1.
Glossary of vexillology
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Flag terminology is the nomenclature, or system of terms, used in vexillology, the study of flags, to describe precisely the parts, patterns, and other attributes of flags and their display. Badge A coat of arms or simple heraldic symbol, canton Any quarter of a flag, but commonly means the upper hoist quarter, such as the field of stars in the flag of the United States or the Union Jack in the Australian Flag. Charge A figure or symbol appearing in the field of a flag, emblem A device often used as a charge on a flag. It may be heraldic in origin or modern, for example the maple leaf on the Canadian Flag, field The background of a flag, the color behind the charges. Fimbriation A narrow edging or border, often in white or gold, for example the white and gold lines of the South African Flag. Fly The half or edge of a flag farthest away from the flagpole and this term also sometimes refers to the horizontal length of a flag. Hoist The half or edge of a flag nearest to the flagpole and this term also sometimes refers to the vertical width of a flag. Length The span of a flag along the side at right angles to the flagpole, width The span of a flag down the side parallel to the flagpole. Flags often inherit traits seen in traditional European heraldry designs and as a result patterns often share names, banderole or bannerol A small flag or streamer carried on the lance of a knight, or a long narrow flag flying from the mast-head of a ship. Banner Generically, a synonym for a flag of any kind, in heraldry, a flag whose design is the same as the shield in a coat of arms, but usually in a square or rectangular shape, also known as a banner of arms. Burgee A distinguishing flag of a recreational boating organisation, Civil ensign, merchant flag or merchant ensign A version of the national flag flown by civil ships to denote nationality. Civil flag A version of the flag flown by civilians on non-government installations or craft. Colour or color The flag of a military unit, courtesy flag or courtesy ensign A flag flown by a visiting ship in foreign waters as a token of respect. Ensign The flag of a ship or military unit, may also be used generically as a synonym for a flag of any kind. Fanion A small flag used by the French military, gonfalon, gonfanon or gonfalone A type of heraldic flag suspended from a crossbar. Guidon A small flag borne by a military unit, in Scots heraldry, a smaller version of the Standard. Pennon or pennant A flag larger at the hoist than at the fly, pipe banner A decorative flag for the Scottish Highland bagpipes. Prayer flag A type of flag found strung along mountain ridges and peaks in the Himalayas, rank flag or distinguishing flag The flag flown by a superior naval officer on his flagship or headquarters
2.
National flag
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A national flag is a flag that symbolizes a country. The flag is flown by the government, but usually can also be flown by citizens of the country, historically, flags originate as military standards, used as field signs. The practice of flying flags indicating the country of origin outside of the context of warfare became common with the flag, introduced during the age of sail. Most countries of Europe adopted a flag in the course of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The specifications of the flag of Denmark were codified in 1748, the flag of Switzerland was introduced in 1889, also based on medieval war flags. The Netherlands introduced two national flags in 1813, the Ottoman flag was adopted in 1844. Other non-European powers followed the trend in the late 19th century, the flag of Japan being introduced in 1870, the Flag of the United States is not defined in the constitution but rather in a separate Flag Resolution passed in 1777. Minor design changes of national flags are passed on a legislative or executive level. A change in national flag is due to a change of regime. In such cases, the origins of the national flag. In such cases national flags acquire the status of a political symbol, the flag of Germany, for instance, was a tricolour of black-white-red under the German Empire, inherited from the North German Confederation. The Weimar Republic that followed adopted a black-red-gold tricolour, nazi Germany went back to black-white-red in 1933, and black-red-gold was reinstituted by the two successor states, West Germany and East Germany following World War II. Similarly the flag of Libya introduced with the creation of the Kingdom of Libya in 1951 was abandoned in 1969 with the coup led by Muammar Gaddafi. It was used again by National Transitional Council and by anti-Gaddafi forces during the Libyan Civil War in 2011 and officially adopted by the Libyan interim Constitutional Declaration. There are three types of national flag for use on land, and three for use at sea, though many countries use identical designs for several of these types of flag. On land, there is a distinction between civil flags, state flags, and war or military flags, state flags are those used officially by government agencies, whereas civil flags may be flown by anyone regardless of whether they are linked to government. War flags are used by organisations such as Armies, Marine Corps. In practice, many countries have identical flags for these three purposes, national flag is used as a vexillological term to refer to such a three-purpose flag
3.
Flag
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A flag is a piece of fabric with a distinctive design that is used as a symbol, as a signaling device, or as decoration. National flags are patriotic symbols with varied wide-ranging interpretations, often including strong military associations due to their original, flags are also used in messaging, advertising, or for other decorative purposes. The study of flags is known as vexillology, from the Latin word vexillum, due to the use of flags by military units, flag is also used as the name of some military units. A flag is equivalent to a brigade in Arab countries, and in Spain, in antiquity, field signs or standards were used in warfare that can be categorized as vexilloid or flag-like. During the High Middle Ages flags came to be used primarily as a device in battle. Already during the medieval period, and increasingly during the Late Middle Ages. Regimental flags for individual units became commonplace during the Early Modern period, flags also became the preferred means of communications at sea, resulting in various systems of flag signals, see, International maritime signal flags. One of the most popular uses of a flag is to symbolize a nation or country, some national flags have been particularly inspirational to other nations, countries, or subnational entities in the design of their own flags. Some prominent examples include, The flag of Denmark, the Dannebrog, is attested in 1478, the flag of the Netherlands is the oldest tricolour. Its three colours of red, white and blue go back to Charlemagnes time, the 9th century, the coastal region of what today is the Netherlands was then known for its cloth in these colours. Maps from the early 16th century already put flags in these colours next to this region, a century before that, during the 15th century, the three colours were mentioned as the coastal signals for this area, with the three bands straight or diagonal, single or doubled. As state flag it first appeared around 1572 as the Princes Flag in orange–white–blue, soon the more famous red–white–blue began appearing, becoming the prevalent version from around 1630. Orange made a comeback during the war of the late 18th century. During World War II the pro-Nazi NSB used it, any symbolism has been added later to the three colours, although the orange comes from the House of Orange-Nassau. This use of orange comes from Nassau, which today uses orange-blue, not from Orange, however, the usual way to show the link with the House of Orange-Nassau is the orange pennant above the red-white-blue. It is said that the Dutch Tricolour has inspired many flags but most notably those of Russia, New York City, the national flag of France was designed in 1794. As a forerunner of revolution, Frances tricolour flag style has been adopted by other nations, examples, Italy, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ireland, Haiti, Romania and Mexico. The Union Flag of the United Kingdom is the most commonly used, british colonies typically flew a flag based on one of the ensigns based on this flag, and many former colonies have retained the design to acknowledge their cultural history
4.
