Albania/Albanians: Development of a Nation
How Albania became Albania, and how the Albanians became Albanian.

How Albanians as a people, and the country of Albania as a nation-state, evolved and materialized into current form, in terms of ancestral bloodlines, the Albanian language, borders, culture, and even how they received their name.

Ancestral Background
Development of Language
Formation of Borders
Etymology (How Name Received)
Culture
Albania in 2008

Albanian Ancestral Background:
 

1. 3000 BC – People along the Baltic coast centered around modern Lithuania begin speaking the Proto-Balto-Slavic language, a branch off from Proto-Indo-European. This serves as the genesis of the Slavic and Baltic languages/peoples.
2. 1000 BC – A group splinters from the Proto-Balto-Slavic people, migrating southeast into modern Ukraine. This branch off group were the predecessors to Slavs, who would ultimately extend outward in all directions.
3. In the 6^th century, as Germanics migrated westward, a group of Slavs expanded southward to fill the void, inhabiting the northern border of the Byzantine Empire (continuation of the Roman Empire in the Greek world).
4. 558 – Avars, a central Asian Turkic people, driven west into Europe (through modern Ukraine) by Persians and more powerful Turkic empires, came into contact with the Byzantines. They were paid off by the Byzantines to settle the area north of the Danube River, and to subdue barbarian Germanics remaining in the territory. The Avars succeeded in driving the Germans out of area, including the Lombards, who were driven into Italy, where they become the ruling class. At this time, large groups of Slavic peoples were settled north of the Danube as well. The Avar raids forced them south into the Balkan peninsula, where they settled lands abandoned by Germanic peoples, including modern Romania and Hungary. Slavic peoples would inhabit the entire Balkan region north of the Greek-inhabited lands at the very southern portion of the peninsula by 700. The Illyrians, the original inhabitants, would be driven into a remote mountainous region in modern Albania, becoming forefathers to modern Albanians, which would also include a Slavic component from intermixing. Illyrians were the original settlers of the western Balkan peninsula, north of the ancient Greeks, around modern Serbia, Albania, Bosnia and Croatia. They inhabited this region during the centuries the territory was ruled by the Roman Empire, through the time of the Slavic migrations.

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Development of Albanian Language:
 

1. South Slavs intermixed with Illyrians in the mountainous region of modern Albania, forming a new Albanian ethnogroup, beginning in the 6^th century, during the time of the Slavic migrations southward into the Balkan peninsula. The Illyrian language became dominant among this group.
2. The Albanians would soon become part of the Roman Catholic sphere of influence, largely converting to Catholicism, causing their language to be influenced by Latin.
3. Throughout the remainder of the Middle Ages, the language would be influenced by Bulgarian, due to a lengthy stint under Bulgarian rule in region during the formative years of the language (850 to 1018).
4. By the 13^th century, the language and the people in this region would be referred to as Albanian.
5. Beginning in the 14^th century, Albania would be under Ottoman rule until early in the 20^th century, gaining many Turkic loan words.
6. Albanians would fill the void left by Serbs migrating out of modern SE Serbia to escape Ottoman rule, transforming Kosovo into an Albanian territory, making Albanian the dominant language in Kosovo as well (as Albanians are the dominant nationality in this region), as it remains to this day.

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Formation of Albanian Borders:
 

1. Before Rome, the northern section of modern Albanian rested in the ancient Illyrian Kingdom, while the remaining Albanian lands to the south were home to Greek city states.
2. In 229 BC, the Illyrians were conquered by the rapidly expanding Roman Empire, becoming the province of Illyricum.
3. During the Slavic migrations in the 6th century into the Balkan peninsula, the Illyrians were pushed into the mountainous coastal region constituting modern Albania. Shortly after, the territory was placed under Byzantine Empire rule, although the inhabitants (Illyrians with a Slavic component) remain largely independent/tribal.
4. Albania came under Bulgarian Empire rule from the 9^th century to 1014.
5. Byzantines conquer Balkan territories in 11^th century, capturing the territory of modern Albania in 1014, but later lose control over region.
6. 1081 – Northern Albania comes under Serbian control.
7. By about 1350, Serbia had conquered all of Albania.
8. 1385 – Albania is conquered by the Muslim, Turkic Ottoman Empire.
9. Albania declared independence in 1912, as Serbia and Greece seized possession of Balkan Ottoman territories, including Albania.
10. The Great Powers (such as the UK) lobby for an independent Albania, which is achieved, but part of Albanian lands (such as Kosovo, the northwest corner of Greece, and southern Montenegro) were separated from this new sovereign state, forming Albania's modern borders.
11. During WWI, Albania fell under Italian and Serbian occupation. It remained a semi-sovereign state during the interwar period.
12. Albania was invaded by Italy in 1939, just before WWII.
13. Albania regained independence at the end of WWII, and has remained an independent nation to this day.

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Etymology (How Name Received):

"Albania" is derived from the Slavic term for a mountainous region, first used in the 13^th century.

Albanian Culture:

Albanians largely converted to Islam during the Ottoman reign, transforming their culture from that of Christianized-Slavic to one dominated by Islamic principles. However, Albanians and Kosovars exhibit a low tendency for religious extremism.

Albania in 2008:

Economy: One of the poorest economies in Europe. Still trying to make the transition from a gray economy (where goods are not typically sold through typical sales channels, such as authorized distributors/importers). Unreliable power, unclear property rights, inadequate infrastructure (such as roads), have held Albanian back economically.
Government: Democratic Republic
Religion: Muslim (Sunni) 70%, Albanian Orthodox 20%, Roman Catholic 10%. Serbian population primarily Serbian Orthodox. Albanians were largely Muslim until after WWII, when it became communist. Following the Soviet policy on religion, religious practices were deemed illegal until 1990. But most Albanians are inactive religiously, largely due to its suppression for nearly 50 years after the war. Christians and Muslims have generally co-existed peacefully in Albania, as nationalism has traditionally taken precedence over religious affiliation.
Demographics: Albanian 95%, Greek 3% (southern portion traditionally Greek territory).
Foreign Policy: Generally focused on maintaining friendly relations with other Balkan nations, and protecting Albanians in other Balkan nations, such as Serbia (supporting Kosovar independence for instance). Has led to conflict with Greece, where there have been issues with ethnic Albanians.
Population: 3,619,778 (2008)

 

Formation of Nations (All European Nations)

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