Albania

History
Antiquity
THE ILLYRIANS
The origins of the Albanian people are not denitely known, but data drawn from history and from archaeological and
anthropological studies have led some researchers to consider the Albanians to be the direct descendants of the ancient
Illyrians. The linguistic evidence in that regard is most unclear; the Albanian language is certainly a distinct branch of the IndoEuropean family, but, largely because of a dearth of information on the language of the ancient Illyrians, it is dicult to
convincingly demonstrate a connection between the two languages. (Some scholars, moreover, dispute such theses, arguing that
Illyrians were not autochthonous to Albania and that Albanian derives from a dialect of the now-extinct Thracian language, but
again the data are sparse and thus the arguments are dicult to judge.)
Illyrian culture is believed to have evolved from the Stone Age and to have manifested itself in the territory of Albania toward the
beginning of the Bronze Age, about 2000 BCE). The Illyrians were not a uniform body of people but a conglomeration of many
tribes that inhabited the western part of the Balkans, from what is now Slovenia in the northwest to (and including) the region of
Epirus, which extends about halfway down the mainland of modern Greece. In general, Illyrians in the highlands of Albania were
more isolated than those in the lowlands, and their culture evolved more slowlya distinction that persisted throughout
Albanias history.
Authors of antiquity relate that the Illyrians were a sociable and hospitable people, renowned for their daring and bravery at war.
Illyrian women were fairly equal in status to the men, even to the point of becoming heads of tribal federations. In matters of
religion, Illyrians were pagans who believed in an afterlife and buried their dead along with arms and various articles intended
for personal use.
The land of Illyria was rich in mineralsiron, copper, gold, silverand Illyrians became skillful in the mining and processing of
metals. They were highly skilled boatbuilders and sailors as well; indeed, their light swift galleys known as liburnae were of such
superior design that the Romans incorporated them into their own eet as a type of warship called the liburnian.

THE GREEKS
From the 8th to the 6th century BCE, the Greeks founded a string of colonies on Illyrian soil, two of the most prominent of which
were Epidamnus (modern Durrs) and Apollonia (near modern Vlor). The presence of Greek colonies on their soil brought the
Illyrians into contact with a more advanced civilization, which helped them to develop their own culture while they in turn
inuenced the economic and political life of the colonies. In the 3rd century BCE the colonies began to decline and eventually
perished.
Roughly parallel with the rise of Greek colonies, Illyrian tribes began to evolve politically from relatively small and simple entities
into larger and more complex ones. At rst they formed temporary alliances with one another for defensive or oensive
purposes, then federations and, still later, kingdoms. The most important of these kingdoms, which ourished from the 5th to
the 2nd century BCE, were those of the Enkalayes, the Taulantes, the Epirotes, and the Ardianes.
After warring for the better part of the 4th century BCE against the expansionist Macedonian state of Philip II and Alexander the
Great, the Illyrians faced a greater threat from the growing power of the Romans. Seeing Illyrian territory as a bridgehead for
conquests east of the Adriatic, Rome in 229 BCE attacked and defeated the Illyrians, led by Queen Teuta, and by 168 BCE had
established eective control over Illyria.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

The Romans ruled Illyriawhich now became the province of Illyricumfor about six centuries. Under Roman rule Illyrian
society underwent great change, especially in its outward, material aspect. Art and culture ourished, particularly in Apollonia,
whose school of philosophy became celebrated in antiquity. To a great extent, though, the Illyrians resisted assimilation into
Roman culture. Illyrian culture survived, along with the Illyrian tongue, though many Latin words entered the language and later
became a part of the Albanian language.
Christianity manifested itself in Illyria during Roman rule, about the middle of the 1st century CE. At rst the new religion had to
compete with Middle Eastern religionsamong them that of Mithra, Persian god of lightwhich had entered the land in the
wake of Illyrias growing interaction with eastern regions of the empire. For a long time it also had to compete with gods
worshipped by Illyrian pagans. The steady growth of the Christian community in Dyrrhachium (the Roman name for Epidamnus)
led to the creation there of a bishopric in 58 CE. Later, episcopal seats were established in Apollonia, Buthrotum (modern Butrint),
and Scodra (modern Shkodr).
By the time the empire began to decline, the Illyrians, proting from a long tradition of martial habits and skills, had acquired

By the time the empire began to decline, the Illyrians, proting from a long tradition of martial habits and skills, had acquired
great inuence in the Roman military hierarchy. Indeed, several of them went on from there to become emperors. From the mid3rd to the mid-4th century CE, the reins of the empire were almost continuously in the hands of emperors of Illyrian origin: Gaius
Decius, Claudius Gothicus, Aurelian, Probus, Diocletian, and Constantine the Great.

