 A government of young men led by Mehdi Frashëri, an enlightened Bektashi administrator, won a commitment from Italy to fulfill financial promises that Mussolini had made to Albania, and to grant new loans for harbor improvements at Durrës and other projects that kept the Albanian government afloat.Soon Italians began taking positions in Albania's civil service, and Italian settlers were allowed into the country.The eleven-year rule of King Zog I is noted for a great wave of modernization of the country, which had suffered five centuries of harsh Turkish rule.