History

Ethnic Origin of Albanians

Some scholars consider that Albanians are direct descendants of an Illyrian tribe called the Arber, or Arbereshe, and later Albanoi, that lived near Durres. Others scholars dispute this, and claim that Albanians and Illyrians are descendants of the ancient Pelasgians, making their history go back at least 4,000 years BC. Some others believe the majority of the Illyrians were conquered and/ or assimilated by the invading Slavic tribes after the fall of the Roman Empire.

Those who support the Illyrian-Albanian continuity theory maintain that all Illyrian tribes, except the Albanians, were assimilated or driven southwards into Albania and Greece during the Early Middle Ages after the waves of migrating barbarians. A formidable mountain homeland and resilient tribal society enabled the Albanians to survive into modern times with their identity and their Indo-European language intact. According to these scholars, the name 'Albania' is derived from the name of an Illyrian tribe called the Arber, or Arbereshe, and later Albanoi, that lived near Durres.

Ancient Illyria

The Illyrians were Indo-European tribesmen who appeared in the western portion of the Balkan Peninsula about 1000 BC, a period coinciding with the end of the Bronze Age and beginning of the Iron Age. They inhabited much of the area for at least the next millennium. Archaeologists associate the Illyrians with the Hallstatt culture, an Iron Age people noted for production of iron, bronze swords with winged-shaped handles, and domestication of horses. The Illyrians occupied lands extending from the Danube, Sava and Morava rivers to the Adriatic Sea and the Sar Mountains. At various times, groups of Illyrians, such as the Messapians and Iapyges, migrated to Italy through both overland routes and the sea.

Albanians were originally an extension of the southeast Illyrian peoples. By contrast with other areas, the coastal hinterland between the Narenta and the Drilon was occupied by a considerable number of smaller tribes, most of whom lost their identities during the final stages of Roman occupation.

The Illyrians carried on commerce and warfare with their neighbours: Greeks, Paionians, Thracians and other peoples. To the east in Dardania, there was a broad area of intermingling, or a 'contact zone,' between Illyrians and Thracians. This area encompassed the Danube below Belgrade down the west of the Morava valley to the Vardar and the northern border of Macedonia. In the south and along the Adriatic Sea coast, the Illyrians were heavily influenced by the Greeks, who founded trading colonies there. At the end of the 7th century BC, Corinthian Greek settlers from Corfu established ports on the coast at Apollonia (Pojane, near modern Vlore) in 588 BC and farther north at Lissos (Lezhe) and Epidamnos (modern Durres) in 623 BC. The Illyrians living in Albania's rugged mountains, however, resisted Greek settlement. Illyrian raiders attacked the coastal cities and Illyrian pirates threatened Greek trading ships in the Adriatic Sea.

Illyrians produced and traded cattle, horses, agricultural goods, and wares fashioned from locally mined copper and iron. Feuds and warfare were constant facts of life for the Illyrian tribes, and Illyrian pirates plagued shipping on the Adriatic Sea. Councils of elders (bulae) chose the chieftains who headed each of the numerous Illyrian tribes. From time to time, local chieftains extended their rule over other tribes and formed short-lived kingdoms. During the fifth century BC, well-developed Illyrian population centres existed as far north as the upper Sava River valley in what is now Slovenia. Illyrian friezes discovered near the present-day Slovenian city of Ljubljana depict ritual sacrifices, feasts, battles, sporting events and other activities.

