Albania, the Republic of Albania (Alb. Shqipëria, Republika e Shqipërisë) is a country in south-eastern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. To the west it borders the Adriatic Sea and to the south-west the Ionian Sea. Its capital, Tirana, is also the country's financial centre.
It is separated from Italy by the Strait of Otranto, about 72 km wide. Its land borders total 720 km and its coastline 362 km. It borders Greece (282 km), Montenegro (173 km), North Macedonia (151 km) and Serbia/Kosovo (114 km).
Albania is a member of the UN, NATO, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the WTO, and a founding member of the Union for the Mediterranean. It has held EU candidate status since 2014. The country has a parliamentary system, and free-market reforms have opened it to foreign investment, especially in energy and transport infrastructure.
The history of Albania
Albania's history begins with the arrival of the Illyrians and the conquest of these lands by the Roman Republic, when the territory formed part of the province of Macedonia. Over the centuries Albania was conquered by many powers. After the fall of the Roman Empire most of present-day Albania came under the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire. In the late Middle Ages the Ottoman Turks took control. Albania became independent in the 20th century, though its early statehood was fragile: the Principality of Albania lasted just 11 years and the first Republic only 3. After the Second World War it briefly joined the Eastern Bloc, and after the post-communist transition it became a parliamentary republic. The present state, the Republic of Albania, has existed since 1991.
Prehistory
The oldest traces of human presence, dating to the Middle Palaeolithic, were discovered near the village of Xarrë in southern Albania, with tools pointing to 30,000–10,000 BC. Around 6000–2600 BC, during the Neolithic, a warming climate and greater stability brought settlers of Anatolian origin who introduced early farming and pottery. Around 5000–4000 BC the Cakran culture came to dominate, leaving behind vessels decorated with geometric shapes and figures. The late Neolithic saw the rise of the Maliq–Kamnik culture, which ushered in the Copper Age on Albanian soil between 2600 and 2100 BC.
Antiquity
In antiquity the territory of present-day Albania, inhabited by the Illyrians, came under Roman rule (from the 2nd century BC) and then Byzantine rule (from the 4th century AD). Around 397 AD the Goths under Alaric passed through the old region of Epirus. Slavs arrived around the turn of the 6th and 7th centuries; in the following centuries Greek-rite Christianity gained the upper hand.
The Middle Ages
From the 9th century the Albanian lands were contested by a weakening Byzantine Empire, Bulgaria, Venice, the Sicilian Angevins and Serbia. Around the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries the first Albanian principality, Arbëria, existed with its capital at Krujë. In the 1430s the Ottomans conquered almost all of Albania. In 1443 an anti-Ottoman uprising broke out under Skanderbeg, who managed to create an independent state; around 1479 the Ottomans retook Albania (except for mountain enclaves in the north and south). Divided into six sanjaks, Albania became part of the Eyalet of Rumelia. Most Albanian feudal lords converted to Islam, keeping their estates and privileges, and Islam became the dominant religion.
The 18th–19th centuries
At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries Ali Pasha of Tepelena united southern Albania and parts of Greece and Macedonia under his rule. The 19th century saw the growth of a liberation movement and armed struggle. In 1878 the League of Prizren was founded, seeking autonomy for the country.
The 20th century
After the First Balkan War broke out in October 1912, the anti-Ottoman coalition occupied the lands of present-day Albania. Facing the threat of partition, a congress of representatives at Vlorë proclaimed Albanian independence on 28 November 1912. In December 1912 the Conference of Ambassadors in London decided to create an autonomous Principality of Albania under nominal Ottoman suzerainty and the protection of the European powers. Shkodër (Scutari) was to be the capital, but it was annexed by Montenegro in April 1913, prompting Austro-Hungarian intervention and its capture of Scutari (14 May 1913), which was then handed over to the Royal Navy.