The Byzantine Empire

FROM ILLYRIA TO ALBANIA
When the Roman Empire divided into East and West in 395, the territories of modern Albania became part of the Byzantine
Empire. As in the Roman Empire, some Illyrians rose to positions of eminence in the new empire. Three of the emperors who
shaped the early history of Byzantium (reigning from 491 to 565) were of Illyrian origin: Anastasius I, Justin I, andthe most
celebrated of Byzantine emperorsJustinian I.
In the rst decades under Byzantine rule (until 461), Illyria suered the devastation of raids by Visigoths, Huns, and Ostrogoths.
Not long after these barbarian invaders swept through the Balkans, the Slavs appeared. Between the 6th and 8th centuries they
settled in Illyrian territories and proceeded to assimilate Illyrian tribes in much of what is now Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, and Serbia. The tribes of southern Illyria, howeverincluding modern Albaniaaverted assimilation and preserved
their native tongue.
In the course of several centuries, under the impact of Roman, Byzantine, and Slavic cultures, the tribes of southern Illyria
underwent a transformation, and a transition occurred from the old Illyrian population to a new Albanian one. As a
consequence, from the 8th to the 11th century, the name Illyria gradually gave way to the name, rst mentioned in the 2nd
century CE by the geographer Ptolemy of Alexandria, of the Albanoi tribe, which inhabited what is now central Albania. From a
single tribe the name spread to include the rest of the country as Arbri and, nally, Albania. The genesis of Albanian nationality
apparently occurred at this time as the Albanian people became aware that they shared a common territory, name, language,
and cultural heritage. (The Albanians own name for their land, Shqipria, is believed to have supplanted the name Albania
during the 16th and 17th centuries. While Shqipria is popularly believed to be connected to the word for eagle, shqipe, it is
better taken to be derived from the language name shqip, which itself is most likely related to an adverb meaning [speaking]
clearly, making shqip [the] clearly [spoken language].)
Long before that event, Christianity had become the established religion in Albania, supplanting pagan polytheism and eclipsing
for the most part the humanistic world outlook and institutions inherited from the Greek and Roman civilizations. But, though
the country was in the fold of Byzantium, Albanian Christians remained under the jurisdiction of the Roman pope until 732. In
that year the iconoclast Byzantine emperor Leo III, angered by Albanian archbishops because they had supported Rome in the
Iconoclastic Controversy, detached the Albanian church from the Roman pope and placed it under the patriarch of
Constantinople. When the Christian church split in 1054 between the East and Rome, southern Albania retained its tie to
Constantinople while northern Albania reverted to the jurisdiction of Rome. This split in the Albanian church marked the rst
signicant religious fragmentation of the country.

MEDIEVAL CULTURE
In the latter part of the Middle Ages, Albanian urban society reached a high point of development. Foreign commerce ourished
to such an extent that leading Albanian merchants had their own agencies in Venice, Ragusa (modern Dubrovnik, Croatia), and
Thessalonica (now Thessalonki, Greece). The prosperity of the cities stimulated the development of education and the arts.
Albanian, however, was not the language used in schools, churches, and ocial government transactions. Instead, Greek and
Latin, which had the powerful support of the state and the church, were the ocial languages of culture and literature.
The new administrative system of the themes, or military provinces created by the Byzantine Empire, contributed to the eventual
rise of feudalism in Albania, as peasant soldiers who served military lords became serfs on their landed estates. Among the
leading families of the Albanian feudal nobility were the Thopias, Balshas, Shpatas, Muzakas, Aranitis, Dukagjins, and Kastriotis.
The rst three of these rose to become rulers of principalities that were practically independent of Byzantium.

