Administratori
(7/10/00 4:46:19 pm)
Reply Enciklopedia Britanika mbi historine tone
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Ky material na u dergua me email nga zoti Altin Qosja
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FROM ILLYRIA TO ALBANIA
THE ORIGINS
ANTIQUITY
THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE
THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE
INDEPENDENT ALBANIA
SOCIALIST ALBANIA
DEMOCRATIC ALBANIA
PEOPLE WHO SHAPED ITS HISTORY
NOTES
Administratori
Administrator
(7/10/00 4:47:42 pm)
Reply The Origins
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The earliest settlers of Albania
The question of the origin of the Albanians is still a matter of controversy
among the ethnologists. A great many theories have been propounded in
solution of the problem relative to the place from which the original
settlers of Albania proceeded to their present home. The existence of
another Albania in the Caucasus, the mystery in which the derivation of
the name "Albania" is enshrouded, and which name, on the other hand, is
unknown to her people, and the fact that history and legend afford no
record of the arrival of the Albanians in the Balkan Peninsula, have
rendered the question of their origin a particularly difficult one.
But, however that may be, it is generally recognized today that the
Albanians are the most ancient race in southesatern Europe. All indications
point to the fact that they are descendants of the earliest Aryan
immigrants who were represented in historical times by the kindred
Illyrians, Macedonians and Epirots. According to the opinion of most
ethnologists and linguists the Illyrians formed the core of pre-Hellenic,
Tyrrhenopelasgian population, which inhabited the southern portion of the
Peninsula and extended its limits to Thrace and Italy. The Illyrians were
also Pelasgians, but in a wider sense. Moreover it is believed that of these
cognate races, which are described by the ancient Greek writers as
"barbarous" and "non-Hellenic," the Illyrians were the progenitors of the
Ghegs, or Northern Albanians, and the Epirots the progenitors of the
Tosks, or Southern Albanians. This general opinion is borne out the
statement of Strabo that the Via Egnatia or Ęgitana, which he describes
as forming the boundary between the Illyrians and the Epirots, practically
corresponds with the course of river Shkumbini, which now seperates the
Ghegs from the Tosks. The same geographer states that Epirots were also
called Pelasgians. The Pelasgian Zeus, whose memory survives even today
in the appellation of God as "Zot" by the modern Albanians, was worshiped
at Dodona, where the most famous oracle of ancient times was situated.
According to Herodotus the neighborhood of the sanctuary was called
Pelasgia.
These findings of the ethnologists are, moreover, strenghthened by the
unbroken traditions of the natives, who regard themselves, and with pride
as the descendants of the aboriginal settlers of the Balkan Peninsula.
They, therefore, they think have the best claims on it. It is also on the
strength of these traditions that the Albanian looks upon the other Balkan
nationalities as mere intruders who have expropriated him of much that
was properly his own. Hence the constsant border warfare which has gone
on for centuries between the Albanian and his neighbors.
The Albanian Language
A more concrete evidence of the Illyrian-Pelasgian origin of the Albanians
is supplied by the study of the Albanian language. Notwithstanding certain
points of resemblance in structure and phonetics, the Albanian language is
entirely distinct from the tongues spoken by the neighboring natonalities.
This language is particularly interesting as the only surviving
representative of the so-called Thraco-Illyrian group of languages, which
formed the primitive speech of the inhabitants of the Balkan Peninsula. Its
analysis presents, however, great difficulties, as, owing to the absence of
early literary monuments, no certainty can be arrived at with regard to its
earlier forms and later developments. In the course of time the Albanian
language has been impregnated by a large number of foreign words, mainly
of ancient Greek or Latin, which are younger than the Albanian Language,
but there are certain indications that the primitive Illyrian language
exerted a certain degree of influence on the grammatical development of
the languages now spoken in the Balkan Peninsula.
There is, however, a very striking feature in this whole matter: that the
Albanian language affords the only available means for a rational
explanation of the meaning of the names of the ancient Greek gods as well
as the rest of the mythological creations, so as exactly to correspond with
the characteristics attributed to these deitis by the men of those times.
