NDRYSHIMET TERRITORIALE DHE INXHINIERIA E KUFIJYE NË RASTIN SHQIPTAR: PËRPLASJA E ELITAVE, NDËRHYRJA NDËRKOMBËTARE DHE IMAGJINATA KOLEKTIVE (1912-1920

This paper shows that the main drivers of mental shifts in the interwar period were the competing elites, who through various projects that suit their political calculations dictate the expansionary/contractionary maps of the Albanian nation, always in conjuntion with the other determinating factor, the extemal constraints and foreign pressures. As it is shown here, the first political demands for full sovereignty started around the end of 1911, beginning of 1912 and the best causal explanation based on empirical analysis, leads to the argument o f competing elites in order to secure political power, when geopolitical pressures allowed for it. The ‘external’ elites, which included ‘overseas’ diasporas who were mostly individuals that were serving Ottoman Empire in high levels o f power (including such positions as foreign minister, governors or deputes o f the Parliament), saw the existing structures o f power suddenly collapsing and tried to embark into a new venture project, which was the leading o f the process o f nation-building that culminated with the new Albanian state. These efforts paid off since they succeeded in securing their former positions, albeit in a different context. Thus it seems that achieving political power through mapping o f nation and borders that would facilitate such goal, has been the main drive o f rhetoric and actions o f the elite in maximizing the maneuvring room allowed by international actors as it is argued here.