The Royal Albanian Army was incorporated into the Royal Italian Army and a viceroy was appointed to administer the country as a protectorate.[3] Following the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia on 6 April 1941, Italian Albania was expanded to include adjacent parts of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia incorporated mainly from the Yugoslav banovinas (regional subdivisions) of Vardar and Morava.[4] Most of Kosovo was annexed to Albania, and in the beginning, Albanians living there enthusiastically welcomed the Italian occupation.[5] Some Kosovo Albanians even suggested that Albanians were "Aryans of Illyrian heritage".[6] Although officially under Italian rule, the Albanians in Kosovo were given control of the region and encouraged to open Albanian-language schools,[7] which had been banned by the Yugoslav government.[8] The Italians also gave the inhabitants Albanian citizenship and allowed them to fly the flag of Albania.[7] The Royal Italian Army expelled most of the Serbs and Montenegrins that had settled Kosovo during the interwar period.[9] The Kosovo Albanians despised the Serbs for the oppression they had experienced at their hands during the Balkan Wars, World War I, and under Yugoslav rule.[10] They took advantage of their changed circumstances, attacked their Serb neighbours, and burned the homes of as many as 30,000 Serb and Montenegrin settlers.[7]