The explanations are so convincing as to confirm the opinion that the
ancient Greek mythology had been borrowed, in its entirety, from the
Illyrian-Pelasgians. As I mentioned it before, Zeus survives as "Zot" in the
Albanian language. The invocation of his name is the common form of oath
among the modern Albanians. Athena ( the Latin Minerva), the goddess of
wisdom as expressed in speech, would evidently owe its derivation to the
Albanian "E Thena," which simply means "speech." Thetis, the goddess of
waters and seas, would seem to be but Albanian "Det" which means "sea."
It would be interesting to note that the word "Ulysses,"whether in its Latin
or Greek form "Odysseus," means "traveler" in the Albanian language,
according as the word "udhe," which stands for "route" and "travel," is
written with "d" or "l," both forms being in use in Albania. Such examples
may be supplied ad libitum. No such facility is, however afforded by the
ancient Greek language, unless the explanation be a forced one and
distorted one; but in many instances even such forced and distorted one
is not available at all.
In addition, we should not forget the fact that Zeus was a Pelasgian god,
par excellence , his original place of worship being Dodona.
It is estimated that of the actual stock of the Albanian language, more
than one third is of undisputed Ilyrian origin, and the rest are
Illyrian-Pelasgian, ancient Greek and Latin, with a small admixture of
Slavic, Italian (dating from the Venetian occupation of the seaboard),
Turkish and some Celtic words, too.
Administratori
Administrator
(7/10/00 4:49:02 pm)
Reply Antiquity.
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The Illyrians
The origins of the Albanian people, as I mentioned before, are not
definitely known, but data drawn from history and from linguistic,
archaeological, and anthropological studies have led to the conclusion that
Albanians are the direct descendants of the ancient Illyrians and that the
latter were natives of the lands they inhabited. Similarly, the Albanian
language derives from the language of the Illyrians, the transition from
Illyrian to Albanian apparently occurring between the 4th and 6th
centuries AD.
Illyrian culture is believed to have evolved from the Stone Age and to have
manifested itself in the territory of Albania towardthe beginning of the
Bronze Age, about 2000 BC. 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 ofAlbania
were more isolated than those in the lowlands, and their culture evolved
more slowly--a distinction that persisted throughout Albania's history.
In its beginning, the kingdom of Illyria comprised the actual territories of
Dalmatia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, with a large part
of modern Serbia. Shkodra (Scutari) was its capital, just as it is now, the
most important center of Northern Albania.
The earliest known king of Illyria was Hyllus (The Star) who is recorded to
have died in the year 1225 B.C.
The Kingdom, however, reached its zenith in the fourth century B.C. when
Bardhylus (White Star), one of the most prominent of the Illyrian kings,
united under scepter the kingdoms of Illyria, Molossia (Epirus*) and a good
part of Macedonia. But its decay began under the same ruler as a result of
the attacks made on it by Philip of Macedon, father of Alexander the
Great.
In the year 232 B.C. the Illyrian throne was occupied by Teuta, the
celebrated Queen whom historians have called Catherine the Great of
Illyria. The depredations of her thriving navy on the rising commercial
development of the Republic forced the Roman Senate to declare war
against the Queen. A huge army and navy under the command of of
Santumalus and Alvinus attacked Central Albania, and, after two years of
protracted warfare, Teuta was induced for peace (227 B.C.)
The last king of Illyria was Gentius, of pathetic memory. In 165 B.C. he
was defeated by the Romans and brought to Rome as a captive.
Henceforth, Illyria consisting of the Enkalayes, the Taulantes, the
Epirotes, and the Ardianes, became a Roman dependency. She was carved
out into three independent republics the capitals of which were
respectively Scodar (Shkoder), Epidamnus (Durres) and Dulcigno (todays'
Ulqin in Montenegro).
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 minerals--iron, copper, gold, silver--and
Illyrians became skillful in the mining and processing of metals. They were
highly skilled boat builders 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 fleet as a type of warship called the
Liburnian.
