Albania (Republic) is a country in Southeastern Europe. This country has been populated since p
rehistoric times and was settled by the Illyrians, possible ancestors of present-day Albanians.Situated as it was, surrounded by powerful, warring empires, Albania has experienced a considerable amount of violence throughout its history. Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Venetians and Ottomans swept through, leaving their cultural mark as well as their ruins. Archaeological research shows that the lands that are today inhabited by Albanians were first populated in the Paleolithic Age (Stone Age). The first areas settled were those with favourable climatic and geographic conditions...
rehistoric times and was settled by the Illyrians, possible ancestors of present-day Albanians.Situated as it was, surrounded by powerful, warring empires, Albania has experienced a considerable amount of violence throughout its history. Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Venetians and Ottomans swept through, leaving their cultural mark as well as their ruins. Archaeological research shows that the lands that are today inhabited by Albanians were first populated in the Paleolithic Age (Stone Age). The first areas settled were those with favourable climatic and geographic conditions...Most historians believe that the Albanian people are descended from a non-Slavic, non-Turkic group of tribes known as Illyrians,who, like other Balkan peoples, were subdivided into tribes and clans. Albanians (as one of innumerous Illyrian tribes) were named after their city state Albanopolis near a mountain called Alp 'mountain', Hittite alpa 'white'. The name Albania is derived from the name of an Illyrian tribe called the Arbër, or Arbëresh, and later Albanoi, that lived near Durrës. The kingdom of Illyria grew from the general area of modern-day Albania and eventually controlled much of the eastern Adriatic coastline. Scodra was its capital, just as the city is now the most important urban center of northern Albania...
From the 8th century 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 Durrës) and Apollonia (near modern Fier). The first and perhaps the most important of Greece's colonies in Albania was founded at Epidamnus in 627 B.C. by Greeks from Corcyra (present-day Corfu) and Corinth. Greek and Roman authors called it "the Admirable City" for its temple, statues, and other monuments...
The Romans militarily destroyed Illyrian autonomy in 165 BC. Roman Albania was traversed by the Via Egnatia, the Roman road that linked east with west and Rome with the far eastern reaches of its empire. After being conquered by the Roman Empire, Illyria was reorganized as a Roman province. Illyricum was later divided into the provinces of Dalmatia and Pannonia, the lands comprising modern-day Albania. Many Illyrians during Roman rule contributed significantly to the ranks of the Prætorian Guard. The Albanian language borrowed a great number of Latin words, mostly religious and liturgical terms. This was due to the fact that Albania was at first attached to the See of Rome, though the religion of Jesus was preached to the Albanians by St. Paul himself during a visit he made to Durazzo...
The Ottoman Turks expanded their empire from Anatolia to the Balkans in the 14th century. By the 15th century, the Turks had brought under subjection nearly all of the Balkan peninsula except for a small coastal strip which is included in present-day Albania. Albanian resistance to the Turks in the mid-15th century won them acclaim all over Europe. Albania became a symbol of resistance to the Ottoman Turks but suffered an almost continuous state of warfare...
