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This article briefly outlines each period of History of Albania only; details are presented in separate articles (see the links in the box and below).
Main article: Illyria
The Albanian people are the direct descendants of a group of tribes known as the Illyrians, who may have arrived in the Balkans around 2000 BC. They intermingled and made war with the Epirote Greeks, Thracians, and Macedonians before succumbing to Roman rule around the time of Jesus Christ.
Following the split of the Roman Empire in 395, the Byzantine Empire established its control over present-day Albania. It was during this time (1043) that the Byzantine Emperor, Alexius I Comnenus made the first recorded reference to a people called the Albanians.
Main article: Albania in the Middle Ages
All the Illyrian tribes except the Albanians disappeared during the Dark Ages under the waves of migrating barbarians. A forbidding mountain homeland and resilient tribal society enabled the Albanians to survive into modern times with their identity and their Indo-European language intact.
Main article: Albanian lands under Ottoman domination
OttomanOsmanlı İmparatorluğu Devlet-i Aliye-i Osmaniye The Ottoman Coat of Arms Imperial motto: unknown The Ottoman Empire at the height of its power Official language Ottoman Turkish Capital İstanbul ( Constantinople) Sovereigns Sultans supremacy in the Balkan region began in 1385Events August 14 Battle of Aljubarrota between the Portuguese under John I of Portugal and the Castilians, under John I of Castile. The decisive Portuguese victory garantees independence and ends the 1383-1385 Crisis John I of Portugal becomes the first P but was briefly interrupted in the 15th century14th century 15th century 16th century other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 15th century was that century which lasted from 1401 to 1500. Events Renaissance affects philosophy, science and art. The New Monarchs come to power i, when an Albanian warrior known as Skenderbeg united his countrymen and fought-off Turkish rule from 1443Events Albanians, under Skanderbeg, defeat the Turks John Hunyadi defeats Turks at the Battle of Nis Vlad II Dracul begins his second term as ruler of Wallachia, succeeding Basarab II. Births May 31 Margaret Beaufort (mother of Henry VII of England) Decem- 1478Events February 18 George, Duke of Clarence, convicted of treason against his older brother Edward IV of England, is privately executed in the Tower of London. April 26 The Pazzi attack Lorenzo de' Medici and kill his brother Giuliano during High Mass in. Upon the Ottomans' return, a large number of Albanians fled to ItalyThe Italian Republic or Italy ( Italian: Italia is a country in the south of Europe, consisting mainly of a boot-shaped peninsula together with two large islands in the Mediterranean Sea: Sicily and Sardinia. To the north, where it borders France, Switzer, Greece and Egypt and many of the Albanians who remained (about two-thirds of the Albanian population), converted to the Islamic faith. Many Albanians won fame and fortune as soldiers, administrators, and merchants in far-flung parts of the empire. As the centuries passed, however, Ottoman rulers lost the capacity to command the loyalty of local pashas, who governed districts on the empire's fringes. Soon pressures created by emerging national movements among the empire's farrago of peoples threatened to shatter the empire itself. The Ottoman rulers of the nineteenth century struggled in vain to shore up central authority, introducing reforms aimed at harnessing unruly pashas and checking the spread of nationalist ideas.