THE DECLINE OF BYZANTIUM

Beginning in the 9th century, partly because of the weakness of the Byzantine Empire, Albania came under the domination, in
whole or in part, of a succession of foreign powers: Bulgarians, Norman Crusaders, the Angevins of southern Italy, Serbs, and
Venetians. The nal occupation of the country in 1347 by the Serbs, led by Stefan Duan, caused massive migrations of Albanians
abroad, especially to Greece and the Aegean islands. By the mid-14th century, Byzantine rule had come to an end in Albania,
after nearly 1,000 years.
A few decades later the country was confronted with a new threat, that of the Turks, who at this juncture were expanding their
power in the Balkans. The Ottoman Turks invaded Albania in 1388 and completed the occupation of the country about four
decades later (1430). But after 1443 an Albanian of military geniusGjergj Kastrioti (140568), known as Skanderbegrallied the
Albanian princes and succeeded in driving the occupiers out. For the next 25 years, operating out of his stronghold in the
mountain town of Kruj, Skanderbeg frustrated every attempt by the Turks to regain Albania, which they envisioned as a
springboard for the invasion of Italy and western Europe. His unequal ght against the mightiest power of the time won the
esteem of Europe as well as some support in the form of money and military aid from Naples, the papacy, Venice, and Ragusa.

esteem of Europe as well as some support in the form of money and military aid from Naples, the papacy, Venice, and Ragusa.
After he died, Albanian resistance gradually collapsed, enabling the Turks to reoccupy the country by 1506.
Skanderbegs long struggle to keep Albania free became highly signicant to the Albanian people, as it strengthened their
solidarity, made them more conscious of their national identity, and served later as a great source of inspiration in their struggle
for national unity, freedom, and independence.

The Ottoman Empire

THE NATURE OF TURKISH RULE
The Turks established their dominion over Albania just as the Renaissance began to unfold in Europe. Cut o from contact and
exchanges with western Europe, Albania had no chance to participate in or benet from the humanistic achievements of that
era. Conquest also caused great suering and vast destruction of the countrys economy, commerce, art, and culture. Moreover,
to escape persecution by their conquerors, about one-fourth of the countrys population ed abroad to southern Italy, Sicily, and
the Dalmatian coast.
Although the Turks ruled Albania for more than four centuries, they were unable to extend their authority throughout the
country. In the highland regions, Turkish authorities exercised only a formal sovereignty, as the highlanders refused to pay taxes,
serve in the army, or surrender their armsalthough they did pay an annual tribute to Constantinople.
Time and again Albanians rose in rebellion against Ottoman occupation. In order to check the ravages of Albanian resistance
which was partly motivated by religious feelings, namely defense of the Christian faithas well as to bring Albania spiritually
closer to the empire, the Ottomans initiated a systematic drive toward the end of the 16th century to Islamize the population.
That drive continued through the following century, by the end of which two-thirds of the people had converted to Islam. A
major reason Albanians became Muslims was to escape Turkish violence and exploitation, an instance of which was a crushing
tax that Christians would have to pay if they refused to convert.
Islamization aggravated the religious fragmentation of Albanian society, which had rst appeared in the Middle Ages and which
was later used by Constantinople and Albanias neighbours in attempts to divide and denationalize the Albanian people. Hence,
leaders of the Albanian national movement in the 19th century used the rallying cry The religion of Albanians is Albanianism in
order to overcome religious divisions and foster national unity.
The basis of Ottoman rule in Albania was a feudal military system of landed estates, called timars, which were awarded to
military lords for loyalty and service to the empire. As Ottoman power began to decline in the 18th century, the central authority
of the empire in Albania gave way to the local authority of autonomy-minded lords. The most successful of those lords were
three generations of pashas of the Bushati family, who dominated most of northern Albania from 1757 to 1831, and Ali Paa
Tepelen of Janina (now Ionnina, Greece), a brigand-turned-despot who ruled over southern Albania and northern Greece from
1788 to 1822. Those pashas created separate states within the Ottoman state until they were overthrown by the sultan.
After the fall of the pashas, in 1831 Turkey ocially abolished the timar system. In the wake of its collapse, economic and social
power passed from the feudal lords to private landowning beys and, in the northern highlands, to tribal chieftains called
bajraktars, who presided over given territories with rigid patriarchal societies that were often torn by blood feuds. Peasants who
were formerly serfs now worked on the estates of the beys as tenant farmers.
Ottoman rule in Albania remained backward and oppressive to the end. In those circumstances, many Albanians went abroad in
search of careers and advancement within the empire, and an unusually large number of them (in proportion to Albanias
population) rose to positions of prominence as government and military leaders. More than two dozen grand viziers (similar to
prime ministers) of Turkey were of Albanian origin.

