Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/718

 66Q ALBANIA.

(Sktpanik. ) The geographical district known as Albania was made up of the Turkish Provinces of Scutari and of Yanina, and of the parts of the Ottoman vilayets of Rossovo and Monastir, which bordered upon those Provinces. The Albanians are divided into two principal groups — the Ghegs, who live in the north, and the Tosks, who live in the south.

Little is known of their early history. From 1431, when the Turks captured Yanina, the Albanians remained under Turkish rule, except for two brief periods of independence, first between 1443 and 1477, under the Gheg Chieftain George Castriot, and again in the eighteenth century, under the Tosk, Ali of Tepedelen. In 1880 the short-lived Albanian League was founded, making an unsuccessful effort to obtain independence.

The Albanians have an hereditary aristocracy, and a more or less well- defined feudal system. Whilst in the north they are divided into clans or tiibes, in the south the people look fcr guidance to a system of beys or chiefs, whose power is very considerable. The Albanian language is held by most authorities to be of Aryan origin. The dialects employed in the north and in the south are somewhat different.

The independence of Albania was proclaimed at Valona on November 28, 1912, and on December 20, 1912, the London Ambassadorial Conference agreed to the principle of Albanian autonomy. Subsequently that Con- ference approximately decided the frontiers of the new country, and agreed that a European Prince be nominated to rule it. Prince William of Wied, having accepted the crown of the new country from an Albanian deputation, which offered it to him at Neuwied, on February 21, 1914, arrived at Durazzo on March 7, 1914.

The Government of the country was vested in the hands of the Prince, supported and advised by an International Commission of Control, the creation of which was agreed to by the Ambassadorial Conference in July, 1913.

After the outbreak of the European war in the latter days of July, 1914, the Prince and nearly all the members of the International Commission left Albania, which fell again into a state of anarchy. An attempt was made by Essad Pasha Topdani, who had been expelled from the country in May but who returned in September, after the departure of the Prince of Wied, to establish a military government with its seat at Durazzo, but the effort failed (October 5, 1914). Disorder continued, and eventually the Austrians overran Albania, capturing San Giovanni di Medua on January 25, 1916, and Durazzo on February 28, 1916. On June 3, 1917, the general in charge of the Italian forces proclaimed Albania an independent country, and a provisional Government was set up at Durazzo. The final status of the country will be determined by the Peace Conference.

Area and Population, — The frontiers of Albania, which were pro- visional, were shown in the map of the P>alkan Peninsula which accompanied The Statesman's Year Book for 1914. The estimated probable area of the country is between 10,500 and 11,500 square miles, and the population between 800,000 and 850,000 souls. The principal towns, with estimated population, are as follows : — Durazzo, the provisional capital, 5,000 ; Scutari, 32,000; Elbasan, 13,000; Tirana, 12,000; Argyrocastro, 12,000 ; Berat, 8,500 ; Korytza, 8,000 ; Valona, 6.500.

Religion and Instruction. — About two-thirds of the Albanians are Moslems. Of the remaining one-third the Christians in the north are for