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This article is about the country in Southeastern Europe. For other uses, see Albania (disambiguation).
Republic of Albania
Republika e Shqipërisë (Albanian)
Red flag with a black double-headed eagle in the centre.
Flag
Motto: "Ti Shqipëri, më jep nder,
më jep emrin Shqipëtar"
("You Albania, give me honour,
you give me the name Albanian")
Anthem: Himni i Flamurit
("Hymn to the Flag")
Capital
and largest city
Tirana
Official languages Albanian
Religion (2020)
59% Islam
17% Christianity
9% No religion
15% Undeclared[1]
1190
• Kingdom of Albania
February 1272
• Princedom of Albania
1368
• League of Lezhë
2 March 1444
• Principality of Mirdita
1515
• Pashalik of Scutari/Janina
1757/1787
• Proclamation of independence from the Ottoman Empire
28 November 1912
• Principality of Albania
29 July 1913
• 1st Republic of Albania
31 January 1925
• Kingdom of Albania
1 September 1928
• 2nd Republic of Albania
11 January 1946
• 3rd Republic of Albania
28 December 1976
• 4th Republic of Albania
29 April 1991
• Current constitution
28 November 1998
Area
• Total
28,748 km2 (11,100 sq mi) (140th)
• Water (%)
4.7
Population
• January 2022 estimate
Neutral decrease 2,793,592[2]
• 2011 census
2,821,977[3]
• Density
97/km2 (251.2/sq mi)
GDP (PPP) 2022 estimate
• Total
Increase $49.827 billion[4]
• Per capita
Increase $17,383[4]
GDP (nominal) 2022 estimate
• Total
Decrease $17.942 billion[4]
• Per capita
Decrease $6,260[4]
Gini (2019) Positive decrease 34.3[5]
medium
HDI (2021) Decrease 0.796[6]
high · 67th
Currency Lek (ALL)
Time zone UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)
UTC+2 (CEST)
Date format dd.mm.yyyy
Driving side right
Calling code +355
ISO 3166 code AL
Internet TLD .al
Albania (/ælˈbeɪniə, ɔːl-/ (listen) a(w)l-BAY-nee-ə; Albanian: Shqipëri or Shqipëria),[a] officially the Republic of Albania (Albanian: Republika e Shqipërisë),[b] is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares land borders with Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo[c] to the northeast, North Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south. Tirana is its capital and largest city, followed by Durrës, Vlorë, and Shkodër.Albania displays varied climatic, geological, hydrological, and morphological conditions, defined in an area of 28,748 km2 (11,100 sq mi). It possesses significant diversity with the landscape ranging from the snow-capped mountains in the Albanian Alps as well as the Korab, Skanderbeg, Pindus and Ceraunian Mountains to the hot and sunny coasts of the Albanian Adriatic and Ionian Sea along the Mediterranean Sea.Albania has been inhabited by different civilisations over time, such as the Illyrians, Thracians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Venetians, and Ottomans. The Albanians established the autonomous Principality of Arbër in the 12th century. The Kingdom of Albania and Principality of Albania formed between the 13th and 14th centuries. Prior to the Ottoman conquest of Albania in the 15th century, the Albanian resistance to Ottoman expansion into Europe led by Skanderbeg won them acclaim over most of Europe. Albania remained under Ottoman rule for nearly five centuries, during which many Albanians (known as Arnauts) attained high-ranking offices in the empire, especially in the Southern Balkans and Egypt. Between the 18th and 19th centuries, cultural developments, widely attributed to Albanians having gathered both spiritual and intellectual strength, conclusively led to the Albanian Renaissance. After the defeat of the Ottomans in the Balkan Wars, the modern nation state of Albania declared independence in 1912.[8] In the 20th century, the Kingdom of Albania was invaded by Italy, which formed Greater Albania before becoming a protectorate of Nazi Germany.[9] Enver Hoxha formed the People's Socialist Republic of Albania after World War II, modeled under the terms of Hoxhaism. The Revolutions of 1991 concluded the fall of communism in Albania and eventually the establishment of the current Republic of Albania.Albania is a unitary parliamentary constitutional republic. It is a developing country, ranking 67th in the Human Development Index, with an upper-middle income economy dominated by the service sector, followed by manufacturing.[10] It went through a process of transition following the end of communism in 1990, from centralised planning to a market-based economy.[11][12][13] Albania provides universal health care and free primary and secondary education to its citizens.[6] Albania is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, UNESCO, NATO, WTO, COE, OSCE, and OIC. It has been an official candidate for membership in the European Union since 2014. It is one of the founding members of the Energy Community, including the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation and Union for the Mediterranean.
Etymology
Main article: Etymology of Albania
The term Albania is the medieval Latin name of the country. It may be derived from the Illyrian tribe of Albani (Albanian: Albanët) recorded by Ptolemy, the geographer and astronomer from Alexandria, who drafted a map in 150 AD which shows the city of Albanopolis located northeast of Durrës.[14][15] The term may have a continuation in the name of a medieval settlement called Albanon or Arbanon, although it is not certain that this was the same place.[16] In his history written in the 10th century, the Byzantine historian Michael Attaliates was the first to refer to Albanoi as having taken part in a revolt against Constantinople in 1043 and to the Arbanitai as subjects of the Duke of Dyrrachium.[17] During the Middle Ages, the Albanians called their country Arbëri or Arbëni and referred to themselves as Arbëreshë or Arbëneshë.[18][19]Nowadays, Albanians call their country Shqipëri or Shqipëria. The words Shqipëri and Shqiptar are attested from 14th century onwards,[20] but it was only at the end of 17th and beginning of the early 18th centuries that the placename Shqipëria and the ethnic demonym Shqiptarë gradually replaced Arbëria and Arbëreshë amongst Albanian speakers.[20][21] The two terms are popularly interpreted as "Land of the Eagles" and "Children of the Eagles".[22][23]
History
Main article: History of Albania
For a chronological guide, see Timeline of Albanian history.
