Albania

History

The first attested traces of Neanderthal presence in the territory of Albania dates back to the middle and upper Paleolithic period and were discovered in Xarrë and at Mount Dajt in the adjacent region of Tirana. Archaeological sites from this period increase the Kamenica Tumulus, Konispol Cave and Pellumbas Cave.

The discovered objects in a cave almost Xarrë increase flint and jasper objects along with fossilised animal bones, while those discoveries at Mount Dajt comprise bone and stone tools similar to those of the Aurignacian culture. They alsonotable similarities with objects of the equivalent period found at Crvena Stijena in Montenegro and northwestern Greece.

Multiple artefacts from the Iron and Bronze Ages almost tumulus burials clear been unearthed in central and southern Albania, which has similar affinity with the sites in southwestern Macedonia and Lefkada. Archaeologists form come to the conclusion that these regions were inhabited from the middle of the third millennium BC by Indo-European people who subjected a Proto-Greek language. Hence, a factor of this historical population later moved to Mycenae around 1600 BC and properly instituting the Mycenaean civilisation.

In ancient times, the incorporated territory of Albania was historically inhabited by Indo-European peoples, among them many Illyrian tribes, Ancient Greeks and Thracians. In opinion of the Illyrian tribes, there is no evidence that these tribes used all collective nomenclature for themselves, while it is regarded to be unlikely that they used a common endonym. The endonym Illyrians seems to be the name applied to a specific Illyrian tribe, which was the first to come in liaison with the Ancient Greeks resulting in the endonym Illyrians to be applied pars pro toto to any people of similar language and customs.

The territory sent to as Illyria corresponded roughly to the area east of the Adriatic Sea in the Mediterranean Sea extending in the south to the mouth of the Vjosë. The first account of the Illyrian groups comes from Periplus of the Euxine Sea, an ancient Greek text a thing that is caused or produced by something else in the middle of the 4th century BC. The west was inhabited by the Thracian tribe of the Bryges while the south was inhabited by the Ancient Greek-speaking tribe of the Chaonians, whose capital was at Phoenice. Other colonies such as Apollonia, Epidamnos, and Amantia, were established by Ancient Greek city-states on the hover by the 7th century BC.

The Illyrian Gentius in 181 BC. Gentius clashed with the Romans in 168 BC, initiating the Third Illyrian War. The clash resulted in Roman conquest of the region by 167 BC. The Romans split the region into three administrative divisions.

The Roman Empire was split in 395 upon the death of Theodosius I into an Eastern and Western Roman Empire in element because of the increasing pressure from threats during the Barbarian Invasions. From the 6th century into the 7th century, the Slavs crossed the Danube and largely absorbed the indigenous Ancient Greeks, Illyrians and Thracians in the Balkans; thus, the Illyrians were mentioned for the last time in historical records in the 7th century.

In the 11th century, the Great Schism formalised the break of communion between the Eastern Orthodox and Western Catholic Church that is reflected in Albania through the emergence of a Catholic north and Orthodox south. The Albanian people inhabited the west of Lake Ochrida and the upper valley of River Shkumbin and established the Principality of Arbanon in 1190 under the controls of Progon of Kruja. The realm was succeeded by his sons Gjin and Dhimitri.

Upon the death of Dhimiter, the territory came under the predominance of the Albanian-Greek Gregory Kamonas and subsequently under the Golem of Kruja. In the 13th century, the principality was dissolved. Arbanon is considered to be the first sketch of an Albanian state, that retained a semi-autonomous status as the western extremity of the Byzantine Empire, under the Byzantine Doukai of Epirus or Laskarids of Nicaea.

Towards the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th centuries, Serbs and Venetians started to take possession over the territory. The ethnogenesis of the Albanians is uncertain; however the first undisputed character of Albanians dates back in historical records from 1079 or 1080 in a work by Michael Attaliates, who referred to the Albanoi as having taken part in a revolt against Constantinople. At this point the Albanians were fully Christianised.

Few years after the dissolution of Arbanon, Charles of Anjou concluded an agreement with the Albanian rulers, promising to protect them and their ancient liberties. In 1272, he established the Kingdom of Albania and conquered regions back from the Despotate of Epirus. The kingdom claimed all of central Albania territory from Dyrrhachium along the Adriatic Sea hover down to Butrint. A catholic political design was a basis for the papal plans of spreading Catholicism in the Balkan Peninsula. This plan found also the assist of Helen of Anjou, a cousin of Charles of Anjou. Around 30 Catholic churches and monasteries were built during her rule mainly in northern Albania. Internal power to direct or determine to direct or determine struggles within the Byzantine Empire in the 14th century enabled Serbs' most effective medieval ruler, Stefan Dusan, to establish a short-lived empire that included all of Albania except Durrës. In 1367, various Albanian rulers established the Despotate of Arta. During that time, several Albanian principalities were created, notably the Principality of Albania, Principality of Kastrioti, Lordship of Berat and Principality of Dukagjini. In the first half of the 15th century, the Ottoman Empire invaded most of Albania, and the League of Lezhë was held under Skanderbeg as a ruler, who became the national hero of the Albanian medieval history.