ALBANIAN NATIONALISM
By the mid-19th century Turkey was in the throes of the Eastern Question, as the peoples of the Balkans, including Albanians,
sought to realize their national aspirations. To defend and promote their national interests, Albanians met in Prizren, a town in
Kosovo, in 1878 and founded the Albanian League. The league had two main goals, one political and the other cultural. First, it
strove (unsuccessfully) to unify all Albanian territoriesat the time divided among the four vilayets, or provinces, of Kosovo,
Shkodr, Monastir, and Janinainto one autonomous state within the framework of the Ottoman Empire. Second, it
spearheaded a movement to develop Albanian language, literature, education, and culture. In 1908, in line with the second
program, Albanian leaders met in the town of Monastir (now Bitola, Macedonia) and adopted a national alphabet. Based mostly
on the Latin script, this supplanted several other alphabets, including Arabic and Greek, that were in use until then.
The Albanian League was suppressed by the Turks in 1881, in part because they were alarmed by its strong nationalistic
orientation. By then, however, the league had become a powerful symbol of Albanias national awakening, and its ideas and
objectives fueled the drive that culminated later in national independence.
When the Young Turks, who seized power in Istanbul in 1908, ignored their commitments to Albanians to institute democratic
reforms and to grant autonomy, Albanians embarked on an armed struggle, which at the end of three years (191012) forced the
Turks to agree, in eect, to grant their demands. Alarmed at the prospect of Albanian autonomy, Albanias Balkan neighbours,

Turks to agree, in eect, to grant their demands. Alarmed at the prospect of Albanian autonomy, Albanias Balkan neighbours,
who had already made plans to partition the region, declared war on Turkey in October 1912, and Greek, Serbian, and
Montenegrin armies advanced into Albanian territories. To prevent the annihilation of the country, Albanian national delegates
met at a congress in Vlor. They were led by Ismail Qemal, an Albanian who had held several high positions in the Ottoman
government. On November 28, 1912, the congress issued the Vlor proclamation, which declared Albanias independence.

Independent Albania
CREATING THE NEW STATE
Shortly after the defeat of Turkey by the Balkan allies, a conference of ambassadors of the great powers (Britain, Germany,
Russia, Austria-Hungary, France, and Italy) convened in London in December 1912 to settle the outstanding issues raised by the
conict. With support given to the Albanians by Austria-Hungary and Italy, the conference agreed to create an independent state
of Albania. But, in drawing the borders of the new state, under strong pressure from Albanias neighbours, the great powers
largely ignored demographic realities and ceded the vast region of Kosovo to Serbia, while in the south Greece was given the
greater part of amria, a part of the old region of Epirus centred on the Thamis River. Many observers doubted whether the
new state would be viable with about one-half of Albanian lands and population left outside its borders, especially since those
lands were the most productive in food grains and livestock. On the other hand, a small community of about 35,000 ethnic
Greeks was included within Albanias borders. (However, Greece, which counted all Albanians of the Orthodox faith20 percent
of the populationas Greeks, claimed that the number of ethnic Greeks was considerably larger.) Thereafter, Kosovo and the
Greek minority remained troublesome issues in Albanian-Greek and Albanian-Yugoslav relations.
The great powers also appointed a German prince, Wilhelm zu Wied, as ruler of Albania. Wilhelm arrived in Albania in March
1914, but his unfamiliarity with Albania and its problems, compounded by complications arising from the outbreak of World War
I, led him to depart from Albania six months later. The war plunged the country into a new crisis, as the armies of AustriaHungary, France, Italy, Greece, Montenegro, and Serbia invaded and occupied it. Left without any political leadership or
authority, the country was in chaos, and its very fate hung in the balance. At the Paris Peace Conference after the war, the
extinction of Albania was averted largely through the eorts of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, who vetoed a plan by Britain,
France, and Italy to partition Albania among its neighbours.
A national congress, held in Lushnje in January 1920, laid the foundations of a new government. In December of that year
Albania, this time with the help of Britain, gained admission to the League of Nations, thereby winning for the rst time
international recognition as a sovereign nation and state.

