What I’m Learning About Albania’s History While Living Here

The Ottoman Period: A Long History Before Modern Albania

Before Albania became the modern country people know today, it spent centuries under Ottoman rule.

That matters because long periods of rule leave marks. They shape food, religion, language influences, architecture, social customs, and daily rhythms. When I see Albania’s café culture, slower social pace, and the way people gather over coffee for long conversations, I see some of that Ottoman and broader Balkan influence still present.

I do not say that as a historian. I say that as someone living here and trying to understand the country beyond the surface.

Albania is not just a beautiful, affordable place to move to. It is a country with layers.

And those layers matter.

Britannica notes that Ottoman conquest cut Albania off from the Renaissance-era developments happening in Western Europe and caused deep disruption to the country’s economy, commerce, art, and culture.

That is important context because Albania’s interrupted development did not start with communism. Some of the pattern of being pulled away from Western European development started much earlier.

Italian Influence and World War II

Albania’s 20th-century history was also shaped by outside powers, including Italy.

Italy invaded Albania in 1939, and during World War II, Albania became part of the wider struggle between fascist occupation, resistance movements, and competing political forces. Enver Hoxha, who later became Albania’s communist leader, was dismissed from his teaching post after refusing to join the Albanian Fascist Party, and he later became involved in communist organizing during the war.

This period matters because Albania did not enter the postwar era with stable democratic institutions or a long runway for modern development.

It entered the postwar period after occupation, war, resistance, and political upheaval.

That set the stage for what came next.

Enver Hoxha and Communist Albania

After World War II, Albania became a communist state under Enver Hoxha.

This is one of the most important parts of Albania’s modern history because it shaped almost everything people still feel the effects of today.

Britannica describes how, after the war, the communists took control of Albania, Hoxha became the country’s leader, and Albania later became the People’s Republic of Albania in 1946.

Under Hoxha, Albania became one of Europe’s most isolated communist states. Over time, Albania broke with Yugoslavia, then the Soviet Union, then China. Eventually, the country adopted a “go-it-alone” policy and became known as an isolated bastion of Stalinism.

That kind of isolation does not just affect politics.

It affects everything.

It affects religion.
It affects architecture.
It affects trust.
It affects infrastructure.
It affects institutions.
It affects how people do business.
It affects how quickly a country can modernize once it finally opens back up.

And that is the part I think many outsiders miss.

The Years Albania Lost While Isolated

This is the part I keep coming back to as I live here.

When people compare Albania to Western Europe or the United States, they often forget Albania did not have the same uninterrupted decades of development, investment, private enterprise, international exposure, banking systems, consumer culture, technology, research, and political evolution that many other countries had.

While much of the world was moving through major technological and economic shifts, Albania was largely cut off.

That means there were years — decades, really — where systems many of us take for granted were not developing in the same way here.

Banking.
Business culture.
Customer service expectations.
Digital systems.
Infrastructure.
Political institutions.
Public trust.
International travel.
Religious expression.
Private ownership.
Even everyday social norms.

All of that had to be rebuilt, reshaped, or reintroduced after communism began to collapse.

So when I see something here that feels inefficient, confusing, or slower than what I am used to, I try to pause before judging it.

Because Albania has only had a little over three decades to rebuild parts of society that other countries had much longer to develop.

That is not an excuse for everything.

But it is context.

And context matters when you are living in someone else’s country.

The 1990s: Transition, Turmoil, and the Banking Crash

After Hoxha’s death in 1985, Albania slowly began to emerge from isolation. It is impossible to know exactly what Albania would look like today if Hoxha had lived longer. But his death in 1985 mattered. Afterward, Albania slowly began to open up under Ramiz Alia, and by the early 1990s the country was forced into the same wave of political change that was reshaping much of Eastern Europe.

By the early 1990s, the country was moving into a post-communist transition, with the first multiparty elections held in 1991.

But transition was not smooth.

Albania moved from an isolated communist system into a market economy with limited institutional experience, weak financial systems, and people trying to figure out a completely different way of life.

Then came the 1996–1997 pyramid scheme collapse.

This is important because it helps explain why financial trust can still be complicated. The IMF describes Albania as being “convulsed” by the rise and collapse of large pyramid schemes during 1996–1997.

I would be careful not to say this is the only reason cash is still common here. Cash culture has many layers: habit, informality, banking access, tax practices, trust, and day-to-day convenience.

But after learning about the pyramid scheme crisis, I can understand why trust in banks, institutions, and financial systems may have developed differently here.

If a country goes through decades of isolation and then a major financial collapse shortly after opening up, that leaves a mark.

Albania Today: Still Rebuilding, Still Moving Forward

What stands out to me is not how far Albania still has to go.

It is how much progress this small country has made in such a short amount of time.

Albania has only been out from under communism for a little over three decades. That is not long in the life of a country.

And yet Tirana is changing quickly.

New buildings are going up.
Businesses are growing.
Tourism is rising.
Young people are connected to the world.
English is common in many spaces.
Cafés are full.
The country is still developing, but it is also moving.

Living here has made me more careful with the word “behind.”

Because sometimes what looks “behind” to an outsider is really a country still carrying the weight of history while building its next chapter.

That deserves more respect than quick judgment.