The Illyrian kingdom of Bardhyllis became a formidable local power in the fourth century BC. He fought against Greek settlers and Macedonia, a powerful kingdom to the southeast. In 358 BC, however, Macedonia's Phillip II, father of Alexander the Great, defeated the Illyrians and assumed control of their territory as far as Lake Ohrid. Alexander himself routed the forces of the Illyrian chieftain Clitus in 335 BC and Illyrian tribal leaders and soldiers accompanied Alexander on his conquest of Persia. After Alexander's death in 323 BC, new Illyrian kingdoms were established. In 312 BC, King Glaucius expelled the Greeks from Durres. By the end of the third century, the Illyrian king Agron had united many independent cities and greatly expanded Illyrian territory. Agron made Shkoder his capital and built an army and navy to protect Illyrian cities and ports. His kingdom, which stretched from Dalmatia in the north to the Vijose River in the south, controlled parts of northern Albania, Montenegro and Hercegovina. After Agron's death in 231 BC, control of Illyria passed to his widow, Teuta. The queen ordered several attacks on neighbouring states, but the pirate raids on merchant vessels in the Adriatic Sea made Teuta's realm an enemy of Rome. Roman troops defeated Teuta's army and seized the port of Epidamnos, which the Romans renamed Durrachium.

Roman Period

In the Illyrian Wars of 229 and 219 BC, Rome overran the Illyrian settlements in the Neretva River valley. The Romans made new gains in 168 BC, with Roman forces capturing Illyria's King Gentius at Shkoder, which they called Scodra, and bringing him to Rome in 165 BC. A century later, Julius Caesar and his rival Pompey fought their decisive battle near Durres (Dyrrachium). Rome finally subjugated recalcitrant Illyrian tribes in the western Balkans during the reign of Emperor Tiberius in 9 AD. The Romans divided the lands that constitute modern-day Albania among the provinces of Macedonia, Dalmatia and Epirus.

For about four centuries, Roman rule brought the Illyrian-populated lands economic and cultural advancement and ended most of the enervating clashes among local tribes. The Illyrian mountain clansmen retained local authority but pledged allegiance to the emperor and acknowledged the authority of his envoys. During a yearly holiday honouring the Caesars, the Illyrian mountaineers swore loyalty to the emperor and reaffirmed their political rights. A form of this tradition, known as the kuvend, has survived to the present day in northern Albania.

The Romans established numerous military camps and colonies and completely Latinized the coastal cities. They also oversaw the construction of aqueducts and roads, including the extension of the Via Egnatia, an old Illyrian road and later famous military highway and trade route that led from Durres through the Shkumbin River valley to Macedonia and Byzantium. Copper, asphalt, and silver were extracted from the mountains. The main exports were wine, cheese, oil and fish from Lake Scutari and Lake Ohrid. Imports included tools, metalware, luxury goods and other manufactured articles. Apollonia became a cultural centre, and Julius Caesar himself sent his nephew, later the Emperor Augustus, to study there.

Illyrians distinguished themselves as warriors in the Roman legions and made up a significant portion of the Praetorian Guard. Several Roman emperors were of Illyrian origin, including Gaius Decius, Claudius Gothicus, Aurelian, Probus, Diocletian and Constantine the Great.

Christianity

Christianity came to Illyrian-populated lands in the first century AD. Saint Paul wrote that he preached in the Roman province of Illyricum, and tradition holds that he visited Durres. In 379, under emperor Theodosius I, as part of the Prefecture of Illyricum Orientale, the southern region was divided into three provinces: Epirus Vetus, with capital at Nicopolis (modern Preveza), Epirus Nova, with capital at Durres, and Praevalitania, with capital at Shkoder. Each city formed an archdiocese.

When the Roman Empire was divided into eastern and western halves in 395, Illyria east of the Drinus River (Drina between Bosnia and Serbia), including the lands that now form Albania, were administered by the Eastern Empire but were ecclesiastically dependent on Rome. Within time, much of southern Albania, especially to the east, came to be included within the domain of the Byzantine rite and therefore developed into a branch of the Orthodox Church. In 732, a Byzantine emperor, Leo III the Isaurian, subordinated the area to the patriarchate of Constantinople. For centuries thereafter, the Albanian lands became an arena for the ecclesiastical struggle between Rome and Constantinople. Remaining under Roman influence, most Albanians living in the mountainous north maintained their Roman Catholicism, whereas in the southern and central regions, the majority became Orthodox while forging closer links with Greek peoples to the south.