The Greeks
>From the 8th to the 6th century BC the Greeks founded a string of
colonies on Illyrian soil, two of the most prominent of which were
Epidamnus (modern Durrės) and Apollonia (near modern Vlorė). 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 influenced the economic and political life of
the
colonies. In the 3rd century BC 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 first they formed temporary alliances with one
another for defensive or offensive purposes, then federations and, still
later, kingdoms. The most important of these kingdoms, which flourished
from the 5th to the 2nd century BC, were those of the Enkalayes, the
Taulantes, the Epirotes, and the Ardianes.
After warring for the better part of the 4th century BC 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 BC attacked and defeated the Illyrians, led by Queen Teuta,
and by 168 BC established effective control over Illyria.
The Roman Empire
The Romans ruled Illyria--which now became the province of Illyricum--for
about six centuries. Under Roman rule Illyrian society underwent great
change, especially in its outward, material aspect. Art and culture
flourished, 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 AD. At first the new religion had to compete with
Oriental cults--among them that of Mithra, Persian god of light--which had
entered the land in the wake of Illyria's growing interaction with eastern
regions of the empire. For a long time it also had to compete with gods
worshiped 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 AD 58. Later, episcopal seats were
established in Apollonia, Buthrotum (modern Butrint), and Scodra (modern
Shkodrė).
By the time the empire began to decline, the Illyrians, profiting from a
long
tradition of martial habits and skills, had acquired great influence in the
Roman military hierarchy. Indeed, several of them went on from there to
become emperors. From the mid-3rd to the mid-4th century AD 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.
Administratori
Administrator
(7/10/00 4:51:01 pm)
Reply The Byzantine Empire.
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>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, and--the most celebrated of Byzantine
emperors--Justinian I.
In the first decades under Byzantine rule (until 461), Illyria suffered 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,
however--including modern Albania--averted 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, first mentioned in the
2nd century AD 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, finally,
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. (Scholars have not been
able to determine the origin of Shqiperia, the Albanians' own name for their
land, which is believed to have supplanted the name Albania during the
16th and 17th centuries. It probably was derived from shqipe, or "eagle,"
which, modified into shqipria, became "the land of the eagle.")
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
first significant 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 flourished to such an extent
that leading Albanian merchants had their own agencies in Venice, Ragusa
(modern Dubrovnik, Croatia), and Thessalonica (now Thessaloniki, Greece).
The prosperity of the cities also stimulated the development of education
and the arts.
Albanian, however, was not the language used in schools, churches, and
official government transactions. Instead, Greek and Latin, which had the
powerful support of the state and the church, were the official 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,
Dukagjinis, and Kastriotis. The first three of these rose to become rulers
of
principalities that were practically independent of Byzantium.
The decline of Byzantium
Owing partly to the weakness of the Byzantine Empire, Albania, beginning
in the 9th century, 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 final occupation of the
country in 1347 by the Serbs, led by Stefan Dusan, 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 genius--Gjergj Kastrioti (1405-68), known as
Skanderbeg--rallied 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 fight 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. After he died, Albanian resistance gradually collapsed,
and many Albanians fled to Italy enabling the Turks to reoccupy the
country by 1506.
Skanderbeg's long struggle to keep Albania free became highly significant
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.
Administratori
Administrator
(7/10/00 4:53:48 pm)
Reply Independent Albania.
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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 conflict. 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, owing to strong pressure from Albania's 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 Ēamria, 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 these 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 Albania's borders. (However, Greece, which
counted all Albanians of the Orthodox faith--20 percent of the
population--as Greeks, claimed that the number of ethnic Greeks was
considerably larger.) Thereafter, Kosovo and the Ēamria 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 Austria-Hungary, 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 efforts 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 first 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, this
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 flee 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
Noli's 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 Albania--first as president (1925-2 ,
then as King Zog I (1928-39)--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 financial relief to Albania, but they effected no basic change in
its economy, especially under the conditions of the Great Depression of
the 1930s. 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 fled to Greece.
The social base of Zog's power was a coalition of southern beys and
northern bajraktars. With the support of this coalition--plus a vast
Oriental
bureaucracy, an efficient police force, and Italian money--King 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 Albania's fundamental problem, that of land reform,
leaving the peasantry as impoverished as before. In order to stave off
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
first communist groups in the country.
