western Macedonia including Skopje and Bitola and the whole territory of Epirus up to Arta.
About 120 notable politicians and intellectuals from Albania attended the Albanian Congress of Trieste from 27 February to 6 March 1913 and requested from the Great Powers a recognition of the political and economical independence of Albania. Isa Boletini and Ismail Kemal travelled to London in March 1913 to obtain Britain's support for their new country. On March 6 Ioannina was captured by forces of the Kingdom of Greece. In March 1913 a group of 130 (or 200) soldiers of the Kingdom of Serbia were killed near Prizren by Albanian irregulars in act of revenge for repression of Serbian army.
In April 1913 the army of the Kingdom of Serbia retreated from Durrës but remained in other parts of Albania. On the other hand, Kingdom of Montenegro managed to capture Shkodër on 23 April 1913 after six months of siege. However, when the war was over, the Great Powers did not award the city to the Kingdom of Montenegro, which was compelled to evacuate it in May 1913.
In May 1913, delegates of Albania in London requested a British sovereign and considered offering the Albanian throne to Aubrey Herbert.
London Treaty
The Great Powers did not fulfil the requests for recognition of Albania. At the beginning of the London conference in December 1912 the ambassadors of all six Great Powers rejected the plan for establishing an independent Albania. Instead, they decided that Albania would be under Ottoman suzerainty but with an autonomous government. After it became obvious that Ottoman Empire would lose all of Macedonia and its territorial connection with Albania, the Great Powers realized they had to change their decision.
The Treaty of London, signed on 30 May 1913, partitioned significant part of territory claimed by Albania, regardless its ethnic composition, between the Balkan allies reducing the territory of Albania to its central regions.
After the London treaty
In September 1913 independent Albania secretly supported and helped Ohrid–Debar Uprising because Ismail Qemali thought that independent Albania was too weak to openly confront the Kingdom of Serbia. Qemali ordered a simultaneous attack of the Albanian forces led by Isa Boletini and Bajram Curri to the region of Prizren. Peshkopi was captured on 20 September 1913. Local Albanians and Bulgarians expelled the Serbian army and officials, creating a front line 15 km east of Ohrid. A local administration was set up in Ohrid.Гоцев, Димитър. Национално-освободителната борба в Македония 1912–1915, София 1981, с. 48 Gotsev, Dimitar. The National Liberation Struggle in Macedonia, Sofia 1981, p. 124, Огнянов, Михаил. Македония-преживяна съдба, София 2002, с. 43 The Serbian Army of 100,000 regulars suppressed the uprising in several days. Thousands were killed, and tens of thousands of local inhabitants fled for Bulgaria and Albania to save their lives. According to the Report by the International Commission of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace the number of Albanians who took refuge was 25,000.Report of the International Commission to Inquire into the Causes and Conduct of the Balkan Wars, published by the Endowment Washington, D.C. 1914, p. 182