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The Illyrians, ancestors of today's Albanians, occupied the western Balkans in the 2nd millennium BC, and a convoy of interested warring states followed. The Greeks arrived in the 7th century BC, set up self governing colonies and in the main traded peacefully with the Illyrians, who set up their own tribal states by the 4th century BC. The Greeks took over the south, and still have a claim on it today. The expanding Roman Empire came to blows with an expanding Illyrian Empire based around Shkodra in present day northern Albania, and the Illyrians came off the worse after the Romans sent 200 warships in 228 BC. The Romans spread their rule to the whole of the Balkans by 167 BC, and in the main Illyria enjoyed peace and prosperity, as long as you weren't one of the slaves working on the agricultural estates.

When the Romans couldn't hold on any longer, the Visigoths, Huns, Ostrogoths and Slavs salivating outside city limits struck poses then compared armies during the 5th and 6th centuries AD. In the 11th century, the Byzantines, Bulgarians and Normans squabbled over the northern region of Illyria, which, before Roman times, had stretched north to the Danube. Serbia, the Turks under the Ottoman Empire and even the Venetians all came and stayed, at least in parts of Illyria, but in 1479 the Ottomans invaded and ruled until 1912, letting the region languish as the most backward part of Europe. In 1878, the Albanian League at Prizen (in present day Kosovo, Yugoslavia) began a struggle for autonomy that continues today. The Turkish army squashed the first glimmers of independence in 1881, but further uprisings between 1910 and 1912 culminated in the declaration of independence and the formation of a provincial government led by Ismail Qemali. The London Ambassadors' Conference of 1913, however, put paid to aspirations of independence by handing Kosova, (you're less likely to cause offence if you call it Kosova) - nearly half of Albania - over to the Serbs.

WWI temporarily wiped away further moves for independence as Albania was occupied by Greece, Serbia, France, Italy and Austria-Hungary in succession. From 1920 to 1939 the country governed itself, but Ahmet Zogu, representing the landed aristocracy, went to bed with Mussolini's Italy. That move sprang back to hit him in the face when the Italians invaded at the outbreak of WWII. The communists, under Enver Hoxha, led the resistance against Italy and, after 1943, Germany. By October 1944 they'd thrown the Germans out, the only East European nation to do so without the assistance of Soviet troops. The communists consolidated power after the war, and proclaimed the People's Republic of Albania in 1946.

Two years later the country broke off relations with Yugoslavia and allied itself with Stalin's USSR. Britain and the USA backed a few Balkan-style Bay of Pigs operations - landings by right-wing Albanian émigrés, which nevertheless failed to topple the communists. When Khruschchev demanded submarine bases in 1960, Albania broke off diplomatic relations. After the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, Albania left the Warsaw Pact altogether. It embarked on a self-reliant defence policy that has left the country littered with around 750,000 igloo-shaped concrete bunkers and pillboxes, some of which have since been painted in bright colours. After the break with the USSR in 1960, Albania turned toward China for its inspiration, even embarking on its own cultural revolution in 1966-67. Albania's special relationship with China ended in 1978.

Hoxha died in 1985, and the new leader, Ramiz Alia, embarked on a liberalisation program and strengthened Albania's ties abroad. By early 1990 the collapse of communism in most of Eastern Europe had created a sense of expectation in Albania, and after student demonstrations in December the government agreed to allow opposition parties to exist. The communists won the 1991 elections, but by mid-May a general strike forced the ruling Socialist Party into a coalition with the opposition Democrats. Central economic planning was now on the skids, factories ceased production and the food distribution network broke down. By late 1991 the country faced chaos, and food riots broke out in December. The EU, fearful of a refugee crisis, stepped up economic aid, and the Italian army set up a large military base south of Durrës to supervise food shipments.

The 1992 elections ended 47 years of communist rule, and the Democratic Party wasted no time in launching a witch hunt against former communists and party officials. By 1993, Amnesty International was prompted to condemn the increasing human-rights violations in the country. Albania signed a military agreement with Turkey in 1992 and joined the Islamic Conference Association in a move to counter Greek territorial claims to southern Albania (which the Greeks call Northern Epiros). The mid to late 90s saw quick changes in prime ministers and presidents as the new democracy stumbled and nearly collapsed, and many Albanians left the country in search of work. As much as 20% of the labour force currently works abroad, mainly in Greece and Italy. When NATO bombed Yugoslavia in spring 1999, nearly half a million ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo spilled over the border into neighbouring Albania.