After the formation of the Slav principality of Dioclia (modern Montenegro), the metropolitan see of Bar was created in 1089, and dioceses in northern Albania (Shkoder, Ulcinj) became its suffragans. Starting in 1019, Albanian dioceses of the Byzantine rite were suffragans of the independent Archdiocese of Ohrid until Durres and Nicopolis (Preveza) were re-established as metropolitan sees. Thereafter, only the dioceses in inner Albania (Elbasan, Kruje) remained attached to Ohrid. In the 13th century during the Venetian occupation, the Latin Archdiocese of Durres was founded.

Albania in the Middle Ages

The fall of the Western Roman Empire and the age of great migrations brought radical changes to the Balkan Peninsula and the Illyrian people. Barbarian tribesmen overran many rich Roman cities, destroying the existing social and economic order and leaving the great Roman aqueducts, coliseums, temples and roads in ruins. The Illyrians gradually disappeared as a distinct people from the Balkans, replaced by the Bulgars, Serbs, Croats, Bosnians and Albanians and their lands were gradually overtaken by them. In the late Middle Ages, new waves of invaders swept over the Albanian-populated lands.

Thanks to their protective mountains and close-knit tribal society, the Albanian people developed their distinctive identity and language. Indeed, Albania's ancient communities evolved into fiercely independent clans. Albania remained an isolated place where landowning families ruled over large, private domains. Small principalities developed near port cities and in fertile river valleys. In the mountains, the Albanian clans fought for territory and for scarce natural resources.

In the fourth century, barbarian tribes began to prey upon the Roman Empire, and the fortunes of the Illyrian-populated lands sagged. The Germanic Goths and Asiatic Huns were the first to arrive, invading in mid-century; the Avars attacked in AD 570; and the Slavic Serbs and Croats overran Illyrian-populated areas in the early seventh century.

For a time, southern Illyricum remained an important source of manpower for the imperial army. Most of the conquests in the western Mediterranean were achieved by troops from the southern Balkans. The security of these homelands was now based on local strongholds, either new or refurbished. The network of small forts, whose construction would have been a burden on local communities, represented a passive defence from a basis of limited control over the countryside. In Old and New Epirus, 50 existing forts were repaired, but according to Procopius in his Secret History, the region was ravaged almost every year of Justinian's reign by Huns and Slavs, causing many Roman casualties and so much destruction that the area was deserted. The refortifications had proven insufficient.

With the eventual collapse of Illyricum, the condition of the region worsened. There seems to have been a collapse of the inland towns which had arisen in the Hellenistic period, while the more secure coastal cities continued to enjoy a relatively prosperous existence. Some inland places were protected with the latest type of defences, including Scampis (Elbasan) on the Via Egnatia and Vig near Shkoder. The passage of the Visigoths and Ostrogoths through the area caused the building of several new hill-fortresses, such as Sarda overlooking the river Drin, sometime after the 5th century. The population of this area were Latin-speaking provincials, in the interior mainly of Illyrian origin, but more cosmopolitan in the coastal towns.

The dispersal of Slavs in the southern Balkans following the unsuccessful siege of Thessalonika in 586 led to an occupation of Praevalitania and the region south of the Shkumbin, a distribution indicated by place-names of Slav origin. During the 7th and 8th centuries, Durres and the coast remained under imperial control, but the old cities of Lezhe and Shkoder sank to within their acropolis. This is due in large part to the wholesale withrdrawal of Byzantine forces from the Balkans to reinforce the Middle Eastern provinces in 620, leaving Albania to fend for itself.

The key evidence for the population of this time is the Komani-Kruje group of cemeteries centred on Durres. These cemeteries went out of use by the early 9th century when the new military command theme of Durres came into existence in 862. They indicate the survival of a Romanized population of Illyrian origin driven out by Slav settlements further north, the Romanoi mentioned by Constantine Porphyrogenitus. This interpretation is supported by the concentration of Latin place-names around the Lake of Shkoder, in the Drin and Fan valleys and along the road from Lezhe to Ulpiana in Kosovo, with some in the Black Drin and Mat valleys, a distribution limited on the south by the line of the Via Egnatia.