World War II
Using Albania as a military base, in October 1940, Italian
forces invaded Greece, but they were quickly thrown back
into Albania. After Nazi Germany defeated Greece and
Yugoslavia in 1941, the regions of Kosovo and Ēamria were
joined to Albania, thus creating an ethnically united
Albanian state. The new state lasted until November 1944,
when the Germans--who had replaced the Italian occupation
forces following Italy's surrender in 1943--withdrew from
Albania. Kosovo was then reincorporated into the Serbian
part of Yugoslavia, and Ēamria into Greece.
Meanwhile, the various communist groups that had
germinated in Zog's Albania merged in November 1941 to
form the Albanian Communist Party and began to fight the
occupiers as a unified resistance force. After a successful
struggle against the fascists and two other resistance
groups--the National Front (Balli Kombtar) and the pro-Zog
Legality Party(Legaliteti)--which contended for power with
them, the communists seized control of the country on Nov.
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. The
country became officially the People's Republic of Albania in
1946 and, in 1976, the People's Socialist Republic of
Albania.
Administratori
Administrator
(7/10/00 4:55:28 pm)
Reply Socialist Albania
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The Stalinist state
The new rulers inherited an Albania plagued by a host of ills: pervasive
poverty, overwhelming illiteracy, blood feuds, epidemics of disease, and
gross subjugation of women. In order 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 government's first 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, bringing down the age-old institution of the
blood feud and the patriarchal structure of the family and clans, thus
destroying the semifeudal class of bajraktars. The traditional role of
women--namely, confinement to the home and farm--changed 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 (1944-48), the Soviet Union (1948-61),
and China (1961-78). Economically, Albania benefited 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 first 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.
Hoxha's 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 respectable--in some cases
historic--strides in the development of industry, agriculture, education,
the arts, and culture. A notable achievement was the drainage of coastal
swamplands--until then breeding grounds for malarial mosquitoes--and the
reclamation of land for agricultural and industrial uses. Also symbolic of
the
change was a historic language reform that fused elements of the Geg and
Tosk dialects into a unified literary language.
Political oppression, however, offset gains made on the material and
cultural planes. Contrary to provisions in the constitution, during Hoxha's
reign Albania was ruled, in effect, by the Directorate of State Security,
known as the Sigurimi. To eliminate dissent, the government resorted
periodically 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 official
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 officially banned, and all
Christian and Muslim houses of worship were closed.
Collapse of communism
After Hoxha's 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 firms 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 vanguards
of a communist movement or organization--as well as Albania's youth,
which had been frustrated by years of confinement 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' official monopoly of power.
With each concession to the opposition, the state's 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 first democratic leader of Albania since Bishop Noli.
Albania's progress toward democratic reform enabled it to gain membership
in the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, formally bringing
to an end its notorious isolation. Efforts to establish a free-market
economy caused severe dislocations, but they also opened the road for
Albania to obtain vast amounts of aid from developed countries. Albania
was thus well on its way toward integrating its politics and institutions
with the West, which Albanians have historically viewed as their cultural
and geographic home.
Administratori
Administrator
(7/10/00 4:57:32 pm)
Reply Democratic Albania
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Yet to be written...
Administratori
Administrator
(7/10/00 4:59:03 pm)
Reply People who shaped its history
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Skanderbeg
byname of GEORGE KASTRIOTI, or CASTRIOTA, Albanian GJERGJ
KASTRIOTI (b. 1405, northern Albania--d. Jan. 17, 1468, Lezhė, Albania),
national hero of the Albanians.
A son of John (Gjon) Kastrioti, prince of Emathia, George was early given
as hostage to the Turkish sultan. Converted to Islam and educated at
Edirne, Turkey, he was given the name Iskander--after Alexander the
Great--and the rank of bey (hence Skanderbeg) by Sultan Murad II. During
the defeat of the Turks at Nis (1443), in Serbia, Skanderbeg abandoned
the Turkish service and joined his Albanian countrymen against the forces
of Islam. He embraced Christianity, reclaimed his family possessions, and in
1444 organized a league of Albanian princes, over which he was appointed
commander in chief.