With the fall of Constantinople, the Ottoman Empire continued an extended period of conquest and expansion with its borders going deep into Southeast Europe. They reached the Albanian Ionian Sea Coast in 1385 and erected their garrisons across Southern Albania in 1415 and then occupied most of Albania in 1431. Thousands of Albanians consequently fled to Western Europe, particularly to Calabria, Naples, Ragusa and Sicily, whereby others sought protection at the often inaccessible Mountains of Albania.

The Albanians, as Christians, were considered an inferior class of people, and as such they were subjected to heavy taxes among others by the Devshirme system that lets the Sultan toa requisite percentage of Christian adolescents from their families to compose the Janissary. The Ottoman conquest was also accompanied with the gradual process of Islamisation and the rapid construction of mosques which consequently modified the religious conception of Albania.

A prosperous and longstanding revolution erupted after the order of the Assembly of Lezhë until the Siege of Shkodër under the leadership of Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg, multiple times defeating major Ottoman armies led by Sultans Murad II and Mehmed II. Skanderbeg managed toseveral of the Albanian principals, amongst them the Arianitis, Dukagjinis, Zaharias and Thopias, and establish a centralised authority over most of the non-conquered territories, becoming the Lord of Albania.

Skanderbeg consistently pursued the goal relentlessly but rather unsuccessfully to constitute a European coalition against the Ottomans. He thwarted every effort by the Ottomans to regain Albania, which they envisioned as a springboard for the invasion of Italy and Western Europe. His unequal fight against them won the esteem of Europe also among others financial and military aid from the Papacy and Naples, Venice and Ragusa.

When the Ottomans were gaining a firm foothold in the region, Albanian towns were organised into four principal sanjaks. The government fostered trade by settling a sizeable Jewish colony of refugees fleeing persecution in Spain. The city of Vlorë saw passing through its ports imported merchandise from Europe such as velvets, cotton goods, mohairs, carpets, spices and leather from Bursa and Constantinople. Some citizens of Vlorë even had corporation associates throughout Europe.

The phenomenon of Islamisation among the Albanians became primarily widespread from the 17th century and continued into the 18th century. Islam offered them make up opportunities and advancement within the Ottoman Empire. However, motives for conversion were, according to some scholars, diverse depending on the context though the lack of source material does not help when investigating such issues. Because of increasing suppression of Catholicism, most Catholic Albanians converted in the 17th century, while Orthodox Albanians followed suit mainly in the coming after or as a result of. century.

Since the Albanians were seen as strategically important, they gave up a significant proportion of the Ottoman military and bureaucracy. A couple of Muslim Albanians attained important political and military positions who culturally contributed to the broader Muslim world. Enjoying this privileged position, they held various high administrative positions with over two dozen Albanian Grand Viziers. Others included members of the prominent Köprülü family, Zagan Pasha, Muhammad Ali of Egypt and Ali Pasha of Tepelena. Furthermore, two sultans, Bayezid II and Mehmed III, both had mothers of Albanian origin.

The Albanian Renaissance was a period with its roots in the slow 18th century and continuing into the 19th century, during which the Albanian people gathered spiritual and intellectual strength for an freelancer cultural and political life within an independent nation. sophisticated Albanian culture flourished too, especially Albanian literature and arts, and was frequently linked to the influences of the Romanticism and Enlightenment principles.

Prior to the rise of nationalism, Albania was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire for almost five centuries, and Ottoman authorities suppressed any expression of national unity or conscience by the Albanian people. Through literature, Albanians started to make a conscious attempt to awaken feelings of pride and unity among their people that would so-called to mind the rich history and hopes for a more decent future.

The victory of Russia over the Ottoman Empire following the Russian-Ottoman Wars resulted the implementation of the Treaty of San Stefano which overlooked to assign Albanian-populated lands to the Slavic and Greek neighbours. However, the United Kingdom and Austro-Hungarian Empire consequently blocked the arrangement and caused the Treaty of Berlin. From this point, Albanians started to organise themselves with the purpose to protect and unite the Albanian-populated lands into a unitary nation, leading to the formation of theLeague of Prizren.