Silhouette
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A silhouette is the image of a person, animal, object or scene represented as a solid shape of a single color, usually black, with its edges matching the outline of the subject. The interior of a silhouette is featureless, and the whole is typically presented on a background, usually white. The silhouette differs from an outline, which depicts the edge of an object in a linear form, while a silhouette appears as a solid shape. Silhouette images may be created in any visual media, but was first used to describe pieces of cut paper, which were then stuck to a backing in a contrasting colour. Other artists, especially from about 1790, drew an outline on paper, then painted it in, anything that appears this way, for example, a figure standing backlit in a doorway, may be described as in silhouette. Because of de Silhouettes austere economies, his name synonymous with anything done or made cheaply. Prior to the advent of photography, silhouette profiles cut from black card were the cheapest way of recording a persons appearance, the term silhouette, although existing from the 18th century, was not applied to the art of portrait-making until the 19th century. The silhouette is closely tied in mythology to the origins of art, pliny the Elder, in his Natural History Books XXXIV and XXXV, recounts the origin of painting. In Chapter 5 of Book XXXV, he writes, “We have no knowledge as to the commencement of the art of painting. The Egyptians assert that it was invented among themselves, six years before it passed into Greece. As to the Greeks, some say that it was invented at Sicyon, others at Corinth, but they all agree that it originated in tracing lines round the human shadow. “. In Chapter 15, he tells the story of Butades of Corinth, “Butades, a potter of Sicyon, was the first who invented, at Corinth, the art of modelling portraits in the earth which he used in his trade. Upon seeing this, her father filled in the outline, by compressing clay upon the surface, and so made a face in relief, the pots themselves exhibit strong forms in outline that are indicators of their purpose, as well as being decorative. For this reason profile portraits have been employed on coinage since the Roman era, the early Renaissance period saw a fashion for painted profile portraits and people such as Federico da Montefeltro and Ludovico Sforza were depicted in profile portraits. The profile portrait is linked to the silhouette. This is an important concept for artists who design characters for visual media, a silhouette portrait can be painted or drawn. However, the method of creating silhouette portraits is to cut them from lightweight black cardboard. This was the work of specialist artists, often working out of booths at fairs or markets, a traditional silhouette portrait artist would cut the likeness of a person, freehand, within a few minutes
5.
Double-headed eagle
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In heraldry and vexillology, the double-headed eagle is a charge associated with the concept of Empire. Most modern uses of the symbol are directly or indirectly associated with its use by the Roman/Byzantine Empire, whose use of it represented the Empires dominion over the Near East and the West. But the symbol itself is, in fact, much older, the eagle by itself has long been a symbol of power and dominion. The double-headed eagle motif appears to have its origin in the Ancient Near East. It re-appears in the High Middle Ages, from ca, in a few places, among them the Holy Roman Empire and Russia, the motif was further augmented to create the less prominent triple-headed eagle. Polycephalous mythological beasts are very frequent in the Bronze Age to Iron Age pictorial legacy of the Ancient Near East, especially in the Assyrian sphere, use of the double-headed eagle in Hittite imagery has been interpreted as royal insignia. A monumental Hittite relief of an eagle grasping two hares is found at the eastern pier of the Sphinx Gate at Alaca Hüyük. After the Bronze Age collapse, there is a gap of more than two millennia before the re-appearance of the double-headed eagle motif, the early Byzantine Empire continued to use the imperial eagle motif. A modern theory, forwarded by Zapheiriou, connected the introduction of the motif to Emperor Isaac I Komnenos, Zapheiriou supposed that the Hittite motif of the double-headed bird, associated with the Paphlagonian city of Gangra might have been brought to Byzantium by the Komnenoi. The double-headed eagle motif was adopted in the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm, a royal association of the motif is suggested by its appearance on the keystone of an arch of the citadel built at Ikonion under Kayqubad I. The motif also appears on Turkomen coins of this era, notably on coins minted under Artuqid ruler Nasir al-Din Mahmud of Hasankeyf. The oldest preserved depiction of an eagle in Serbia is the one found in the donor portrait of Miroslav of Hum in the Church of St. Peter and Paul in Bijelo Polje. The double-headed eagle in the Serbian royal coat of arms is attested in the 13th and 14th centuries. An exceptional medieval depiction of a double headed eagle in the west, in Serbia, the Nemanjić dynasty adopted a double-headed eagle by the 14th century. The double-headed eagle was used in coats of arms found in the Illyrian Armorials. The white double-headed eagle on a red shield was used for the Nemanjić dynasty, a Nemanjić eagle was used at the crest of the Hrebeljanović, while a half-white half-red eagle was used at the crest of the Mrnjavčević. Use of the eagle was continued by the modern Karađorđević, Obrenović. The double-headed eagle remained an important motif in the heraldry of the families of Russia
6.
Courage
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Courage is the choice and willingness to confront agony, pain, danger, uncertainty, or intimidation. In some traditions, fortitude holds approximately the same meaning, more recently, courage has been explored by the discipline of psychology. An early Greek philosopher, Plato, set the groundwork for how courage would be viewed to future philosophers, Platos early writings found in Laches show a discussion on courage, but they fail to come to a satisfactory conclusion on what courage is. During the debate between three leaders, including Socrates, many definitions of courage are mentioned, Laches is an early writing of Platos, which may be a reason he does not come to a clear conclusion. In this early writing, Plato is still developing his ideas, in one of his later writings, The Republic, Plato gives more concrete ideas of what he believes courage to be. Civic courage is described as a sort of perseverance – preservation of the belief that has been inculcated by the law through education about what things, ideas of courage being perseverance also are seen in Laches. Plato further explains this perseverance as being able to persevere through all emotions, like suffering, pleasure, as a desirable quality, courage is discussed broadly in Aristotles Nicomachean Ethics, where its vice of shortage is cowardice and its vice of excess is recklessness. In the Roman Empire, courage formed part of the virtue of virtus. Roman philosopher and statesman Cicero lists the cardinal virtues does not name them such, Virtue may be defined as a habit of mind in harmony with reason and it has four parts, wisdom, justice, courage, temperance. In medieval virtue ethics, championed by Averroes and Thomas Aquinas and still important to Roman Catholicism, according to Thomas Aquinas, Among the cardinal virtues, prudence ranks first, justice second, fortitude third, temperance fourth, and after these the other virtues. Part of his justification for this hierarchy is that Fortitude without justice is an occasion of injustice, since the stronger a man is the more ready is he to oppress the weaker. On fortitudes general and special nature, Aquinas says, The term fortitude can be taken in two ways, secondly, fortitude may be taken to denote firmness only in bearing and withstanding those things wherein it is most difficult to be firm, namely in certain grave dangers. Therefore Tully says, that fortitude is deliberate facing of dangers, on this sense fortitude is reckoned a special virtue, because it has a special matter. For it is difficult to allay fear than to moderate daring, since the danger which is the object of daring and fear. Now to attack belongs to fortitude in so far as the latter moderates daring, therefore the principal act of fortitude is endurance, that is to stand immovable in the midst of dangers rather than to attack them. In both Catholicism and Anglicanism, courage is also one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, for Thomas Aquinas, Fortitude is the virtue to remove any obstacle that keeps the will from following reason. In order to true courage in Christianity it takes someone who displays the virtues of faith, hope. Courage is a virtue which Saint Augustine did not consider a virtue for Christians
7.
