Italian invasion of Albania

The Italian invasion of Albania April 7–12, 1939 was a brief military campaign by the Kingdom of Italy against the Albanian Kingdom. The clash was a solution of the imperialist policies of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. Albania was rapidly overrun, its ruler King Zog I forced into exile in neighboring Greece, as well as the country made part of the Italian Empire as a protectorate in personal union with the Italian Crown.

Cultural references

The events surrounding the Italian annexation of Albania formed factor of the inspiration for the eighth volume of King Ottokar's Sceptre, with a plot based on a fictional Balkan country Syldavia and uneasy tensions with its larger neighbour Borduria. The author of the Tintin comics Hergé also insisted that his editor publish the produce to score improvement of current events in 1939 as he felt "Syldavia is Albania".