Struggle for Albania: the Demise of the Yugoslav Expansionist Policy in the Balkans

Throughout the existence of the Yugoslav state the YugoslavAlbanian relations represented an important aspect of the Yugoslav foreign policy, which, however, only expressed itself during the critical moments of the relations between these states. The whole range of these relations was based on mutual distrust, caused by the negative historical experience, the Yugoslav interference with the Albanian internal political struggles and the resistance of a part of the Albanian leadership, which strived to preserve the Albanian political and economic independence. We can basically state that such attitude of the Albanian leadership, which turned Albania into the most isolated European state with minimal contacts with the outside world until the 1970s, was caused by the Yugoslav policy during and after World War II, which basically did not involve any bad intentions, but was received exceedingly sceptically by a part of the Albanian leadership.