Sovereign state
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A sovereign state is, in international law, a nonphysical juridical entity that is represented by one centralized government that has sovereignty over a geographic area. International law defines sovereign states as having a permanent population, defined territory, one government, and it is also normally understood that a sovereign state is neither dependent on nor subjected to any other power or state. The existence or disappearance of a state is a question of fact, States came into existence as people gradually transferred their allegiance from an individual sovereign to an intangible but territorial political entity, of the state. States are but one of political orders that emerged from feudal Europe, others being city states, leagues. Westphalian sovereignty is the concept of sovereignty based on territoriality. It is a system of states, multinational corporations. Sovereignty is a term that is frequently misused and that position was reflected and constituted in the notion that their sovereignty was either completely lacking, or at least of an inferior character when compared to that of civilised people. Lassa Oppenheim said There exists perhaps no conception the meaning of which is more controversial than that of sovereignty. It is a fact that this conception, from the moment when it was introduced into political science until the present day, has never had a meaning which was universally agreed upon. In the opinion of H. V. Evatt of the High Court of Australia, sovereignty is neither a question of fact, nor a question of law, but a question that does not arise at all. The right of nations to determine their own status and exercise permanent sovereignty within the limits of their territorial jurisdictions is widely recognized. The Westphalian model of sovereignty has increasingly come under fire from the non-west as a system imposed solely by Western Colonialism. What this model did was make religion a subordinate to politics and this system does not fit in the Islamic world because concepts such as separation of church and state and individual conscience are not recognised in the Islamic religion as social systems. Nation denotes a people who are believed to or deemed to share common customs, religion, language, origins, however, the adjectives national and international are frequently used to refer to matters pertaining to what are strictly sovereign states, as in national capital, international law. State refers to the set of governing and supportive institutions that have sovereignty over a definite territory, State recognition signifies the decision of a sovereign state to treat another entity as also being a sovereign state. Recognition can be expressed or implied and is usually retroactive in its effects. It does not necessarily signify a desire to establish or maintain diplomatic relations, There is no definition that is binding on all the members of the community of nations on the criteria for statehood. In actual practice, the criteria are mainly political, not legal, in international law, however, there are several theories of when a state should be recognised as sovereign
8.
Albania
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Albania, officially the Republic of Albania, is a country in Southeastern Europe. It has a population of 3.03 million as of 2016, Tirana is the nations capital and largest city, followed by Durrës and Vlorë. The country has a coastline on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, the Adriatic Sea to the west. Albania is less than 72 km from Italy, across the Strait of Otranto which connects the Adriatic Sea to the Ionian Sea. In antiquity, the area of Albania was home to several Illyrian, Thracian. After the Illyrian Wars, it part of the Roman provinces of Dalmatia, Macedonia and Moesia Superior. In 1190, the first Albanian state, the Principality of Arbanon was established by archon Progon in the region of Krujë, the territory of Albania was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century, of which it remained part of for the next five centuries. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in Europe, following the Balkan Wars, the Kingdom of Albania was invaded by Italy in 1939, which formed Greater Albania, before becoming a Nazi German protectorate in 1943. The following year, a socialist Peoples Republic was established under the leadership of Enver Hoxha, Albania experienced widespread social and political transformations in the communist era, as well as isolation from much of the international community. In 1991, the Socialist Republic was dissolved and the Republic of Albania was established, Albania is a democratic and developing country with an upper-middle income economy. The service sector dominates the economy, followed by the industrial. After the fall of communism in Albania, Free-market reforms have opened the country to foreign investment, especially in the development of energy, Albania has a high HDI and provides universal health care system and free primary and secondary education to its citizens. Albania is a member of the United Nations, NATO, WTO, World Bank, the Council of Europe, the OSCE and it is also an official candidate for membership in the European Union. Albania is one of the members of the Energy Community, Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation. It is home to the largest lake in Southern Europe and one of the oldest lakes in Europe, Albania is the Medieval Latin name of the country. The name may have a continuation in the name of a settlement called Albanon and Arbanon. During the Middle Ages, the Albanians called their country Arbëri or Arbëni, Albanians today call their country Shqipëri. As early as the 17th century the placename Shqipëria and the ethnic demonym Shqiptarë gradually replaced Arbëria, the two terms are popularly interpreted as Land of the Eagles and Children of the Eagles
9.
House of Kastrioti
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The House of Kastrioti was an Albanian royal and noble family active in the 14th and 15th centuries as the rulers of the Principality of Kastrioti. The first Kastrioti mentioned in documents was a kephale of Kanina in 1368. At the beginning of the 15th century the family controlled the region around Debar at the end of the 14th, the most notable member was Skanderbeg, a magnate and general, regarded an Albanian national hero. Kastrioti, who was a kephale of Kanina in 1368, was the first member of the Kastrioti family mentioned in historical documents. In the 14th century, Kastrioti family was one of the powerful noble families in Albania, whose power and influence was far less than those of Thopia, Dukagjini. According to Kabashi, the Kastrioti were first mentioned in 1394, Kabashi explains that Turkish sources say that the family originated from Kastrat in north Albania. According to Malcolm, they originate from western Kosovo, according to several historians, their surname has its origin in the Greek word kastro. The Kastrioti, unlike the Thopia and the Arianiti, did not have a history as nobility. The first nobleman was either Pal Kastrioti, the lord of Sinë and Lower Gardi, or a Kastrioti, Pal Kastrioti had three sons, Konstantin, Alexius and Gjon Kastrioti who was Skanderbegs father. Konstantin Kastrioti was protovestiar of Sina near Durrazo, according to Venetian document discovered by Karl Hopf his title was Lord of Cerüja castle. Pal held an area of Sinja and Lower Gardi. His son, John Kastrioti, became the lord of Matia and he managed to expand his territory but was ultimately subdued by the invading Ottomans. The most notable member was George Kastrioti Skanderbeg, declared an Albanian national hero, renowned in Albanian folklore for his fight against the Ottoman forces
10.
Gjergj Kastriot Skanderbeg
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After leaving Ottoman service, he led a rebellion against the Ottoman Empire in Albania. Skanderbeg always signed himself as Lord of Albania, and claimed no other titles, a member of the noble Kastrioti family, he was sent as a hostage to the Ottoman court, where he was educated and entered the service of the Ottoman sultan for the next twenty years. He rose through the ranks, culminating in the appointment as sanjakbey of the Sanjak of Dibra in 1440, in 1443, he deserted the Ottomans during the Battle of Niš and became the ruler of Krujë, Svetigrad, and Modrič. In 1444, he was appointed the commander of the short-lived League of Lezhë that consolidated nobility throughout what is today Albania. Skanderbegs rebellion was not a general uprising of Albanians, because he did not gain support in the Ottoman-controlled south or Venetian-controlled north and his followers included, apart from Albanians, also Slavs, Vlachs, and Greeks. For 25 years, from 1443 to 1468, Skanderbegs 10,000 man army marched through Ottoman territory winning against consistently larger and better supplied Ottoman forces, for which he was admired. In 1451, he recognized de jure the suzerainty of the Kingdom of Naples through the Treaty of Gaeta, to ensure a protective alliance, in 1460–61, he participated in Italys civil wars in support of Ferdinand I of Naples. In 1463, he became the commander of the crusading forces of Pope Pius II. Together with Venetians he fought against the Ottomans during the Ottoman–Venetian War until his death in January 1468, Skanderbegs military skills presented a major obstacle to Ottoman expansion, and he was considered by many in western Europe to be a model of Christian resistance against the Ottoman Muslims. In 1450 his full name was written in Old Slavic Cyrillic as Đurađ Kastriot, in 1463, his name was written in Latin as Zorzi Castrioti. His given name was spellt Đurađ and Đorđe in Slavic within some correspondences of the based in Albania. The original, Latin form of the surname, Castrioti, is rendered in modern Albanian historiography as Kastrioti, Gjergj is the modern Albanian equivalent of the name George. Charles du Fresne, writing in Latin, used Georgius Castriotus Scanderbegus in his work, C. C. Moore in his biographical work on Skanderbeg used Castriot. The surname is derived from the Latin castrum via the Greek word κάστρο, according to Fan Noli, the surname is a toponym, of Kastriot in modern northeastern Albania. In the 1450 letter in Slavic and Cyrillic sent to Ragusa by Skanderbeg, he was signed as Скедерь бегь, there have been many theories on the place where Skanderbeg was born. Fan Nolis placement of the year of birth in 1405 is now largely agreed upon, after earlier disagreements, Skanderbegs father Gjon Kastrioti was the lord of a province that included Mat, Mirditë and Dibër in north-central Albania. His mother was Voisava, from the Polog valley, most probably a princess of the Brankovic dynasty. There was a total of nine children, of whom Gjergj was the youngest son, his brothers were Stanisha, Reposh and Kostandin
11.