In the period 1444-66 he effectively repulsed 13 Turkish invasions, his
successful resistance to the armies of Murad II in 1450 making him a hero
throughout the Western world. Through the years he elicited some support
from Naples, Venice, and the papacy and was named by Pope Calixtus III
captain general of the Holy See. In 1463 he secured an alliance with
Venice that helped launch a new offensive against the Turks. Until the end
of his life he continued to resist successfully all Turkish invasions.
Within a
few years of his death, however, his citadel at Kruj' had fallen (1478), and
Albania passed into several centuries of obscurity under Turkish rule.
Zog I,
Albanian in full AHMED BEY ZOGU (b. Oct. 8, 1895, Castle Burgajet,
Albania--d. April 9, 1961, Suresnes, France), president of Albania from
1925 to 1928 and king from 1928 to 1939. Though able to manipulate
Albania's internal affairs to his own advantage, he came to depend heavily
on Benito Mussolini's Italy and was eventually ousted by the Italian
dictator on the eve of World War II.
Siding with Austria during World War I, Zog thereafter became a leader of
the reformist Popular Party. He held ministerial posts from 1920 until he
was forced into exile in June 1924, but he returned with Yugoslav
assistance in December, was elected president on Feb. 1, 1925, and was
proclaimed king on Sept. 1, 1928. Zog ended a period of postwar political
turbulence, and Albania enjoyed relative tranquility under his regime. He
began a fateful association with Italy in 1925; a loan in that year was
followed in 1926 by a treaty of friendship and security and in 1927 by a
20-year defensive military alliance between the two countries. Mussolini
made Albania his bridgehead to the Balkans, and by 1939 Italy controlled
the country's finances and army. Zog tried but failed to break that hold
from 1932 onward. On April 7, 1939, Mussolini finally made Albania into a
protectorate; Victor Emmanuel III became king, and Zog went into exile.
His hopes of returning after the war were disappointed by the
establishment of a communist republic under Enver Hoxha in 1945. He
formally abdicated on Jan. 2, 1946.
Enver Hoxha
(b. Oct. 16, 1908, Gjirokastėr, Alb.--d. April 11, 1985, Tiranė), the first
communist chief of state of Albania. As that country's ruler for 40 years
after World War II, he forced its transformation from a semifeudal relic of
the Ottoman Empire into an industrialized economy with the most tightly
controlled society in Europe.
Hoxha, the son of a Muslim cloth merchant, studied at the French lycZe
at Korēė and reportedly also at the American Technical School in Tiranė.
In 1930 he went on a state scholarship to the University of Montpellier,
France, and then from 1934 to 1936 he was a secretary at the Albanian
consulate general in Brussels and studied law at the university there.
Returning to Albania in 1936, he became a teacher at his old school in
Korca'
. In 1939, when Italy invaded Albania, Hoxha was dismissed from his
teaching post for refusing to join the newly formed Albanian Fascist Party,
and he opened a retail tobacco store at Tiranė, which became
headquarters for a communist cell. After Germany invaded Yugoslavia in
1941, Yugoslav communists helped Hoxha found the Albanian Communist
Party (afterward called the Party of Labour). Hoxha became first secretary
of the party's Central Committee and political commissar of the
communist-dominated Army of National Liberation. He was prime minister of
Albania from its liberation in 1944 until 1954, simultaneously holding the
ministry of foreign affairs from 1946 to 1953. As first secretary of the
Party of Labour's Central Committee, he retained effective control of the
government until his death.
Albania's economy was revolutionized under Hoxha's long rule. Farmland
was confiscated from wealthy landowners and gathered into collective
farms that eventually enabled Albania to become almost completely
self-sufficient in food crops. Industry, which had previously been almost
nonexistent, received huge amounts of investment, so that by the 1980s
it had grown to contribute more than half of the gross national product.
Electricity was brought to every rural district, epidemics of disease were
stamped out, and illiteracy became a thing of the past.
In order to enforce his radical program, however, Hoxha resorted to brutal
Stalinist tactics. His government imprisoned, executed, or exiled thousands
of landowners, rural clan leaders, Muslim and Christian clerics, peasants
who resisted collectivization, and disloyal party officials. Private
property
was confiscated by the state; all churches, mosques, and other religious
institutions were closed; and all cultural and intellectual endeavours were
put at the service of socialism and the state.