Another population to the south is evidenced by an early tumulus culture, and this is considered to represent the Alberi of the tenth and eleventh centuries, for whom the region of Arberi (Gheg Albeni), north of Tirana between the Mat and Erzen rivers, is named. A third region indicates movement from high altitudes between the Shkumbin and Mat, concentrated between Elbasan and Kruje, into the plain of the Mat - a likely place for Arbanon. However, the main brunt of the northern mountaineer population probably came from the northern Albanian mountains, in Dukagjin and Mirdite, and the mountains of Drin, descending into the lowlands of western Albania, the Black Drin river valley, and into parts of Old Serbia during the summer.

In the 9th century, the Bulgars conquered much of the Balkan Peninsula and extended their domain to the lowlands of what is now central and southern Albania. The Bulgarian leader Simeon I defeated the Byzantine army and established colonies along the Adriatic seacoast. Samuil, conquered Durres, the former Roman port of Durrachium that still traded with cities in Greece and Italy. Many Illyrians fled from coastal areas to the mountains, exchanging a sedentary peasant existence for the itinerant life of the herdsman. Other Illyrians intermarried with the conquerors and eventually assimilated. In general, the invaders destroyed or weakened Roman and Byzantine cultural centres in the lands that would become Albania.

However, the Byzantine emperor Basil II, nicknamed the 'Bulgar-slayer', counterattacked in 1014. The Byzantine forces smashed the Bulgarian army, seized the Adriatic ports, and conquered Epirus, which lies south of Albania. These territories were far from the Byzantine capital at Constantinople, however, and Byzantine authority in the area gradually weakened. While the clans and landowners controlled the countryside, the people of the coastal cities fought against Byzantine rule. It was during this period of rebellion and turmoil that the region first came to be known as Albania.

Late Middle Ages

The first historical mention of Albania and the Albanians as such appears in an account of the resistance by a Byzantine emperor, Alexius I Comnenus, to an offensive by the Vatican-backed Normans from southern Italy into the Albanian-populated lands in 1081. In the same year, the weakness of the Byzantine Empire let northern Albania slip under Serbian control.

The ports of Albania remained a valuable prize for several rival nations. The Normans, who ruled a kingdom in southern Italy, conquered Durres in 1081. The Byzantine re-conquest of 1083 required the help of Venice, which soon gained commercial privileges in Albanian towns as a reward. This wealthy trading city in northern Italy built fortresses and trading posts in Albania's lowlands to bolster its power. The Normans returned in 1107 and again in 1185 but were quickly expelled.

Again during the late medieval period, invaders ravaged the Illyrian-inhabited regions of the Balkans. Norman, Venetian and Byzantine fleets attacked by sea. Bulgar, Serb and Byzantine forces came overland and held the region in their grip for years. Clashes between rival clans and intrusions by the Serbs produced hardship that triggered an exodus from the region southward into Greece, including Thessaly, the Peloponnese and the Aegean Islands.

Divided into warring clans, the Albanians were unable to prevent the occupation of their country by outsiders. The Serbs occupied parts of northern and eastern Albania toward the end of the twelfth century and conquered Shkoder in the 1180s. In 1204, after Western crusaders sacked Constantinople, Venice won nominal control over central and southern Albania and the Epirus region of northern Greece and took possession of Durres. A prince from the overthrown Byzantine ruling family, Michael Comnenus, made alliances with Albanian chiefs and drove the Venetians from lands that now make up southern Albania and northern Greece, and in 1204 he set up an independent Byzantine principality, the Despotate of Epirus, with Janina (now Ioannina) as its capital. His successor, Theodore, conciliated the Albanian chiefs in 1216, repulsed an attack on Durres in 1217 by western Crusaders and Venetian ships, and turned his armies eastward before being defeated in 1230 by the revived Bulgarian Empire of Ivan Asen II.

