ABSTRACT
Italy annexed Albania in 1939 and attempted to conquer Greece in October 1940. Greek and British forces drove the invaders back and captured a strip of southern Albania. Germany intervened in aid of Italy and captured Athens in April 1941. The government of King Georgios II fled to exile and eventually arrived in London. Both the Soviet Union and Britain encouraged resistance groups but left-wing groups organized first. The Soviet Union conquered eastern Germany in 1945 and helped to establish a radical socialist regime through the Socialist Unity party. The German Democratic Republic was proclaimed in 1949 but the Soviet Union retained formal supervisory authority until 1954. Trieste, part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire before World War I, was awarded to Italy in 1919 at the same time that adjoining territory along the Dalmatian Coast was assigned to Yugoslavia. Cyprus was colonized by Greeks and Phoenicians by the beginning of the first millennium B.C.