BISHOP NOLI AND KING ZOG

At the start of the 1920s, Albanian society was divided by two apparently irreconcilable forces. One, made up mainly of deeply
conservative landowning beys and tribal bajraktars who were tied to the Ottoman and feudal past, was led by Ahmed Bey Zogu,
a chieftain from the Mat region of north-central Albania. The other, made up of liberal intellectuals, democratic politicians, and
progressive merchants who looked to the West and wanted to modernize and Westernize Albania, was led by Fan S. Noli, an
American-educated bishop of the Orthodox church. In the event, the East-West polarization of Albanian society was of such
magnitude and complexity that neither leader could master and overcome it.
In the unusually open and free political, social, and cultural climate that prevailed in Albania between 1920 and 1924, the liberal
forces gathered strength, and by mid-1924 a popular revolt forced Zogu to ee to Yugoslavia. Installed as prime minister of the
new government in June 1924, Noli set out to build a Western-style democracy in Albania, and toward that end he announced a
radical program of land reform and modernization. But his vacillation in carrying out the program, coupled with a depleted state
treasury and a failure to obtain international recognition for his revolutionary, left-of-centre government, quickly alienated most
of Nolis supporters, and six months later he was overthrown by an armed assault led by Zogu and aided by Yugoslavia.
Zogu began his 14-year reign in Albaniarst as president (192528), then as King Zog I (192839)in a country rife with political
and social instability. Greatly in need of foreign aid and credit in order to stabilize the country, Zog signed a number of accords
with Italy. These provided transitory nancial relief to Albania, but they eected no basic change in its economy, especially under
the conditions of the worldwide Great Depression of the 1930s.
The social base of Zogs power was a coalition of southern beys and northern bajraktars. With the support of this coalitionplus
a vast Ottoman-style bureaucracy, an ecient police force, and Italian moneyKing Zog brought a large measure of stability to
Albania. He extended the authority of the government to the highlands, reduced the brigandage that had formerly plagued the
country, laid the foundations of a modern educational system, and took a few steps to Westernize Albanian social life.
On balance, however, his achievements were outweighed by his failures. Although formally a constitutional monarch, in reality
Zog was a dictator, and Albania under him experienced the fragile stability of a dictatorship. Zog failed to resolve Albanias
fundamental problem, that of land reform, leaving the peasantry as impoverished as before. In order to stave o famine, the
government had to import food grains annually, but, even so, thousands of people migrated abroad in search of a better life.
Moreover, Zog denied democratic freedoms to Albanians and created conditions that spawned periodic revolts against his
regime, alienated most of the educated class, fomented labour unrest, and led to the formation of the rst communist groups in
the country. Italy, on the other hand, viewed Albania primarily as a bridgehead for military expansion into the Balkans. On April
7, 1939, Italy invaded and shortly after occupied the country. King Zog ed to Greece.

WORLD WAR II
In October 1940 Italian forces used Albania as a military base to invade Greece, but they were quickly thrown back into Albania.
After Nazi Germany defeated Greece and Yugoslavia in 1941, the regions of Kosovo and amria were joined to Albania, thus
creating an ethnically united Albanian state. The new state lasted until November 1944, when the Germanswho had replaced
the Italian occupation forces following Italys surrender in 1943withdrew from Albania. Kosovo was then reincorporated into
the Serbian portion of Yugoslavia, and amria into Greece.
Meanwhile, the various communist groups that had germinated in Zogs Albania merged in November 1941 to form the Albanian
Communist Party and began to ght the occupiers as a unied resistance force. After a successful struggle against the fascists
and two other resistance groups that contended with them for powerthe National Front (Balli Kombtar) and the pro-Zog
Legality Party (Legaliteti)the communists seized control of the country on November 29, 1944. Enver Hoxha, a college
instructor who had led the resistance struggle of communist forces, became the leader of Albania by virtue of his post as
secretary-general of the party. Albania, which before the war had been under the personal dictatorship of King Zog, now fell
under the collective dictatorship of the Albanian Communist Party. In 1946 the country ocially became the Peoples Republic of
Albania and in 1976 the Peoples Socialist Republic of Albania.

