A Brief Historical Overview of the Development of Albanian.docVIP

A Brief Historical Overview of the Development of Albanian Nationalism Bernd J. Fischer Bernd J. Fischer is Professor and Chair of the Department of History at Indiana University-Fort Wayne. He spoke at an EES noon discussion on March 23, 2005. The following is a summary of his presentation. Meeting Report 313. The most dangerous outcome of the destruction of command socialism in the Balkans has been the resurfacing of militant nationalism particularly, it seems, in the western part of the peninsula. These events have encouraged a reexamination of the various Balkan nationalisms in terms of origins and course. It is the purpose of this paper briefly to examine the Albanian variant and some aspects of nationalist formation during its various stages of development, followed by some thoughts on the future of nationalism in Albania. Albania was the last of the Balkan nations to achieve independence, and the last to develop a modern national consciousness. Why was nationalist development in Albania delayed and, when it finally arrived, what form did it take? While these questions are complex, the former can be understood in terms of both conscious Ottoman policy and the nature of the Albanians themselves. The Ottomans, who ruled the Albanians for some four centuries, instituted policies that effectively inhibited the development of a national consciousness. Some of these policies were applied to the Balkan peoples in general while others were applied only to the Albanians. As an example of the former, the Ottomans divided their subjects into administrative units without regard to nationality, with Albanians being divided into four separate vilayets, or administrative regions. Religion was not associated with nationality in Albania, as it was in much of the rest of the Balkans. Instead, the Ottomans correctly concluded that language, education and culture were the critical elements in the development of Albanian nationalism. In response, severe restrictions were placed