THE ALBANIAN PROBLEM AND THE USA ON THE EVE OF THE PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE IN 1919

Abstract

Nineteen-nineteen was a year of peacemaking and national boundaries were being revised throughout the world. It was also a year of hope, especially for the Albanians, when many people believed that the world could be remade according to Wilson. The year was crucial in the development of Albania. For Albania the story of 1919 is both national and international. On the international scene the problem of what to do with Albania was as always tied to other issues. Albania had been created in 1913 by the Great Powers in an attempt to preserve the stability of the Balkans by preventing the growth of the states which were victorious in the first Balkan War and by maintaining Albania as a foreign dominated balancing factor. This system by which the Great powers maintained their control over the Balkans was broken completely by the First World War. During the peacemaking the Albanian problem became part of both the Adriatic question of Greece and the question of Greek and Italian claims in the Eastern Mediterranean. The aim of this paper is to consider these claims, the influence of Essad Pasha on the eve of the Paris Peace Conference and the American attitude towards the Albanian issue.