During the fifteenth century Albania enjoyed a brief period of independence under the legendary hero, Skanderbeg, but with this exception it was not until 1912 that the country fully gained independence after five hundred years of Ottoman domination. Albania remained independent during, and after, the First World War but by 1928 King Zog had begun to cede Albania's sovereignty to Italy and in 1939 the Italians invaded the country. Immediately after the Second World War Enver Hoxha established a hardline Stalinist dictatorship in Albania which lasted over forty years. There was a slight relaxation under Hoxha's chosen successor Ramiz Alia, who came to power in 1985, but after 1989, Albania was to be the last European Communist country to experience the impact of the end of Soviet Communism.