In July 1913 the Conference of Ambassadors granted Albania independence under the supervision of the great powers, but did not fix its borders. Kosovo, awarded to Serbia, was left outside Albania. The powers granted Albania the area the Greeks called Northern Epirus, home to a large Greek community, while southern Epirus, also inhabited by Albanians, fell within Greece. In March 1914 the German prince Wilhelm zu Wied became ruler of Albania, but had to abdicate in September 1914.
During the First World War the country was occupied by the forces of Italy, Greece, France, Serbia, Montenegro and Austria-Hungary. Post-war plans to divide Albania between Italy, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and Greece failed. The 1920 Conference of Ambassadors in London confirmed Albanian independence. Its statehood took shape amid tribal and religious disputes, power struggles between great landowners, and peasant demands for land reform. A liberal government formed in June 1924, and its prime minister Fan Stilian Noli announced democratic reforms. In December 1924 Noli was overthrown by Ahmet Zogu, who imposed dictatorial rule (as president from 1925, and as King Zog I from 1928). From 1926 Zogu tied Albania militarily, politically and economically to Italy.
The occupation
When Albania tried to assert its independence and turned to Britain for help, Italy invaded on 7 April 1939 and deposed King Zog I. A collaborationist government under Prime Minister Mustafa Merlika operated at first. After Italy's capitulation on 10 September 1943, German forces occupied the country. During the Second World War a strong resistance movement, especially a communist one, was active.
On 16 October 1942 the National Liberation Front was formed, uniting anti-fascist forces regardless of ideology or class. Its military wing, the National Liberation Army, became the country's strongest political and military force by mid-1944, controlling 75% of Albania. Its commander was the pre-war officer Spiro Moisiu, and the undisputed leader of the resistance was Enver Hoxha. The army fielded its own battalions and brigades and received support from the British Secret Intelligence Service.
The fighting cost 28,000 lives; 12,600 were wounded, 10,000 political prisoners were executed in Italy and Germany, 35,000 people were sent to forced-labour camps, and all power installations, ports and mines were destroyed. The Germans left Albania in November 1944. The new government embraced Marxism-Leninism. The USSR played a negligible role in the country's liberation, so Albania became the only state whose post-war independence was not threatened by any great power.
The Soviet–Albanian split
After breaking with Yugoslavia, Albania allied with the USSR. Between 1948 and 1960 it received 200 million dollars of Soviet aid for technical and infrastructure development. Relations remained close until Stalin's death on 5 March 1953. Under Nikita Khrushchev and his de-Stalinisation, aid to Albania was cut back. Hoxha took a hard line against Soviet views, which he regarded as revisionism.
After 1960 relations with the USSR and other Warsaw Pact states (except Romania) deteriorated sharply. In 1967 the authorities banned all religious practice. Albania stopped taking part in Comecon in 1962, left the Warsaw Pact in 1968 and forged broad cooperation with the People's Republic of China. Fearing invasion, the government built several hundred thousand bunkers. In 1976 a new constitution was adopted along with the name People's Socialist Republic of Albania. Cooperation with China broke down in 1978. After Hoxha's death in 1985, Ramiz Alia took power and gradually began to liberalise the system.
Modern Albania
The Party of Labour won the parliamentary elections of March 1991. The new government launched a series of free-market and liberalising reforms. On 29 April 1991 the Albanian parliament renamed the country the Republic of Albania, proclaimed Alia its first president, and amended the constitution to introduce the separation of powers and broaden civil liberties.
Democratic parliamentary elections were held on 22 March 1992 and won by the democratic opposition. On 8 April the new parliament elected Sali Berisha president. In 1997 pyramid-scheme investment funds collapsed, triggering social unrest and a period of anarchy in which nearly 2,000 people died. A new constitution adopted on 21 October 1998 limited the president's powers and strengthened the role of the prime minister.
Albania's international standing grew when it served as one of NATO's most important operating bases during the 1999 Kosovo operation. On 1 April 2009 Albania, together with Croatia, joined NATO. The parliamentary elections of 23 June 2013 reshaped the political scene — the governing Democratic Party was defeated by the Socialist Party led by Edi Rama.
Historical outline based on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA licence).