Byzantine flags and insignia
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For most of its history, the Eastern Roman Empire did not know or use heraldry in the West European sense. Various emblems were used in official occasions and for military purposes, the use of the cross, and of icons of Christ, the Theotokos and various saints is also attested on seals of officials, but these were often personal rather than family emblems. The single-headed Roman imperial eagle continued to be used in Byzantium, on coins, the eagle ceases to appear after the early 7th century, but it is still occasionally found on seals of officials and on stone reliefs. In the last centuries of the Empire it is recorded as being sewn on imperial garments, the emblem mostly associated with the Byzantine Empire, however, is the double-headed eagle. It is not of Byzantine invention, but a traditional Anatolian motif dating to Hittite times, the adoption of the double-headed eagle has sometimes been dated to the mid-11th century, when the Komnenoi supposedly adopted it from Hittite rock-carvings in their native Paphlagonia. The Palaiologan emperors used the eagle as a symbol of the senior members of the imperial family. It was mostly used on clothes and other accoutrements, as recorded in the century by pseudo-Kodinos in his Book of Offices. Similarly, the sebastokrator wore blue boots with golden wire-embroidered eagles on a red background, within the Byzantine world, the eagle was also used by the semi-autonomous Despots of the Morea and by the Gattilusi of Lesbos, who were Palaiologan vassals. The double-headed eagle was used in the breakaway Empire of Trebizond as well, being attested imperial clothes, indeed, Western portolans of the 14th–15th centuries use the double-headed eagle as the symbol of Trebizond rather than Constantinople. Single-headed eagles are also attested in Trapezuntine coins, and a 1421 source depicts the Trapezuntine flag as yellow with a red single-headed eagle, apparently, just as in the metropolitan Byzantine state, the use of both motifs continued side by side. In Western Europe, the Holy Roman Empire likewise adopted the eagle in the mid-13th century, under Frederick II Hohenstaufen. As an insigne, the cross was already in frequent use in Byzantium since Late Antiquity, images of flags with crosses quartered with golden discs survive from the 10th century, and a depiction of a flag almost identical to the Palaiologan design is known from the early 13th century. On coins, the Bs were often accompanied by circles or stars up to the end of the Empire, while Western sources sometimes depict the Byzantine flag as a gold cross on red. The symbol was adopted by Byzantine vassals, like the Gattilusi who ruled Lesbos after 1355, or the Latin lords of Rhodes Vignolo dei Vignoli. It was placed on the walls of Galata, apparently as a sign of the Byzantine emperors—largely theoretical—suzerainty over the Genoese colony. Along with the eagle, the tetragrammic cross was also adopted as part of their family coat of arms by the cadet line of the Palaiologos dynasty ruling in Montferrat. Tipaldos rejected Svoronos reading and suggested that they represented a repetition of the motto Σταυρέ, unlike the Western feudal lords, Byzantine aristocratic families did not, as far as is known, use specific symbols to designate themselves and their followers. Only from the 12th century onwards, when the Empire came in increased contact with Westerners because of the Crusades, even then however, the thematology was largely derived from the symbols employed in earlier ages, and its use was limited to the major families of the Empire
12.
Heraldry
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The beauty and pageantry of heraldic designs allowed them to survive the gradual abandonment of armour on the battlefield during the seventeenth century. Heraldry has been described poetically as the handmaid of history, the shorthand of history, in modern times, heraldry is used by individuals, public and private organizations, corporations, cities, towns, and regions to symbolize their heritage, achievements, and aspirations. Various symbols have been used to represent individuals or groups for thousands of years, similar emblems and devices are found in ancient Mesopotamian art of the same period, and the precursors of heraldic beasts such as the griffin can also be found. In the Bible, the Book of Numbers refers to the standards and ensigns of the children of Israel, the Greek and Latin writers frequently describe the shields and symbols of various heroes, and units of the Roman army were sometimes identified by distinctive markings on their shields. The Book of Saint Albans, compiled in 1486, declares that Christ himself was a gentleman of coat armour, the medieval heralds also devised arms for various knights and lords from history and literature. Notable examples include the toads attributed to Pharamond, the cross and martlets of Edward the Confessor, and the arms attributed to the Nine Worthies. These too are now regarded as an invention, rather than evidence of the antiquity of heraldry. The development of the modern heraldic language cannot be attributed to an individual, time. Yet no individual is depicted twice bearing the arms, nor are any of the descendants of the various persons depicted known to have borne devices resembling those in the tapestry. A Spanish manuscript from 1109 describes both plain and decorated shields, none of which appears to have been heraldic, in England, from the time of the Norman conquest, official documents had to be sealed. A notable example of an armorial seal is attached to a charter granted by Philip I, Count of Flanders. Seals from the part of the eleventh and early twelfth centuries show no evidence of heraldic symbolism. One of the earliest known examples of armory as it came to be practiced can be seen on the tomb of Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou. An enamel, probably commissioned by Geoffreys widow between 1155 and 1160, depicts him carrying a shield decorated with six golden lions rampant. He wears a helmet adorned with another lion, and his cloak is lined in vair. A medieval chronicle states that Geoffrey was given a shield of this description when he was knighted by his father-in-law, Henry I, in 1128, but this account probably dates to about 1175. Since Henry was the son of Geoffrey Plantagenet, it seems reasonable to suppose that the adoption of lions as an emblem by Henry or his sons might have been inspired by Geoffreys shield. Richard is also credited with having originated the English crest of a lion statant and it is from this garment that the phrase coat of arms is derived
13.
Middle Ages
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In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and later argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period
14.
Albanians
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Albanians are an ethnic group, native to Albania, Kosovo and neighboring countries. The term is used to refer to the citizens of the Republic of Albania. Ethnic Albanians speak the Albanian language and more than half of ethnic Albanians live in Albania, a large Albanian population lives in the Republic of Macedonia and Italy, with smaller Albanian populations located in Serbia and Montenegro. The majority of Albanians are nominally Muslims, and a minority are nominally Christians, during the 17th and 18th century Albanians in large numbers converted to Islam, often to escape higher taxes levied on Christian subjects. As Muslims, some Albanians attained important political and military positions within the Ottoman Empire, Albania gained its independence in 1912 and between 1945–1992, Albanians lived under a repressive communist regime. Between the 11th and 18th centuries, sizable numbers of Albanians migrated from the area of contemporary Albania to escape either various socio-political difficulties and/or the Ottoman conquest. Another population, who became the Arbëreshë settled in southern Italy and form the oldest continuous Albanian diaspora producing influential, smaller populations dating to migrations during the 18th century are located on Croatias Dalmatian coast and scattered communities across southern Ukraine. The Albanian diaspora also exists in a number of other countries, one of these is located in Turkey. Due to the Ottoman legacy, smaller populations of Albanians also exist in Egypt, in Western countries, a large and influential Albanian population exists in the United States formed from continuous emigration dating back to the 19th century. The Albanians and their country Albania have been identified by many ethnonyms, from these ethnonyms, names for Albanians were also derived in other languages that were or still are in use. The term for a people located in the area of contemporary Albania is first encountered in the works of Byzantine historian Michael Attaliates. He referred to them as Albanoi having taken part in a revolt against the Byzantine Empire in 1043 and these references have been disputed as to whether they refer to Albanians in an ethnic sense. A later reference to Albanians from the same Attaliates regarding the participation of Albanians in a rebellion around 1078 is undisputed. In later Byzantine usage, the terms Arbanitai and Albanoi with a range of variants were used interchangeably, the first reference to the Albanian language dates to the latter 13th century. The ethnonym Albanian has been hypothesized to be connected to and stem from the Albanoi, linguists believe that the alb part in the root word originates from an Indo-European term for a type of mountainous topography, of which other words such as alps is derived from. Through the root word alban and its rhotacized equivalents arban, albar, and arbar, the Albanian language was referred to as Arbnisht and Arbërisht. Two etymologies have been proposed for this ethnonym, one, derived from the etymology from the Albanian word for eagle, in Albanian folk etymology, this word denotes a bird totem, dating from the times of Skanderbeg as displayed on the Albanian flag. The other is within scholarship that connects it to the verb to speak from the Latin excipere, in this instance the Albanian endonym like Slav and others would originally have been a term connoting those who speak
15.
