Albania

Albania, a small country (about 11,000 sq. mi.) located on the Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe, has a coast on the Adriatic and Ionian seas to the west and southwest and is bordered by Greece to the south, the Republic of Macedonia and Kosovo to the east, and Montenegro to the northwest. Throughout most of the 20th century, Albania was a tumultuous country where war was ever present as internal and external factions attempted to pull Albania in different directions.

Albania began the 20th century as a part of the Ottoman Empire. Independent Albania was born in the middle of the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913 and struggled for survival throughout 1913–1924 as the settlements of the Balkan Wars, the First World War, and Albania’s domestic politics ...