THE ALBANIANS AND THE HAGUE - The Hague Peace Conferences in 1899 and 1907

Abstract

The Peace conferences of Hague in 1899 and 1907 had aroused for nations, to whom liberty had been still a far dream and ideal, the hope that would see, owing to arbitrage, that their fate be improved and that they would have their place at the table of civilized nations of the West. However, although these Conferences entered in history with the name "Peace Conferences", there were discussed in them mainly questions of war, about engagements and rights of the belligerent parties in case of war. Patriots of the Albanian Renaissance did not cherish the hope that the Albanian question would be solved; however the activists of the Emigration Patriotic Communities felt the necessity to inform the participant states in these conferences about the Albanian demands. However, despite the Albanian persistent demands, the Peace Conferences in Hague, as it had been expected they did not put forward the Albanian question for discussion. They ignored once more the demands of the Albanian people to be affiliated as a free member to the great family of European nations, a right which also the history secures them.

Keywords: The Peace conferences, Hague, 1899, 1907, Albania, Albanian question, history.