Coat of arms
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A coat of arms is an heraldic visual design on an escutcheon, surcoat, or tabard. The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the heraldic achievement which in its whole consists of shield, supporters, crest. A coat of arms is traditionally unique to a person, family, state. The ancient Romans used similar insignia on their shields, but these identified military units rather than individuals, the first evidence of medieval coats of arms has been attributed to the 11th century Bayeux Tapestry in which some of the combatants carry shields painted with crosses. However, that heraldic interpretation remains controversial, coats of arms came into general use by feudal lords and knights in battle in the 12th century. By the 13th century, arms had spread beyond their initial battlefield use to become a flag or emblem for families in the social classes of Europe. Exactly who had a right to use arms, by law or social convention, in the German-speaking regions both the aristocracy and burghers used arms, while in most of the rest of Europe they were limited to the aristocracy. The use of spread to the clergy, to towns as civic identifiers. Flags developed from coats of arms, and the arts of vexillology, the coats of arms granted to commercial companies are a major source of the modern logo. Despite no widespread regulation, heraldry has remained consistent across Europe, some nations, like England and Scotland, still maintain the same heraldic authorities which have traditionally granted and regulated arms for centuries and continue to do so in the present day. In England, for example, the granting of arms is and has controlled by the College of Arms. Unlike seals and other emblems, heraldic achievements have a formal description called a blazon. Many societies exist that also aid in the design and registration of personal arms, in the heraldic traditions of England and Scotland, an individual, rather than a family, had a coat of arms. In those traditions coats of arms are legal property transmitted from father to son, wives, undifferenced arms are used only by one person at any given time. Other descendants of the bearer could bear the ancestral arms only with some difference. One such charge is the label, which in British usage is now always the mark of an apparent or an heir presumptive. Because of their importance in identification, particularly in seals on legal documents and this has been carried out by heralds and the study of coats of arms is therefore called heraldry. In time, the use of arms spread from military entities to educational institutes, the author Helen Stuart argues that some coats of arms were a form of corporate logo
16.
Ottoman Empire
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After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans the Ottoman Beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror, at the beginning of the 17th century the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal states. Some of these were later absorbed into the Ottoman Empire, while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries. With Constantinople as its capital and control of lands around the Mediterranean basin, while the empire was once thought to have entered a period of decline following the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, this view is no longer supported by the majority of academic historians. The empire continued to maintain a flexible and strong economy, society, however, during a long period of peace from 1740 to 1768, the Ottoman military system fell behind that of their European rivals, the Habsburg and Russian Empires. While the Empire was able to hold its own during the conflict, it was struggling with internal dissent. Starting before World War I, but growing increasingly common and violent during it, major atrocities were committed by the Ottoman government against the Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks. The word Ottoman is an anglicisation of the name of Osman I. Osmans name in turn was the Turkish form of the Arabic name ʿUthmān, in Ottoman Turkish, the empire was referred to as Devlet-i ʿAlīye-yi ʿOsmānīye, or alternatively ʿOsmānlı Devleti. In Modern Turkish, it is known as Osmanlı İmparatorluğu or Osmanlı Devleti, the Turkish word for Ottoman originally referred to the tribal followers of Osman in the fourteenth century, and subsequently came to be used to refer to the empires military-administrative elite. In contrast, the term Turk was used to refer to the Anatolian peasant and tribal population, the term Rūmī was also used to refer to Turkish-speakers by the other Muslim peoples of the empire and beyond. In Western Europe, the two names Ottoman Empire and Turkey were often used interchangeably, with Turkey being increasingly favored both in formal and informal situations and this dichotomy was officially ended in 1920–23, when the newly established Ankara-based Turkish government chose Turkey as the sole official name. Most scholarly historians avoid the terms Turkey, Turks, and Turkish when referring to the Ottomans, as the power of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum declined in the 13th century, Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent Turkish principalities known as the Anatolian Beyliks. One of these beyliks, in the region of Bithynia on the frontier of the Byzantine Empire, was led by the Turkish tribal leader Osman, osmans early followers consisted both of Turkish tribal groups and Byzantine renegades, many but not all converts to Islam. Osman extended the control of his principality by conquering Byzantine towns along the Sakarya River and it is not well understood how the early Ottomans came to dominate their neighbours, due to the scarcity of the sources which survive from this period. One school of thought which was popular during the twentieth century argued that the Ottomans achieved success by rallying religious warriors to fight for them in the name of Islam, in the century after the death of Osman I, Ottoman rule began to extend over Anatolia and the Balkans. Osmans son, Orhan, captured the northwestern Anatolian city of Bursa in 1326 and this conquest meant the loss of Byzantine control over northwestern Anatolia. The important city of Thessaloniki was captured from the Venetians in 1387, the Ottoman victory at Kosovo in 1389 effectively marked the end of Serbian power in the region, paving the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe
17.
Parliament of Albania
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The Parliament of Albania, formerly the Peoples Parliament, is the unicameral parliament of the Republic of Albania. It has 140 members, elected for four-year terms, the electoral system is closed list proportional representation. There are 12 multi-member constituencies, corresponding to the countrys 12 administrative regions, within any constituency, parties must meet a threshold of three percent of votes, pre-election coalitions must meet a threshold of five percent. All laws passed by the parliament are published by the Albanian Official Journal, the legislative system in Albania has evolved under many different regimes, most notably in the period before 1947. From 1920 to 1923, Albanias legislature was known as the National Council, during the era of the Albanian Republic, Albania had a bicameral legislature, consisting of a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies. From 1928 to 1939, during the era of the first iteration of the Albanian Kingdom Albanias legislature was simply as the Parliament. From 1940-1943, during the Italian occupation of Albania and the existence of the 1939 Albanian Kingdom, from 1943 to 1944, during Nazi occupation of Albania and the formation of the 1943 Albanian Kingdom, Albanias legislature was known as the National Assembly. From 1944 to late 1945, a National Anti-fascist Liberation Council was formed by opposing the Nazi puppet government. During multiple periods of regime change Albanias legislature was known as the Constituent Assembly, from 1947 to 1999, during the era of the Peoples Socialist Republic of Albania, Albanias legislature was known as the Peoples Assembly. Since 1997, the parliament has been known simply as the Parliament, currently the President is elected by the parliament. The current members were chosen in the 2013 Albanian parliamentary election and this is a list of political parties with representation in the Albanian parliament following the general parliamentary elections of 2013. Since the end of the 2010 parliamentary season, the parliament has been renovated
18.
