Albanian National Awakening

The Albanian National Awakening (Albanian: Rilindja or Rilindja Kombëtare), commonly known as the Albanian Renaissance or Albanian Revival, is a period throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, concerning a cultural, political, and social movement in Albanian history where the Albanian people gathered strength to establish an independent cultural and political life, as well as the country of Albania.

Prior to the rise of nationalism, Albania remained under the rule of the Ottoman Empire for almost five centuries and the Ottoman authorities suppressed any expression of national unity or institutional national conscience by the Albanian people. There is some debate among experts regarding when the Albanian nationalist movement should be considered to have started. Some sources attribute its origins to the revolts against centralisation in the 1830s, others to the publication of the first attempt by Naum Veqilharxhi at a standardized alphabet for Albanian in 1844, or to the collapse of the League of Prizren during the Eastern Crisis in 1881. Various compromise positions between these three theses have also emerged, such as one view positing that Albanian nationalism had foundations that dated earlier but "consolidated" as a movement during the Great Eastern Crisis (1876–1881).

Another view is that Albanian nationalism's roots "sprouted" in the reforms of the first decades of the 19th century, and that Albanian nationalism emerged properly in the 1830s and 1840s, when it was a romantic movement for societal reform that was initially mainly driven by Albanians publishing from abroad; it transformed into an overt political national movement in the 1870s. On 20 December 1912, the Conference of Ambassadors in London recognized an independent Albania within its present-day borders.

Background

Albanian Pashaliks

When the central authority of the Ottoman Empire and the timar system weakened, anarchy emerged in the Albanian-populated region of the empire, and in the late 18th century, two Albanian centers of power arose: the Pashalik of Shkodra under the Bushati family; and the Pashalik of Yanina under Ali Pasha of Tepelenë. Both cooperated with and defied the Sublime Porte as their interests required. The Albanian people (both Muslim and Christian) had a great influence in the politics and events of the late 18th century and early 19th century Ottoman Empire, and in particular they played a key role in the Greek War of Independence, on both sides of the war.