History

Recent History

In 2001, the first national census in 12 years found that the population had decreased by 3%, largely because of emigration. Since then, Albania seems to have finally moved forward from the chaos of the transition period and is beginning to catch up to other post-Communist countries. The economy is booming (from a low base, admittedly), the road network is being modernised at last, and democracy seems to be gradually moulding itself to the European norm. There are still signs of the lawlessness of the recent past - many of the vehicles on the road are Benzes nicked from other parts of Europe - but law and order is infinitely better than it was in the wild 1990s. Unfortunately, lingering effects, such as the unplanned building boom, which has ruined parts of the stunning coastline is going to be much harder to clean up. The clearest sign of the revival has been in Tirana, where artist turned civic renovator Edi Rama has unleashed painters to brighten up the ugly old apartment buildings in the most lurid colours and designs imaginable. Often the inhabitants didn't know the outside walls of their apartments were about to turn purple, orange and lime green until they arrived home one day. Rama has also restored parks, planted trees, fixed up the streets and encouraged local nightlife. Tirana's evening xhiro or stroll has turned into the start of a night out instead of the time to retire to bed. The wild colour schemes are now spreading onto new and old buildings around the country - so it's goodbye to Albania the poor and drab, and hello to Albania the bright and bold.

Modern Day History

Uprisings between 1910 and 1912 culminated in the declaration of independence and the formation of a government led by Ismail Qemali. The London Ambassadors' Conference of 1913, however, put paid to aspirations of independence by handing Kosova, (you're less likely to cause offence if you call it Kosova) - nearly half of Albania - over to the Serbs.

WWI temporarily wiped away further moves for independence as Albania was occupied by Greece, Serbia, France, Italy and Austria-Hungary in succession. From 1920 to 1939 the country governed itself, but Ahmet Zogu, representing the landed aristocracy, went to bed with Mussolini's Italy. That move sprang back to hit him in the face when the Italians invaded at the outbreak of WWII. The communists, under Enver Hoxha, led the resistance against Italy and, after 1943, Germany. By October 1944 they'd thrown the Germans out. The communists consolidated power after the war, and proclaimed the People's Republic of Albania in 1946.

Two years later the country broke off relations with Yugoslavia and allied itself with Stalin's USSR. Britain and the USA backed a few Balkan-style Bay of Pigs operations - landings by right-wing Albanian émigrés - that nevertheless failed to topple the communists. When Khruschchev demanded submarine bases in 1960, Albania broke off diplomatic relations. After the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, Albania left the Warsaw Pact altogether. It embarked on a self-reliant defence policy that has left the country littered with around 750,000 igloo-shaped concrete bunkers and pillboxes. After the break with the USSR in 1960, Albania turned toward China for its inspiration, even embarking on its own cultural revolution in 1966-67. Enver Hoxha's special relationship with China ended in 1978, and the economy ground to a halt.

Hoxha died in 1985, and the new leader, Ramiz Alia, embarked on a half-hearted loosening of the strictest Communist regime outside North Korea. By early 1990 the collapse of communism in most of eastern Europe had created a sense of expectation in Albania, and after student demonstrations in December the government agreed to allow opposition parties to exist.The communists took a while to get the message, but by 1992 they were no longer in charge. The mid- to late 90s saw quick changes in prime ministers and presidents as the new democracy stumbled and nearly collapsed. Huge internal population shifts occurred as the collective farms were broken up and strife broke out between the original landowners and people who had been shifted there by the communists. This, plus new-found freedom of movement, saw hundreds of thousands of people shift to huge new informal settlements around Tirana. Lawlessness reached epidemic proportions in the 1990s as Albania went from a society in a Maoist straitjacket to a complete free market free-for-all. Everything from illegal logging to pyramid schemes to people smuggling became, if not quite legal, then not exactly prohibited either. Nearly every Communist-era factory and mine shut down as scrap merchants looted them for whatever they could strip out. This might have earned a few quick bucks but it was a disaster for unemployment. Even now, as much as 50% of the labour force currently works abroad, mainly in Greece and Italy. When NATO bombed Yugoslavia in spring 1999, nearly half a million ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo spilled over the border into neighbouring Albania.

Pre 20th Century History

The Illyrians, ancestors of today's Albanians, occupied the western Balkans in the 2nd millennium BC, and a convoy of interested warring states followed. The Greeks arrived in the 7th century BC, set up self governing colonies and in the main traded peacefully with the Illyrians, who set up their own tribal states by the 4th century BC. The Greeks took over the south, and still have a claim on it today. The expanding Roman Empire came to blows with an expanding Illyrian Empire based around Shkodra in present day northern Albania, and the Illyrians came off the worse after the Romans sent 200 warships there in 228 BC. The Romans spread their rule to the whole of the Balkans by 167 BC, and in the main Illyria enjoyed peace and prosperity - as long as you weren't one of the slaves working on the agricultural estates.

When the Romans couldn't hold on any longer, the Visigoths, Huns, Ostrogoths and Slavs salivating outside city limits struck poses and compared armies during the 5th and 6th centuries AD. In the 11th century, the Byzantines, Bulgarians and Normans squabbled over the northern region of Illyria, which, before Roman times, had stretched north to the Danube. Serbia, the Turks under the Ottoman Empire and even the Venetians all came and stayed, but in 1479 the Ottomans invaded and ruled until 1912, letting the region languish as the most backward part of Europe. In 1878, the Albanian League at Prizren (in present day Kosovo) began a struggle for autonomy that continues today. The Turkish army squashed the first glimmers of independence in 1881, but further uprisings followed.