Albanian nationalism
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The term is also associated with similar concepts, such as Albanianism and Pan-Albanianism, and ideas what would lead to the formation of a Greater Albania. By the late Ottoman period Albanians were mainly Muslims with close ties to the Ottoman Empire, the lack of previous Albanian statehood to draw upon resulted in Albanian nationalism developing later unlike neighbouring nationalisms of the Serbs and Greeks. During the Hoxha era, scholars, and particularly archeologists, were impelled to establish a connection between the ancient Illyrians and Albanians, Albanian nationalism attaches great importance to the possibility of Illyrian contribution to Albanian ethnogenesis. The Myth of Skanderbeg is one of the main myths of Albanian nationalism. The Myth of Skanderbeg is the myth of Albanian nationalism that is based on a person, the other myths are based on ideas, abstract concepts. Competing with neighbours for contested areas forced Albanians to make their case for nationhood, by the 19th century Albanians were divided into three religious groups. Catholic Albanians who had some Albanian ethno-linguistic expression in schooling and church due to Austro-Hungarian protection, Orthodox Albanians under the Patriarchate of Constantinople had liturgy and schooling in Greek and toward the late Ottoman period mainly identified with Greek national aspirations. While Muslim Albanians during this period formed around 70% of the overall Balkan Albanian population in the Ottoman Empire with a population of more than a million. With the rise of the Eastern Crisis, Muslim Albanians became torn between loyalties to the Ottoman state and the emerging Albanian nationalist movement, Islam, the Sultan and the Ottoman Empire were traditionally seen as synonymous in belonging to the wider Muslim community. While the Albanian nationalist movement advocated self-determination and strived to achieve recognition of Albanians as a separate people. Albanian nationalism was a movement that began among Albanian intellectuals without popular demand from the wider Albanian population, geopolitical events pushed Albanian nationalists, many Muslim, to distance themselves from the Ottomans, Islam and the then emerging pan-Islamic Ottomanism of Sultan Abdulhamid II. The Frashëri brothers, the leaders of the league opposed both Pan-Slavism of southern Slavic peoples and the Greek Megali Idea. The league opposed territory containing Albanian speakers being awarded to Greece, Serbia, the Ottoman state briefly supported the leagues claims viewing Albanian nationalism as possibly preventing further territorial losses to newly independent Balkan states. The geopolitical crisis generated the beginnings of the Rilindja period, at that time, these scholars lacked access to many primary sources to construct the idea that Albanians were descendants of Illyrians, while Greater Albania was not considered a priority. Taking their lead from the Italian national movement, the Arbëresh, began to promote, the last stanza of Vasas poem Feja e shqyptarit asht shqyptarija became during the national awakening period and thereafter a catchword for Albanian nationalists. Albanian nationalists needed an episode from medieval history to centre Albanian nationalist mythology upon, in Albania, largely Islamicized during this period, Skanderbegs fame faded and was rediscovered at the end of the 19th century when the figure of Skanderbeg was brought to the level of national myth. Skanderbegs Christian identity was avoided and he was presented mainly as a defender of the nation, Albanian nationalist writers transformed Skanderbegs figure and deeds into a mixture of historical facts, truths, half-truths, inventions, and folklore. As Orthodoxy was associated with Greek identity, the rise of the Albanian national movement caused confusion for Orthodox Albanians as it interrupted the formation of a Greek national consciousness
19.
Albanian Declaration of Independence
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The Albanian Declaration of Independence is the declaration of independence of the Albanian Vilayet from the Ottoman Empire. Independent Albania was proclaimed in Vlorë on 28 November 1912, the success of the Albanian Revolt of 1912 sent a strong signal to the neighboring countries that the Ottoman Empire was weak. The Kingdom of Serbia opposed the plan for an Albanian Vilayet and that was the reason for Ismail Qemali to organize All-Albanian Congress in Vlora. Under these circumstances, delegates from all over Albania were gathered in the Assembly of Vlorë, Ismail Qemali returned to Albania with Austro-Hungarian support and, at the head of a swiftly convened national assembly, declared Albanian independence in the town of Vlora on 28 November 1912. The declaration was more theoretical than practical because Vlora was the town in the whole country under the delegates’ control―yet it proved to be effective in the vacuum of power. The Ottoman Government had never taken their interests into consideration and had never been willing to recompense the Albanians for the services they had rendered. It had recently shown some interest in coming to an understanding with our people, War had recently broken out with four countries in the Balkans that were seeking change and rights for their peoples, united by their ethnicity and religion. Later, these countries put aside their initial objective and, as the war was going well for them, they agreed to divide the Empire up among themselves, including Albania. As there was no hope of saving Albania by means of arms. Ismail Kemal bey promoted this idea and objective, that was received by all the Great Powers, in particular by Austria. It was only Russia that remained somewhat hostile to the idea because of the Slavs, but it did not deny the existence of Albania and an Albanian people. The delegates unanimously agreed with the words of Ismail Kemal bey and resolved that Albania, as of today, should be on her own, free and independent under a provisional government. The meeting was adjourned until the day and the delegates went out. The assembly of eighty-three leaders meeting in Vlorë in November 1912 declared Albania an independent country, the complete text of the declaration, composed in Albanian and Ottoman Turkish, was, In Vlora, on the 15th/28th of November. This flag was sewn after Skanderbegs principality flag, which had used more than 400 years earlier. On 4 December 1912, the Assembly of Vlorë created the first Government of Independent Albania and it established also a Council of Elders, which would help the Government to it duties. On 1 March 1913, they convened an Albanian Congress of Trieste, there were 119 representatives in all, coming from the United States, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Egypt, Italy, and of course from the new state itself. Bishop Fan Noli of Boston was one of the featured speakers, on December 1912 the Great Powers met in London to deal with territorial adjustments arising out of the conclusion of the First Balkan War
20.
