Benito Mussolini boasted in May 1941 to a group of Albanian fascists that he had achieved the Greater Albania long wanted by the Tirana nationalists. Initially the Albanian Fascist Party received support from the population, mainly because of the unification of Kosovo and other Albanian-populated territories with Albania proper after the conquest of Yugoslavia and Greece by the Axis in Spring 1941. See also: German occupation of Albania and Albanian resistance during World War II Albanian partisans fighting against the GermansĪfter the Italian invasion of Albania in April 1939, 100,000 Italian soldiers and 11,000 Italian colonists who wanted to integrate Albania into the Italian Empire settled in the country. Following the Axis loss in Stalingrad in 1943, the plans cooled off and were never executed. It is believed he was involved in plans to regain his throne with Axis help. In 1941, Western press reported that Amanullah Khan, a former king who lost his throne in a civil war in the 1920s, was working as an agent for Nazi Germany in Berlin. Despite this stated goal, Afghanistan stayed out of the war, neither suffering an attack nor attacking any other country. In 1940, the Afghanistan legation in Berlin asked whether Germany would cede land in British India to Afghanistan if it should win the war specifically, the king and minister wanted to acquire all the ethnic Pashtun land between the Durand Line and the Indus River. Despite British pressure, Afghanistan maintained friendly relations with the Axis during the war. The kingdom had close relations with all three Axis powers and had agreements with them for assistance with infrastructure and trade. Under Prime Minister Mohammad Hashim Khan, Afghanistan stayed neutral.

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