Chapter 4. Marital fertility in Albania during WWI

Abstract

Albania was a part of the Ottoman Empire until 1912, when it proclaimed its independence from the Ottoman Empire. In the First Balkan War (1912) the neighbouring states of the European parts of the Ottoman Empire, Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Montenegro, declared war on the Ottoman Empire and conquered these European territories except the small part which still belongs to Turkey. Montenegro, Serbia, and Greece wanted to partition the Albanian territory among them and only with the help of the Great Powers (Austria-Hungary and Italy) in 1913 an independent Albania was internationally recognised. During WWI the neighbouring states tried again to get hold of Albanian territories and with neither an international commission nor an Albanian central government exercising control over the whole country, the situation deteriorated rapidly. Encouraged by the successful occupation of Albanian territory by Greece and Italy in southern Albania, the Serbs and Montenegrins invaded northern Albania in early 1915 and in January 1916, the Austrians drove the Serbs and Montenegrins out of their new holdings to occupy Northern and Central Albania as far south as the Vjosa River, which served as a northern border to the Italian holdings.