A restored Byzantine Empire smashed Bulgaria in 1246 and pushed to the north Albanian coast, where the Albanian tribes were briefly weaned away from their alliance with the Despotate of Epirus. The Byzantines gained Durres in 1256 but lost it in 1257 to Manfred, king of the Two Sicilies, who also acquired Vlore and Berat in 1268. In 1272, his successor, Charles I of Anjou, the ruler of the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily, attacked from his base in southern Italy. Charles conquered Durres and much of central Albania; he called his new domain the Albanian kingdom, which would last until 1336.

Internal power struggles further weakened the Byzantine Empire in the 14th century, and by this time Serbia, a realm to the northeast, had already established a dynasty at Shkoder to take control of northern Albania. In the mid-1300s, Stefan Dusan, a powerful Serbian prince, conquered much of the western Balkans, including all of Albania except Durres. Dusan drew up a legal code for his realm and crowned himself 'Emperor of the Serbs, Greeks, Bulgarians and Albanians'. But in 1355, while leading an attack against Constantinople, Dusan suddenly died. His empire quickly broke apart, and his lands were divided among Serb and Albanian noblemen. Strong families came to the fore, especially the Balshas in the north and the Thopias in the centre. Southern Albania fell to a Serbian chieftain, Thomas Preliubovich, in 1367.

The constant warfare in Albania caused poverty and deadly famines. Beginning in the 14th century, many Albanians left their troubled homeland and migrated southward into the mountains of Epirus and to the cities and islands of Greece. Albanian exiles also built communities in southern Italy and on the island of Sicily.

Ottoman Rule

Ottoman supremacy in the Balkan region began in 1385 with the Battle of Savra but was briefly interrupted in the 15th century, when Gjergj Kastrioti, an Albanian warrior known as Skanderbeg, allied with some Albanian chiefs and fought-off Turkish rule from 1443-1478. Upon the Ottomans' return, a large number of Albanians fled to Italy, Greece and Egypt. Many Albanians won fame and fortune as soldiers, administrators and merchants in far-flung parts of the empire. As the centuries passed, however, Ottoman rulers lost the capacity to command the loyalty of local pashas, who governed districts on the empire's fringes, which threatened stability in the region. The Ottoman rulers of the nineteenth century struggled to shore up central authority, introducing reforms aimed at harnessing unruly pashas and checking the spread of nationalist ideas. Albania would be a part of the Ottoman Empire until the early 20th century.

Birth of Nationalism

The 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish War dealt a decisive blow to Ottoman power in the Balkan Peninsula, leaving the empire with only a precarious hold on Macedonia and the Albanian-populated lands. The Albanians' fear that the lands they inhabited would be partitioned among Montenegro, Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece fuelled the rise of Albanian nationalism.

Albanian leaders formed the League of Prizren in 1878 with the backing of sultan Abdulhamid II, through which they pressed for territorial autonomy and defence of their lands from the onslaught of their neighbours. After decades of unrest, a major uprising exploded in the Albanian-populated Ottoman territories in 1912, on the eve of the First Balkan War. When Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece laid claim to Albanian lands during the war, the Albanians declared independence.

The European Great Powers endorsed an independent Albania in 1913, after the Second Balkan War. They were assisted by Aubrey Herbert, a British MP who passionately advocated their cause in London. As a result, Herbert was offered the crown of Albania, but was dissuaded by the British prime minister, H. H. Asquith, from accepting. Instead the offer went to William of Wied, a German prince who accepted and became sovereign of the new Principality of Albania.

The young state, however, collapsed within weeks of the outbreak of World War I. The Albanians rebelled against the German prince and declared the independence of their country from the jurisdiction of the great powers and established throughout the country a Muslim regime under the leadership of a local warrior, Haji Qamil.

1919-1939: World War I and its Effects

Albania achieved a degree of statehood after World War I, in part because of the diplomatic intercession of the United States. The country suffered from a debilitating lack of economic and social development, however, and its first years of independence were fraught with political instability. Unable to find strength without a foreign protector, Albania became the object of tensions between Italy and the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (the later Yugoslavia), which both sought to dominate the country.

