Prior to the Roman invasion in the second century BC, the present territory of Albania was home to the Illyrian tribes, an Indo-European people. After the collapse of the Roman Empire in the west, Albania came under the control of the Byzantine Empire and later of Bulgaria and Serbia.

During the late 14th century, the Ottoman Turks invaded the Balkans and made repeated attempts to conquer Albania. However, fierce resistance by an alliance of Albanian Princes - led by Prince Skanderberg - held the Turks back for over twenty years. It wasn't until after Skanderberg's death in 1468 that Albania was finally incorporated into the Ottoman Empire.

Ottoman rule lasted for nearly 500 years, and during this time the vast majority of the Albanian population adopted a Turkish way of life and converted to Islam.

Albanian nationalism was reborn after the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-78, when the proposed peace settlement offered large parts of Albanian territory to Russia's allies in the Balkans. The Albanian League was formed to oppose any territorial division, but was crushed by Turkish troops in 1881.

In 1912, the remaining part of Albania was occupied by troops from Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and Montenegro during the First Balkan War. On 28 November 1912, Albania officially declared independence from the Ottoman Empire, although it was still under occupation. In 1913, Albania's independence was confirmed, although it's borders were redefined to cede significant portions of territory to Montenegro, Serbia and Greece.

During the First World War, Albania was occupied by various of the warring powers, with Italy (on the side of the Allies) gaining control by 1917. In 1919 Italy as given a mandate for ruling Albania by the Paris Peace Conference, but this ruling was vigorously opposed by the Albanians and in July 1920 the Italians withdrew. Albania joined the League of Nations later that year.

In 1922, Ahmed Bey Zogu became premier, but he soon had to face a series of revolts and uprisings challenging his leadership. Zogu eventually restored control and on 25 January 1925 Albania was proclaimed a republic, with Zogu being elected President on 1 February 1925. In the same year, Zogu initiated the first of a series of financial loans from Italy, which were to lead to Albania's growing financial dependence on Italy. On 1 September 1928, Ahmed Zogu declared himself King Zog I.

The Italians invaded Albania on 7 April 1939, before the start of World War 2, and King Zog was exiled. Armed royalist resistance to the Italian occupation began in 1940, but by 1942 this was eclipsed by stronger republican-nationalist and communist partisan forces. Following the collapse of Fascist Italy in 1943, Nazi Germany invaded Albania to prevent it falling into Allied hands. The communist led resistance, with help from the Allies, captured Tiranė from the Germans in November 1944. A hardline Stalinist regime was immediately established under the leadership of Enver Hoxha. This has been described as one of the most paranoid, repressive, puritanical and isolationist dictatorships in Europe.

In January 1946 Albania became a People's Republic under Soviet sponsorship. Albania joined the Warsaw Pact organisation in May 1955. Relations with the USSR were severed in December 1961, when Albania supported Mao's China during the Sino-Soviet schism. Soviet aid was replaced by Chinese aid. In September 1968 Albania formally withdrew from the Warsaw Pact. Relations with China were severed in 1977 following a disagreement with the new post-Mao Chinese leadership, bringing an end to all Chinese aid. With no outside support, the feeble Albanian economy rapidly contracted and by 1989 39 per cent of all Albanian children were suffering from malnutrition.

After Hoxha's death in 1985, power passed to President Ramiz Alia. Political and social reforms were introduced, leading to the formation of the opposition Democratic party in December 1990. The former communists won the first contested multi-party elections in March 1991, but were eventually forced from office by widespread strikes. Fresh elections in March 1992 were decisively won by the Democratic party. By now, Albania's crumbling collectivist command economy had largely collapsed, with catastrophic human consequences.

In January 1997, widespread rioting was triggered by the collapse of a pyramid-style private investment plan which had attracted huge numbers of desperate Albanians. In March 1997 the country fell into anarchy as protestors took control of the major cities and the government established armed militia units. As civil war loomed, large numbers of Albanians fled the country for better prospects abroad. In mid-April 1997 some 1200 peacekeeping troops from Italy, Spain and France arrived. The peacekeeping mission, a change of government in June 1997 and rapid international aid led to a gradual restoration of order.

In February and March 1999, Albania began to receive the first of many hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing the attempted 'genocide' in the neighbouring Serbian province of Kosovo. Although poor, the Albanians did their best to look after the newcomers until emergency aid could arrive from NATO and the International Community. The effort re-united the country and it's efforts were recognised around the world. In mid April 1999 Albania put all it's ports, airbases and other facilities at the disposal of NATO. NATO forces were now busy conducting relief operations within Albania, in parallel with intensive air strikes on the Serb forces in Kosovo causing the crisis. With the end of the war in June 1999, refugees began to return to their homes in Kosovo. Economic and technical aid aimed at strengthening the Albanian economy began to arrive soon after.