The major source of national income changed from agriculture to industry during the early 1960s, but the country was still by all appearances predominantly rural and agricultural. Two-thirds of the people lived in rural areas, and more than half were engaged in agriculture. Socialization of the economy, which began in 1944, was completed in the late 1960s. The model of planning borrowed from the Soviet Union that was adopted in the late 1940s continued in use with only slight modifications. The trend was toward greater centralization and governmental control ([see ch. 8], Economic System).
The provision of adequate and proper food, clothing, and housing was a constant major problem. Little improvement was made in the standard of living between 1950 and 1970, largely because of sustained rapid population growth and priority to the means of production sector of industry in the allocation of resources ([see ch. 4], The People; [ch. 8], Economic System).
CHAPTER 2
HISTORICAL SETTING
Historical works and official documents published in Tirana as late as 1970 stressed two major themes: the importance of patriotism and nationalism and the achievements, real or fancied, of the Communist regime since it assumed control of the country in November 1944. The appeal to nationalism always strikes a responsive chord among the Albanians not only because their history is replete with humiliations and injustices heaped upon them by long domination of foreign powers but also, and especially, because of the territorial aspirations and claims of its neighbors—Italy, Yugoslavia, and Greece. The political scene in Albania since it formally won an independent existence from Turkey in 1912 has indeed been dominated by attempts of one, or a combination, of its neighbors to dismember it.
The boundaries of Albania in 1970 were essentially the same as those delineated by representatives of the Great Powers after Albania had declared its independence. Ethnic problems raised by the drawing of the boundaries have never been solved to the satisfaction of the countries involved. The Albanians hold that in 1913 about 40 percent of their territory, with a population at that time of about 600,000 ethnic Albanians, was unjustly assigned to Serbia. The area has been a continuing source of friction between Albania and Yugoslavia.
A source of tension between Albania and Greece has been the status of Albania's two southernmost districts. Known to the Greeks as Northern Epirus, this region was awarded to Albania by the boundary delineations of 1913, but the Greeks have never relinquished their claims to the area.