In his 1872 book L’Epiro, the Italian diplomat Enrico de Gubernatis compared Albanian-inhabited territories to a dead man. According to de Gubernatis it was up to Italians to bring civilization to “these derelict lands”.

Italian interest in these territories increased in the late-1880s and early-1890s, when Francesco Crispi, an exponent of the Italian-Albanian (Arbëresh) community of Southern Italy, became prime minister. Italian journalists, scholars and priest who visited Albanian-inhabited territories described them as unexplored and primitive. Vincenzo Vannutelli, a Catholic priest, asserted that Albania was probably the most barbaric region in Europe; He was terrorised by “those savage faces with sinister eyes … heavily armed” (L’Albania, 1892). Antonio Baldacci, whose imperialist gaze paid special attention to natural resources, claimed that the virginity of Albania was being unveiled by the curious hand of the scientists. He described Kanine, in the surroundings of Vlore, as a “filthy” place and a “nest of thieves”.

Italians were especially drawn to the coastal town of Vlore, which was considered important for the control of the Adriatic. To legitimise their claims, colonial agents emphasized the historical legacy of the Roman Empire and Venetian Republic in the region. Baldacci was moved by the sight of the Italian flag waving on a ship in the harbour of Vlore because it made him think of the past, when Venice was respected by the Turks. Since Vlore was ruled by “wretched [pezzenti] employees” and “feudal administrators” who did not appreciate the civilisation that “we” brought through the centuries, the government of Rome should have taken direct action (Nell’Albania centrale: primo viaggio del 1892, in A. Baldacci, Itinerari Albanesi, 1917).

The Italian politician Antonino di San Giuliano who visited “Albania” at the beginning of the 20th century considered the country a continuity of Italian territories. Only a few kilometers separated Brindisi from Vlore and the extremity of the Via Appia in Italy was the beginning of the Via Egnatia in Albania (Lettere sull’Albania, 1903). He suggested that Italian peasants could colonise the region of Vlore to increase Rome’s influence. Italian imperialist accounts described Albanians as naturally inclined to be assimilated by their neighbours. San Giuliano was pervaded by patriotic feelings when he heard Albanian kindergarten children sing in Italian “Long live Italy and long live the King!”

At the turn of the 20th century, Albania had become a common trope of the Italian imperial imagination. An 1899 tourist guide published by Giuseppe Marcotti, L’Adriatico orientale da Venezia a Corfù, said the Italian language was the only foreign idiom known by Albanians. The acquisition of Vlore was also considered useful to expand Italian influence in the Ottoman Balkans. The Italian military figure Eugenio Barbarich affirmed that Italy needed to enhance communications between Albania and the “Levantine seas” to regain part of the hegemony that Venice had once enjoyed in the region (Albania, 1905). Italy became an advocate for the construction of railways that would link the Albanian coast to the Balkan hinterlands and the Aegean Sea.

Albanians were often considered to be part of the “white” race (Arturo Galanti, Albania: notizia geografiche, etnografiche e storiche, 1901). This feature virtually put them in a privileged position vis-à-vis other colonised peoples. However, it did not alter their inferior status vis-à-vis Italians since they allegedly lived according to tribal customs which made them comparable to societies of the early middle ages or African colonies. The journalist Vico Mantegazza, in L’Albania, 1912, affirmed that Albanians were lazy and that this was a common feature in Muslim countries. After the recognition of Albania’s independence in 1913, Eugenio Vaina (Albania che nasce, 1914) affirmed that Italy should take charge of the new country’s modernization. He suggested that the Albanian-Italian Arbëresh community colonise the country. According to Vaina, the emigration of 200,000 inhabitants would have had a minor impact in Italy but very positive outcomes for Albania.

Italy occupied Vlore in December 1914. The secret London Treaty of April 1915 predisposed the repartition of Albanian territories between Italy, Greece, Serbia and Montenegro. However, the constitution the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes at the end of World War I altered the strategical situation of the Balkans and at the Paris Peace Conference, the Great Powers were not disposed to support all Italian claims in the Adriatic region. Grassroots opposition to the Italian presence in Vlore also led Rome to withdraw its troops from the city. In the early 1920s, Albanians regained their independence, but Italy’s ambitions in the neighbouring state gained further momentum with Mussolini coming into power.

Thanks to the accommodating policy of President Ahmet Zogolli, later King Zog, Mussolini’s fascist government obtained control of key Albanian assets with the Society for the Economic Development of Albania SVEA and the Albanian Bank that were founded in 1925. Albania became a “semi-colony” and was eventually swallowed by its neighbour in April 1939. The first Italian colonists arrived in Albania in the early 1930s, after the foundation of the Italian Agency of Agriculture in Albania (EIAA) in 1926. With the annexation of 1939, over 100,000 Italian troops and over 30,000 civilians moved to Albania.

In order to give the impression that Albania was still independent, the annexation was presented as a “voluntary union” or, in a more fascist tone, as a “union of destinies”. According to fascist propagandists the union “showed the accordance of interests and sentiments of both peoples”. (Gaspare Ambrosini L’Albania Nella Comunità Imperiale di Roma, 1940) Other Italians looked at the event from a less apologetic perspective. According to Pio Biondoli (Albania Quinta Sponda d’Italia, 1939), the union had become necessary because history had proven that Albania could not reach the level of European civilization by itself. He also justified the annexation on account of Italian World War I victims.

Michele Craveri (L’Albania e le se sue genti, 1939), underlined Albanian indebtedness toward Italy by mentioning the works that the government of Rome had carried out in the country with the contribution of Italian taxpayers. Fascist propaganda described Italians as a generous people who had helped Albanians improve their miserable living conditions and defend themselves from aggressive neighbours and kleptomaniac local aristocracies. Despite the propagandistic slogans, Albanians occupied a subaltern position vis-à-vis Italians and became targets of racist and ethnic discrimination. A person who was deported with other Albanians to Italy in 1942, remembers being called “Albanian Bedouins” by fascists in Bari.

Italian colonial agents spread the idea that Albanians were primitive and naturally inclined to crime in order to justify their own enterprise of thievery. By occupying Albania, Italy had full control on the country’s natural resources such as oil, bitumen, and chrome, which it needed to aliment its war machine (Albania fascista, 1940). Albania was considered the first step for further enlargement in the Balkans. To achieve this goal, Italy attacked Greece from Albanian-occupied territories in October 1940. The campaign was a disaster and marked the beginning of the end of Italian imperialism in the region. Anti-Italian sentiments boosted sympathy for the Albanian Communist Party which was founded in November 1941. Many young women and men contested Italian rule with both peaceful and violent means. With their actions, they contributed to the failure of the Italian imperialist project in Albania, which officially ended after the armistice of September 8, 1943.

Albania still seen as an ‘Italian region’