Socialist Albania
THE STALINIST STATE
The new rulers inherited an Albania plagued by a host of ills: pervasive poverty, overwhelming illiteracy, gjakmarrje (blood
feuds), epidemics of disease, and gross subjugation of women. In an attempt to eradicate these ills, the communists drafted a
radical modernization program intended to bring social and economic liberation to Albania, thus completing the political
liberation won in 1912. The governments rst major act to build socialism was swift, uncompromising agrarian reform, which
broke up the large landed estates of the southern beys and distributed the parcels to landless and other peasants. This
destroyed the powerful class of the beys. The government also moved to nationalize industry, banks, and all commercial and
foreign properties. Shortly after the agrarian reform, the Albanian government started to collectivize agriculture, completing the
job in 1967. As a result, peasants lost title to their land. In addition, the Hoxha leadership extended the new socialist order to the
more rugged and isolated northern highlands, in turn bringing down the age-old institution of the blood feud and the patriarchal
structure of the family and clans and thus destroying the semifeudal class of bajraktars. The traditional role of womennamely,
connement to the home and farmchanged radically as they gained legal equality with men and became active participants in
all areas of society.
In order to obtain the economic aid needed for modernization, as well as the political and military support to enhance its
security, Albania turned to the communist world: Yugoslavia (194448), the Soviet Union (194861), and China (196178).
Economically, Albania beneted greatly from these alliances: with hundreds of millions of dollars in aid and credits and with the
assistance of a large number of technicians and specialists sent by its allies, Albania was able to build the foundations of a
modern industry and to introduce mechanization into agriculture. As a result, for the rst time in modern history, the Albanian
populace began to emerge from age-old backwardness and, for a while, enjoyed a higher standard of living.
Politically, Hoxha was disillusioned with his communist allies and patrons and broke with each one, charging that they had
abandoned Marxism-Leninism and the cause of the proletariat for the sake of rapprochement with the capitalist West. Alienated
from both East and West, Albania adopted a go-it-alone policy and became notorious as an isolated bastion of Stalinism.
Hoxhas program for modernization aimed at transforming Albania from a backward agrarian country into a modern industrial
society, and, indeed, within four decades Albania had made respectablein some cases historicstrides in the development of
industry, agriculture, education, the arts, and culture. A notable achievement was the drainage of coastal swamplands
previously breeding grounds for malarial mosquitoesand the reclamation of land for agricultural and industrial uses. Also
symbolic of the change was a historic language reform that fused elements of the Gheg (Geg) and Tosk dialects into a unied
literary language.
Political oppression, however, oset gains made on the material and cultural planes. Contrary to provisions in the constitution,
during Hoxhas reign Albania was in eect ruled by the Directorate of State Security, known as the Sigurimi. To eliminate dissent,
the government periodically resorted to purges, in which opponents were subjected to public criticism, dismissed from their
jobs, imprisoned in forced-labour camps, or executed. Travel abroad was forbidden to all but those on ocial business. In 1967
the religious establishment, which party leaders and other atheistic Albanians viewed as a backward medieval institution that
hampered national unity and progress, was ocially banned, and all Christian and Muslim houses of worship were closed.