Zog I of Albania
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Zog I, King of the Albanians, born Ahmet Muhtar Zogolli, taking the surname Zogu in 1922, was the leader of Albania from 1922 to 1939. He first served as Prime Minister of Albania, then as President and his rule as king was characterized by oppression of civil liberties and was similar to the concurrent regime in Italy. His family was a family of landowners, with feudal authority over the region of Mati. His mothers Toptani family claimed to be descended from the sister of Albanias greatest national hero and he was educated at Galatasaray High School in Constantinople, then the seat of the decaying Ottoman Empire, which controlled Albania. Upon his fathers death in 1911, Zogolli became governor of Mat, being appointed ahead of his elder brother, in 1912, he signed the Albanian Declaration of Independence as the representative of the Mat District. As a young man during the First World War, Zogolli volunteered on the side of Austria-Hungary and he was detained at Vienna in 1917 and 1918 and in Rome in 1918 and 1919 before returning to Albania in 1919. During his time in Vienna, he grew to enjoy a Western European lifestyle, upon his return, Zogolli became involved in the political life of the fledgling Albanian government that had been created in the wake of the First World War. His political supporters included many southern feudal landowners and noble families in the north, along with merchants, industrialists, during the early 1920s, Zogolli served as Governor of Shkodër, Minister of the Interior, and chief of the Albanian military. His primary rivals were Luigj Gurakuqi and Fan S. Noli, in 1922, Zogolli formally changed his surname from Zogolli to Zogu, which sounds more Albanian. In 1923, he was shot and wounded in Parliament and he returned to Albania with the backing of Yugoslav forces and Yugoslavia-based White Russian troops under General Wrangel and became Prime Minister. Zogu was officially elected as the first President of Albania by the Constituent Assembly on 21 January 1925, on 28 June 1925, Zogu ceded Sveti Naum to Yugoslavia as a gesture of recognition to the Yugoslav aid to him and in exchange for Peshkëpi village and other minor concessions. His principal ally during this period was Italy, which lent his government funds in exchange for a role in Albanias fiscal policy. During Zogus presidency, serfdom was gradually eliminated, for the first time since the death of Skanderbeg, Albania began to emerge as a nation, rather than a feudal patchwork of local Beyliks. His administration was marred by disputes with Kosovar leaders, primarily Hasan Prishtina, however, Zogus Albania was a police state. He all but eliminated civil liberties, muzzled the press and murdered political opponents, under the constitution, Zogu was vested with sweeping executive and legislative powers, including the right to appoint one-third of the upper house. For all intents and purposes, he held all governing power in the nation, on 1 September 1928, Albania was transformed into a kingdom, and President Zogu became Zog I, King of the Albanians. He took as his name his surname rather than his forename. He also initially took the parallel name Skanderbeg III, but this fell out of use, on the same day as he was declared king, he was declared Field Marshal of the Royal Albanian Army
21.
Fasces
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Fasces (/ˈfæsiːz/, is a bound bundle of wooden rods, sometimes including an axe with its blade emerging. The fasces had its origin in the Etruscan civilization, and was passed on to ancient Rome, the image has survived in the modern world as a representation of magisterial or collective power. It should not be confused with the related term fess, which in French heraldry is called a fasce, little is known about the Etruscans, but a few artifacts have been found showing a thin bundle of rods surrounding a two-headed axe. Fasces symbolism might be derived via the Etruscans from the eastern Mediterranean, with the labrys, the Anatolian, and Minoan double-headed axe, later incorporated into the praetorial fasces. By the time of the Roman Republic, the fasces had developed into a bundle of birch rods, sometimes surrounding a single-headed axe. On certain special occasions, the fasces might be decorated with a laurel wreath, the symbolism of the fasces suggested strength through unity, a single rod is easily broken, while the bundle is very difficult to break. This symbolism occurs in Aesops fable The Old Man and his Sons, a similar story is told about the Bulgar Khan Kubrat, giving rise to the Bulgarian National motto Union gives strength. The axe represented the power over life or death through the death penalty, bundled birch twigs symbolise corporal punishment. The fasces lictoriae symbolised power and authority in ancient Rome, beginning with the early Roman Kingdom and continuing through the Republican, by Republican times, use of the fasces was surrounded with tradition and protocol. A corps of apparitores called lictors each carried fasces before a magistrate, the highest magistrate, the dictator, was entitled to twenty-four lictors and fasces, the consul to twelve, the proconsul eleven, the praetor six, the propraetor five, and the curule aediles two. Another part of the symbolism developed in Republican Rome was the inclusion of an axe in the fasces. The axe indicated that the judicial powers included capital punishment. Lictors attending the dictator kept the axes in their fasces even inside the Pomerium—a sign that the dictator had the power in his own hands. An occasional variation on the fasces was the addition of a laurel wreath and this occurred during the celebration of a Triumph - essentially a victory parade through Rome by a returning victorious general. Previously, all Republican Roman commanding generals had held office with imperium. The term is related to the modern Italian word fascio, used in the century to designate peasant cooperatives. Numerous governments and other authorities have used the image of the fasces for a symbol of power since the end of the Roman Empire. It also has used to hearken back to the Roman republic
22.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
23.
Star
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A star is a luminous sphere of plasma held together by its own gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, many other stars are visible to the naked eye from Earth during the night, appearing as a multitude of fixed luminous points in the sky due to their immense distance from Earth. Historically, the most prominent stars were grouped into constellations and asterisms, astronomers have assembled star catalogues that identify the known stars and provide standardized stellar designations. However, most of the stars in the Universe, including all stars outside our galaxy, indeed, most are invisible from Earth even through the most powerful telescopes. Almost all naturally occurring elements heavier than helium are created by stellar nucleosynthesis during the stars lifetime, near the end of its life, a star can also contain degenerate matter. Astronomers can determine the mass, age, metallicity, and many properties of a star by observing its motion through space, its luminosity. The total mass of a star is the factor that determines its evolution. Other characteristics of a star, including diameter and temperature, change over its life, while the environment affects its rotation. A plot of the temperature of stars against their luminosities produces a plot known as a Hertzsprung–Russell diagram. Plotting a particular star on that allows the age and evolutionary state of that star to be determined. A stars life begins with the collapse of a gaseous nebula of material composed primarily of hydrogen, along with helium. When the stellar core is sufficiently dense, hydrogen becomes steadily converted into helium through nuclear fusion, the remainder of the stars interior carries energy away from the core through a combination of radiative and convective heat transfer processes. The stars internal pressure prevents it from collapsing further under its own gravity, a star with mass greater than 0.4 times the Suns will expand to become a red giant when the hydrogen fuel in its core is exhausted. In some cases, it will fuse heavier elements at the core or in shells around the core, as the star expands it throws a part of its mass, enriched with those heavier elements, into the interstellar environment, to be recycled later as new stars. Meanwhile, the core becomes a remnant, a white dwarf. Binary and multi-star systems consist of two or more stars that are bound and generally move around each other in stable orbits. When two such stars have a close orbit, their gravitational interaction can have a significant impact on their evolution. Stars can form part of a much larger gravitationally bound structure, historically, stars have been important to civilizations throughout the world
24.
Maritime flag
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A maritime flag is a flag designated for use on ships, boats, and other watercraft. Naval flags are considered important at sea and the rules and regulations for the flying of flags are strictly enforced, the flag flown is related to the country of registration, so much so that the word flag is often used symbolically as a synonym for country of registration. Ensigns are usually required to be flown when entering and leaving harbour, when sailing through foreign waters, and when the ship is signalled to do so by a warship. Warships usually fly their ensigns between the morning ceremony and sunset when moored or at anchor, at all times when underway. When engaged in battle a warship often flies multiple battle ensigns and this tradition dates from the era of sailing vessels. Tradition dictated that if a ship lowered its ensign it was deemed to have surrendered, masts were targets of gunfire, and the second and subsequent ensigns were flown in order to keep the ensign flying even after a mast hit. Jacks are additional national flags flown by warships at the head of the ship and these are usually flown while not underway and when the ship is dressed on special occasions. Jacks in the Royal Navy must be run up when the first line is ashore when coming alongside, although they continued to fly the same ensign as U. S. Since then, commissioned ships of NOAA, which fly the same national ensign as U. S. Navy ships, have flown the flag of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as a distinguishing mark. Similarly, all ships of the United States Lighthouse Service flew the U. S, the rank flag or distinguishing flag is the flag flown by a superior officer on his flagship or headquarters. The origins of this are from the era before radiotelegraphy and radiotelephony, the flag denotes the ship which must be watched for signals designating orders. Such flags are also flown when leaders of the government are aboard Navy ships, today, with the progress in communications, this flag indicates the obligation of the other Naval vessels to pay the relevant honours according to nautical etiquette. In a group of ships all commanded by superior officers. In the Royal Navy, admirals fly rectangular rank flags, an Admiral of the Fleet flies a Union Flag, the flags of vice-admirals and rear-admirals have one and two additional red balls respectively. Commodores fly a Broad Pennant which is a short swallow-tailed pennant based on the St Georges Cross, in the United States Navy as well as in some other countries, admirals fly rectangular flags with stars according to rank. Line officer flags are blue with stars, while staff officer flags are white with blue stars. Captains, when commanding a flotilla or squadron, fly a burgee with the colours of Hellenic Navy Jack, when a rank flag is flown the commissioning pennant is displaced downward. The pennant, historically called a pennon, is a long narrow flag, conveying different meanings depending on its design, examples, A commissioning pennant, or masthead, which a warship flies from its masthead and indicates the commission of the captain of the ship
25.