Prehistory
Main article: Prehistory of Albania
The remains of Kamenica Tumulus in the county of Korçë.
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.[24] Archaeological sites from this period include the Kamenica Tumulus, Konispol Cave and Pellumbas Cave.
The discovered objects in a cave near Xarrë include 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 also demonstrate notable similarities with objects of the equivalent period found at Crvena Stijena in Montenegro and northwestern Greece.[24]
Multiple artefacts from the Iron and Bronze Ages near tumulus burials have been unearthed in central and southern Albania, which has similar affinity with the sites in southwestern Macedonia and Lefkada. Archaeologists have come to the conclusion that these regions were inhabited from the middle of the third millennium BC by Indo-European people who spoke a Proto-Greek language. Hence, a part of this historical population later moved to Mycenae around 1600 BC and properly established the Mycenaean civilisation.[25][26][27]
Antiquity
Main article: Antiquity in Albania
Founded in the 4th century BC, Scodra was a significant city of the Illyrian tribes of the Ardiaei and Labeates.
In ancient times, the incorporated territory of Albania was historically inhabited by Indo-European peoples, among them numerous Illyrian tribes, Ancient Greeks and Thracians. In view of the Illyrian tribes, there is no evidence that these tribes used any collective nomenclature for themselves, while it is regarded to be unlikely that they used a common endonym.[28] 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 all people of similar language and customs.[29][30]
Apollonia was an important Ancient Greek colony on the Illyrian coast along the Adriatic Sea and one of the western points of the Via Egnatia route, that connected Rome and Constantinople.
The territory referred 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.[31][32] The first account of the Illyrian groups comes from Periplus of the Euxine Sea, an ancient Greek text written in the middle of the 4th century BC.[33] 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.[33][34][35] Other colonies such as Apollonia, Epidamnos, and Amantia, were established by Ancient Greek city-states on the coast by the 7th century BC.[33][36][37]
The Illyrian Ardiaei tribe, centred in Montenegro, ruled over most of the territory of Albania. Their Ardiaean Kingdom reached its greatest extent under King Agron, the son of Pleuratus II. Agron extended his rule over other neighbouring tribes as well.[38] Following Agron's death in 230 BC, his wife, Teuta, inherited the Ardiaean kingdom. Teuta's forces extended their operations further southwards to the Ionian Sea.[39] In 229 BC, Rome declared war[40] on the kingdom for extensively plundering Roman ships. The war ended in Illyrian defeat in 227 BC. Teuta was eventually succeeded by Gentius in 181 BC.[41] Gentius clashed with the Romans in 168 BC, initiating the Third Illyrian War. The conflict resulted in Roman conquest of the region by 167 BC. The Romans split the region into three administrative divisions.[42]
Middle Ages
Main article: Albania in the Middle Ages
The town of Krujë was the capital of the Principality of Arbanon in the Middle Ages.
The Roman Empire was split in 395 upon the death of Theodosius I into an Eastern and Western Roman Empire in part 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.[43][44]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 leadership of Progon of Kruja.[45] The realm was succeeded by his sons Gjin and Dhimitri.
Upon the death of Dhimiter, the territory came under the rule of the Albanian-Greek Gregory Kamonas and subsequently under the Golem of Kruja.[46][47][48] In the 13th century, the principality was dissolved.[49][50][51] 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.[52]A relief of the Scuola degli Albanesi commemorating the Siege of Shkodra. It illustrates Sultan Mehmet II laying siege to the Albanian town of Scutari then part of Venetian Empire.
Towards the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th centuries, Serbs and Venetians started to take possession over the territory.[53] The ethnogenesis of the Albanians is uncertain; however the first undisputed mention 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.[54] 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 coast down to Butrint. A catholic political structure was a basis for the papal plans of spreading Catholicism in the Balkan Peninsula. This plan found also the support 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.[55] Internal power struggles within the Byzantine Empire in the 14th century enabled Serbs' most powerful medieval ruler, Stefan Dusan, to establish a short-lived empire that included all of Albania except Durrës.[53] 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.Ottoman Empire
Main article: Albania under the Ottoman Empire
See also: Albanian rebellion against the Ottoman Empire
Further information: League of Lezhë
Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg
After serving the Ottoman Empire for nearly 20 years, Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg deserted and began a successful rebellion against the empire that halted Ottoman advance into Europe for 25 years.
Ali Pasha Tepelena
Ali Pasha Tepelena was a powerful autonomous Ottoman-Albanian ruler, governing over the Pashalik of Yanina.
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.[56][57] 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.[58][59]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 allowed the Sultan to collect a requisite percentage of Christian adolescents from their families to compose the Janissary.[60] The Ottoman conquest was also accompanied with the gradual process of Islamisation and the rapid construction of mosques which consequently modified the religious picture of Albania.A prosperous and longstanding revolution erupted after the formation 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 to gather several 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 o