COLLAPSE OF COMMUNISM
After Hoxhas death in 1985, his handpicked successor, Ramiz Alia, sought to preserve the communist system while introducing
gradual reforms in order to revive the economy, which had been declining steadily since the cessation of aid from former
communist allies. To this end he legalized some investment in Albania by foreign rms and expanded diplomatic relations with
the West. But, with the fall of communism in eastern Europe in 1989, various segments of Albanian society became politically
active and began to agitate against the government. The most alienated groups were the intellectuals and the working class
traditionally the vanguard of a communist movement or organizationas well as Albanias youth, which had been frustrated by

traditionally the vanguard of a communist movement or organizationas well as Albanias youth, which had been frustrated by
years of connement and restrictions. In response to these pressures, Alia granted Albanian citizens the right to travel abroad,
curtailed the powers of the Sigurimi, restored religious freedom, and adopted some free-market measures for the economy. In
December 1990 Alia endorsed the creation of independent political parties, thus signaling an end to the communists ocial
monopoly of power.
With each concession to the opposition, the states absolute control over Albanian society weakened. Continuing economic,
social, and political instability led to the fall of several governments, and in March 1992 a decisive electoral victory was won by
the anticommunist opposition, led by the Democratic Party. Alia resigned as president and was succeeded by Sali Berisha, the
rst democratic leader of Albania since Bishop Noli.

Democratic Albania
Albanias progress toward democratic reform enabled it to gain membership in the Conference on Security and Co-operation in
Europe (now the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe), formally bringing to an end its isolation. Eorts to
establish a free-market economy caused severe dislocations, but they also opened the road for Albania to obtain large amounts
of aid from developed countries. Albania thus began integrating its politics and institutions with the West, which Albanians have
historically viewed as their cultural and geographic home.
In 1997 the economy collapsed when many Albanians lost their savings in various pyramid investment schemes. United Nations
peacekeeping troops were brought in to quell the resulting civil disorder, and the Albanian Socialist Party won by a landslide in
legislative elections later that year (and maintained power in elections in 2001 at the head of the Alliance for the State coalition).
In 1999 some 450,000 ethnic Albanians sought refuge in Albania from the war in the Kosovo region of Serbia. Ethnic turmoil also
strained Albanias relations with Macedonia in 2001, when that countrys large Albanian minority staged an armed rebellion.
Tensions had cooled by 2003, and the two countries, along with Croatia, agreed to join together to ght organized crime.
Power shifted back to the Democratic Party following the 2005 legislative elections, and former president Berisha was named
prime minister. He worked to implement economic and social changes in order to gain membership in the European Union (EU)
and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), including taking measures to lower Albanias high rates of crime and
deterring corruption and drug tracking. In 2008 Albania was formally invited to join NATO, and on April 1, 2009, it became an
ocial member of the alliance. Berisha remained prime minister following legislative elections that June, when the Democrats
defeated the Socialists by a slim margin. The ocial results came almost one month after the polls had closed, because the
Socialists had demanded a recount. Some international observers also stated that electoral irregularities had occurred. The
Socialists responded by boycotting the parliament and organizing street protests against the Berisha government. In January
2011 a demonstration outside the prime ministers oce turned violent, and four protesters were shot and killed by guards. The
ongoing tension between the government and the opposition undermined Albanias attempts to obtain candidate status for
succession to the EU. While Albanias political class struggled to restore voter condence and establish transparency in the
countrys election procedures, a sluggish economy plagued Albania. Trading partners such as Italy and Greece were at the centre
of the euro areas debt crisis, and exports and foreign remittances suered accordingly.
The campaign leading up to the June 2013 general election was largely peaceful and orderly, but it was marred by a shooting on
election day that left a Democratic candidate wounded and a Socialist supporter dead. The results of that election signaled a
dramatic change in the Albanian political order. The Socialists, led by former Tirana mayor Edi Rama, captured a sizable majority
of seats in parliament, and Berisha, who had been the dominant gure in Albanian politics since the fall of communism,
conceded defeat. In 2014 Albania was granted candidate status for accession to the EU, but the countrys progress toward full
membership depended on the enactment of signicant political and economic reforms. The coalition led by Ramas Socialist
Party triumphed in local elections in June 2015, winning 46 of 61 mayoral races. The event signaled a welcome turning point in
the countrys postcommunist history, as it was largely free of the irregularities and violence that had marked previous elections.
Peter R. Prifti
The Editors of Encyclopdia Britannica

"Albania".Encyclopdia Britannica. Encyclopdia Britannica Online.

Encyclopdia Britannica Inc., 2016. Web. 19 Apr. 2016
<http://www.britannica.com/place/Albania>.