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Description
Kristo Frashëri’s The History of Albania (A Brief Survey) takes the reader through all the major events in the history of the Albanian people, detailing all the human activity that has taken place on today’s Albanian soil, going back to the ancient Illyrians, of whom modern Albanians are descendants of. The reader gets a sense of the brutal and weighty oppression and profound sufferings through centuries of Byzantine, Ottoman and Italo-German occupation. But through these ages, never has the Albanian put down his weapon, and this has distinguished him among nations. In its history of resistance, Albania is given vitality and life. One can never forget the great anti-Turkish rebellion of Gjergj Kastroti-Skanderbeg, the father of Albania, who hoisted the double-headed eagle at Kruja, held off the Ottoman hordes with a small army and few means for 40 years at a time when no other European could defeat Turkey. Nor can one forget the struggle led by the League of Prizren and, later, Ismail Qemali after the Congress of Berlin arbitrarily divided up autochthonous Albanian territory between regional powers — on November 28, 1912, Albania by virtue of the Congress of Vlora won its independence. Nor can one forget the legendary epic of the Anti-Fascist National Liberation War, with Comrade Enver Hoxha at the head. The nazi-fascist occupiers threw hundreds of thousands of soldiers at little Albania, but the Albanian, with no outside aid, liberated himself. If there is a red thread throughout Albanian history, it is that despite tremendous crimes committed against Albania, she has been defeated but never conquered, she has the honour of being defended by a people who can never be put down, either by the word or by force. It is a history which has never been appreciated by foreigners, but when one gets close to it, one feels closer than flesh to the bone.