See all articles relating to: Albania
Albania, a Southeastern European country, has been shaped by various empires and influential figures throughout its existence. The Illyrians, the ancient predecessors of modern Albanians, inhabited the region before it was conquered by the Roman Empire in the 2nd century BCE. The territory later fell under the control of the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, with the latter ruling for over 500 years. It was during this period that national hero Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg emerged, leading the Albanian resistance against Ottoman rule for 25 years.
After the fall of the empire, Albania declared its independence in 1912 under the leadership of Ismail Qemali. During the 20th century, the country experienced Italian and German occupations, as well as a period of isolation under communist dictator Enver Hoxha.
Albanian history
In ancient times Albania was central to the region known as Illyria, so named for the fact that it was populated by Illyrian tribes. Yet it also formed part of the Greek world as Greek colonies were established along the coast from the seventh century BCE onwards. While a number of Illyrian rulers maintained control over the interior, the coastal region was gradually pulled more and more into Greek and Hellenistic culture. In the third century BCE much of that part of Albania was ruled by King Pyrrhus of Epirus, a Greek ruler who allied with the Greek city states of southern Italy in the late 280s BCE against the Roman Republic. He won several battles against the Romans, but lost many men in the process, leaving to posterity the term ‘pyrrhic victory’, to indicate a victory which is won, but ultimately at too great a cost in terms of the overall war. Rome ultimately conquered southern Italy and decades later annexed Epirus across the Straits of Otranto as well.[1]
Illyria remained a part of the Roman Republic and then Empire for centuries to come. Control of Albania changed over time during the medieval period, with the Byzantines, Slavs, Bulgars and other groups controlling parts of the country at different times. Somewhat unusually, Charles of Anjou, a member of the French royal family, established himself as King of Albania for a time in the 1270s.[2] A century later, following the Battle of Savra, the region was incorporated into the emerging Ottoman Empire. Despite a lengthy rebellion here sparked by the Crusade of Varna against the Turks in the mid-fifteenth century, Albania would remain under Ottoman control for half a millennium.[3]
Like many other Balkan and Eastern European countries, Albania experienced a national reawakening in the middle of the nineteenth century and calls for greater independence from the Ottoman Empire and the reassertion of Albanian national identity were heard. But it would take until 1912 before Albania was able to assert its independence fully from Istanbul within the context of the Balkan Wars of the early 1910s. After experimentation with an Albanian Republic, a monarchy under King Zog I was created in 1928. In 1939, though, he was deposed as Benito Mussolini invaded and annexed Albania as part of his ambitions to create a new ‘Fourth Shore’ empire for Italy in the Central Mediterranean. During the Second World War which followed, a communist resistance movement emerged, led by Enver Hoxha. When Albania was liberated in the course of 1944, he emerged as the new leader of the country, establishing a Stalinist-type dictatorship which lasted down to his death in 1985. Communist rule collapsed at the end of the Cold War. Albania has since sought to modernize and applied for membership of the European Union, but it remains one of the poorest countries in Europe, with high crime rates.[4]
Albanian geography
Albania is a country of contrasts. It has a long, low-lying coastline along the Adriatic Sea, but the topography rises sharply as soon as one heads inland and most of the interior is mountainous and hilly country dominated by ranges such as the Albanian Alps, the Sharr Mountains, the Skanderbeg Mountains and the Korab Mountains. The highest peak is Mount Korab, which rises to 2,764 meters. Albania has a rich biological diversity, a product to a large extent of the fact that the mountainous interior has been thinly populated for centuries and also because of the lack of industrialization and land exploitation in large parts of the country.[5]
The capital Tirana is the only major city in Albania. The 2011 census recorded just over 620,000 people living here, but depending on which parameters are used some place the population of the broader metropolitan area at close to one million inhabitants, meaning that roughly one in three of Albania’s 2.8 million people live here. Durrës is the only other city with over 150,000 inhabitants. The population here is believed to be about 175,000, though some accounts place it as high as 200,000 in the metro area. It also has a historic significance, being an important port directly across the Straits of Otranto from southern Italy and having previously been the capital during the early years of Albanian independence.[6]
Researching family history in Albania
Detailed demographic records were produced for the first time in Albania in the late 1820s and early 1830s as the Ottoman Empire sought to establish the exact population of the region for taxation purposes. However, these records tended to only list adult males and are not comprehensive demographic records of a kind which are most useful for family historians and genealogists. Similar surveys of this kind were undertaken in the early 1880s and mid-1900s, but it was not until after independence that the first comprehensive, modern census was carried out in Albania in 1923. Others followed in 1930, typically every five years between 1945 to 1960 and every decade or so thereafter.[7] Many of these records are located today in the General Directorate of Archives in the capital Tirana. These were in a very poor state by the 1990s, but a large restoration project aided by the Swiss Federal Archives since the mid-1990s has resulted in a better service for family historians and genealogists.[8]
See also:
Albanian ethnicity
Albania majority group is Albanians, which is comprised of two main subgroups: the Ghegs in the north and the Tosks in the south. Minority ethnic communities include Greeks, Macedonians and Montenegrins.
See also:
Albanian surnames
Albanian surnames often reveal valuable information about one's ancestors and geographical origins. These surnames are typically patronymic, formed by adding the suffix "-aj" or "-i" to the father's name, denoting "son of" or "descendant of". They may also reflect the family's occupation, geographical location, or notable personal attributes.
See also:
References
- ↑ https://www.worldhistory.org/pyrrhus/
- ↑ https://albanianstudies.weebly.com/kingdom-of-albania-medieval.html
- ↑ https://www.jstor.org/stable/48577843
- ↑ https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-17679574
- ↑ https://www.countryreports.org/country/Albania/geography.htm
- ↑ https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/which-are-the-biggest-cities-in-albania.html
- ↑ Dhimiter Doka and Perikli Qiriazi, The Geography of Albania: Problems and Perspectives (Cham, Switzerland, 2022), p. 165.
- ↑ https://www.arkiva.gov.al/