From 1925, the country was ruled by President Ahmet Zogu, who in 1928 he declared himself King Zog I, the first Albanian monarch since Gjergj Kastriot Skenderbej. Styling himself a European king, he married Hungarian noblewoman Geraldine Apponyi de Nagy-Apponyi. Two days after the birth of his son and heir, on April 7, 1939, Italian troops entered Albania. Mussolini declared Albania a protectorate under Italy's King Victor Emmanuel III. Zog and his family were forced into exile.

1939-1945: World War II

Albania was one of the first countries occupied by the Axis in World War II. Mussolini invaded and occupied Albania, while the world was focused on the German actions in Czechoslovakia and Poland. On April 12, 1939, the Albanian parliament voted to unite the country with Italy. Victor Emmanuel III took the Albanian crown, and the Italians set up a fascist government under Shefqet Verlaci and soon absorbed Albania's military and diplomatic service into Italy's.

In October 1940, Mussolini used Albanian base to launch an attack on Greece. Albanian nationalist groups, including Communist partisans, fought against the Italians and subsequently the Germans. When the Germans withdrew in November 1944, the Communists seized control of Albania. The partially French-educated Enver Hoxha became the leader of the country by virtue of his position as secretary general of the Party of Labour (the Albanian Communist Party).

1945-1989: Communist Rule

Enver Hoxha and Mehmet Shehu emerged as the dominant figures in Albania after five years of political turmoil following the end of World War II. They began to concentrate primarily on securing and maintaining their power base, and secondarily on preserving Albania's independence and reshaping the country according to the precepts of Stalinism. Throughout all rule, Hoxha engineered an elaborate cult of personality that elevated him to the status of infallible leader. When he died in 1985, grandiose nationwide mourning ceremonies were organised.

Soon after Hoxha's death, the government began to seek closer ties with the West in order to improve economic conditions, and initial democratic reforms were introduced including multi-party elections in 1991. Pursuant to a 1991 interim basic law, Albanians ratified a constitution in 1998, establishing a democratic system of government based upon the rule of law and guaranteeing the protection of fundamental human rights.

The Rise of Democracy

In the general elections of June 1996 the Democratic Party won an absolute majority with over 85% of parliamentary seats. In 1997, an epidemic of pyramid schemes sent shockwaves through the entire country's economy, which resulted in widespread riots. Police stations and military bases were looted of millions of Kalashnikovs and other weapons. Anarchy prevailed, and militia and even less-organised armed citizens controlled many cities. Even American military advisors left the country for their own safety. The government of Aleksander Meksi resigned and a government of national unity was built. The Socialist Party won the early elections of 1997 and Berisha resigned the Presidency.

However, stability was far from being restored in the years after the 1997 riots. The power feuds raging inside the Socialist Party led to a series of short-lived Socialist governments. The country was flooded with refugees from neighbouring Kosovo in 1998 and 1999 during the Kosovo War. In June 2002, a compromise candidate, Alfred Moisiu, a former general, was elected to succeed President Rexhep Meidani. Parliamentary elections in July 2005 brought Sali Berisha, as leader of the Democratic Party, back to power, mostly owing to Socialist infighting and a series of corruption scandals plaguing the government of Fatos Nano.

The Euro-Atlantic integration of Albania has been the ultimate goal of the post-communist governments. Albania's EU membership bid, along with the rest of the Western Balkans, has been set as a priority by the European Commission. On 2006, Albania signed a Stabilization and Association Agreement with the EU, thus completing the first major step towards joining the bloc. Albania, along with Croatia and Macedonia, is also expected to receive an invitation to join NATO in 2008.

The workforce of Albania has continued to migrate to Greece, Italy, Germany and other parts of Europe, and North America. However, the migration flux is slowly decreasing, as more and more opportunities are emerging in Albania itself as its economy steadily develops.