As ardent a nationalist as he was a communist, Hoxha excoriated any
communist state that threatened his power or the sovereignty of Albania.
In 1948 he broke relations with Yugoslavia and formed an alliance with the
Soviet Union. After the death of the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, for whom
Hoxha held a lifelong admiration, his relations with Nikita Khrushchev
deteriorated until Hoxha broke with him completely in 1961. He then forged
close ties with China, breaking with that country in turn in 1978 after the
death of Mao Zedong and China's rapprochement with the West. From
then on, Hoxha spurned all the world's major powers, declaring that
Albania would become a model socialist republic on its own.
In order to ensure the succession of a younger generation of leaders,
Hoxha in 1981 ordered the execution of several leading party and
government officials. Thereafter he withdrew into semiretirement, turning
over most state functions to Ramiz Alia, who succeeded him upon his
death.
Ramiz Alia
(b. Oct. 18, 1925, Shkodėr, Albania), president of Albania (1982-92) and
head of the communist Party of Labour of Albania (from 1985), renamed
the Socialist Party in 1991.
The son of Muslim parents from the Albanian-speaking region of Kosovo in
Yugoslavia, Alia attended a French secondary school in Tiran'. During
World War II he joined the communist-led National Liberation Movement,
becoming a member of the Albanian Communist Party in 1943. At age 19
he was appointed a political commissar, with the rank of lieutenant
colonel, in a combat division of the Albanian Partisan forces.
Immediately after the war he occupied leadership posts in the party's
youth organization and in its Office of Propaganda and Agitation, and he
was elected a member of the Central Committee in 1948 (when the
Communist Party was renamed the Party of Labour). After completing
advanced studies in the Soviet Union in 1954, Alia rose rapidly under party
boss Enver Hoxha's patronage, serving as minister of education from 1955
to 1958. He became a candidate member of the party's powerful Politburo
in 1956, and in 1961 he joined Hoxha's inner circle by becoming a full
member of the Politburo and a member of the party's Secretariat.
As the party's chief spokesman on ideological and cultural issues, Alia
played a prominent role in bitter disputes over the "revisionism" of
Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union, and China--three communist allies from
which Hoxha broke away in 1948, 1961, and 1978, respectively. At home
Alia led campaigns to purge the artistic and intellectual communities of
"bourgeois humanism" and other "alien influences" that threatened Albania's
independence and the purity of its official Marxist-Leninist ideology.
Alia became titular head of state in 1982 when he was elected president
by the People's Assembly, and he became effective ruler of Albania upon
his election as the party's first secretary two days after Hoxha's death in
April 1985. Although constrained by Hoxha's legacy of isolation, Alia began
to expand ties with neighbours in western as well as eastern Europe in
order to acquire foreign exchange, technology, and technical expertise.
Faced with chronic inefficiencies in both industry and agriculture, he also
instituted limited economic reforms and relaxed the party's tight grip on
Albanian society. This liberal policy led to the unexpected electoral
successes of democratic parties. On April 3, 1992, he resigned as
president.
NOTES
"Epirus" means "mainland" or "continent" in Greek, and was originally
applied
to the whole coast northward of the Corinthian Gulf in contradistinction to
the neighboring islands, Corfu (Corcyra), Leucas, etc.,etc. In consequence
it does have not any ethnical meaning, as the modern Greeks are tend to
believe and proclaim. The name of Epirus, as applied to Southern Albania,
is misleading inasmuch as its Greek sound gives the idea that one is
dealing with a Greek territory. This is due to the unfortunate fact that the
principal sources of the history of this section of Albania, are the
writings
of Greek historians whose mania for Hellenizing everything is notorious.
Yet, all the ancient Greek writers, including Theopompus, Thucydides, and
the more modern Plutarch, are in full accord in stating that Epirus was
exclusively inhabited by non-Hellenic barbarous populations.
Bibliography:
Britannica
Peter R. Prifti Freelance writer and translator, specializing in Albanian
studies.
Author of Socialist Albania Since 1944.
Pėrgjigju Duke Cituar
Krijoni Kontakt