Civil ensign
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Civil ensign is the ensign used by civilian vessels to denote nationality. It can be the same or different from the state ensign and its also known as the merchant ensign or merchant flag. Some countries have civil ensigns for yachts, and even for specific yacht clubs. Most countries have one national flag and ensign for all purposes. In other countries, a distinction is made between the flag and the civil, state and naval ensigns. The civil ensigns that are different from the flag can be grouped into a number of categories. Several countries use red flags with, in most cases, either the national flag or the Union Flag in the canton. British overseas territories fly the plain Red Ensign or a Red Ensign with the colonial arms in the fly. Saudi Arabia puts its national flag in the canton of an otherwise-green flag, Ghana stopped using its Red Ensign in 2003 with the adoption of a new merchant shipping act, which made the Ghanaian flag the proper national colors for Ghana ships. Similarly, Sri Lanka stopped using its Red Ensign in 1969, several countries have civil ensigns that are very different from the national flag, for instance Malta and Luxembourg. Well-known examples are the Italian civil ensign showing the shield with the arms of the sea republics or the Polish civil ensign with the arms of Poland, most of these emblems were added to distinguish the ensign from similar flags of other countries or from other signal flags. In several countries there are two versions of the flag, a simpler one and a more elaborate one with the national arms. The simpler one is used as ensign, whereas the version with the arms is mainly used by the government. In Spain and Argentina the flag without the arms is only a variant for civil use, in El Salvador, the civil ensign also differs from the national flag in the proportions. France is a case, the overall proportion is the same. Civil and merchant ensigns Civil air ensign
26.
Naval ensign
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Naval ensign is the ensign used by Navy vessels to denote nationality. It can be the same or different from the civil ensign and its also known as the war ensign. A large version of the naval ensign which is flown on a warships mast just before going into battle is called a battle ensign, the ensign differs from the jack which is flown from a jackstaff at the bow of a vessel. Most countries have one national flag and ensign for all purposes. In other countries, a distinction is made between the flag and the civil, state and naval ensigns. Some naval ensign differ in shape from the flag, such as the Nordic naval ensigns which have tongues. Naval ensigns that are different from the ensign and the national flag
27.
Obverse and reverse
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In this usage, obverse means the front face of the object and reverse means the back face. The obverse of a coin is commonly called heads, because it depicts the head of a prominent person. In fields of scholarship outside numismatics, the front is more commonly used than obverse. For prints and drawings with material on both sides the one judged as more significant will be the recto, a convention now exists typically to display the obverse to the left and the reverse to the right in photographs and museum displays, but this is not invariably observed. Following this principle, in the most famous of ancient Greek coins, the tetradrachm of Athens, the obverse is the head of Athena, similar versions of these two images, both symbols of the state, were used on the Athenian coins for more than two centuries. The opposite side may have varied from time to time and this change happened in the coinage of Alexander the Great, which continued to be minted long after his death. The various Hellenistic rulers who were his successors followed his tradition and this script alone style then was used on nearly all Islamic coinage until the modern period. The type of Justinian II was revived after the end of Iconoclasm, without images, therefore, it is not always easy to tell which side will be regarded as the obverse without some knowledge. After 695, Islamic coins avoided all images of persons and usually, the side expressing the Six Kalimas is usually defined as the obverse. The form of currency follows its function, which is to serve as an accepted medium of exchange of value. Traditionally, most states have been monarchies where the person of the monarch, if not provided for on the obverse, the reverse side usually contains information relating to a coins role as medium of exchange. Additional space typically reflects the countrys culture or government, or evokes some aspect of the states territory. Regarding the euro, some regarding the obverse and reverse of the euro coins exists. This rule does not apply to the coins as they dont have a common side. A number of the used for obverse national sides of euro coins were taken from the reverse of the old pre-euro coins of some individual countries. Several countries continue to use portraits of the monarch and the Republic of Ireland continues to use the State Arms. The Chrysanthemum Crest was no longer used after the war, and so, the side on which the date continues to be regarded as the reverse. Following ancient tradition, the obverse of coins of the United Kingdom almost always feature the head of the monarch
28.
Albanian lek
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The lek is the official currency of Albania. It is subdivided into 100 qindarka, although qindarka are no longer issued, the lek was introduced as the first Albanian currency in February 1926. Before then, Albania was a country without a currency, adhering to a standard for the fixation of commercial values. The lek was named after Alexander the Great, whose name is shortened to Leka in Albanian. Alexanders portrait appeared on the obverse of the 1 lek coin, the name qindarkë comes from the Albanian qind, meaning one hundred. The word is similar in formation to centime, cent. Between 1926 and 1939 the name Franga was used for Albanian gold currency worth five Albanian Leke for use in international transactions, a similar alternate name Belga was used for units of five Belgian francs. In 1926, bronze coins were introduced in denominations of 5 and 10 qindar leku, together with nickel 1⁄4, 1⁄2 and 1 lek, the obverse of the franga coins depict Amet Zogu. In 1935, bronze 1 and 2 qindar ar were issued and this coin series depicted distinct neoclassical motifs, said to have been influenced by the Italian king Victor Emmanuel III who was known to have been a coin collector. These coins depict the mint marks R or V indicating Rome or Venice, aluminium-bronze 0.05 and 0.10 lek were then introduced in 1940. These coins were issued until 1941 and bear the portrait of Italian King Victor Emmanuel III on the obverse and the Albanian eagle with fasces on the reverse. In 1947, shortly after the communist party took power, older coins were withdrawn from circulation and these all depicted the socialist national crest. This coinage was minted in 1957 and used until the currency reform of 1965. In 1965, aluminium coins were introduced in denominations of 5,10,20 and 50 qindar and 1 lek, all coins depict the socialist state emblem. In 1969, a series of aluminum 5,10,20,50 qindar and 1 lek coins was released commemorating the 1944 liberation from fascism. The three smallest denominations remained similar in design to the 1964 series but depicted 1944-1969 on the obverse, the 50 qindarka and lek coins depicted patriotic and military images. In 1988, a redesign of aluminum 5,10,20,50 qindarka and 1 lek coins was released. In 1989, a cupro nickel 2 leke coin was introduced, all three of these coin series remained in circulation during and shortly after the 1991 revolution
29.
Kosovo
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Kosovo is a disputed territory and partially recognised state in Southeastern Europe that declared independence from Serbia in February 2008 as the Republic of Kosovo. Kosovo is landlocked in the central Balkan Peninsula, with its strategic position in the Balkans, it serves as an important link in the connection between central and south Europe, the Adriatic Sea, and Black Sea. Its capital and largest city is Pristina, and other urban areas include Prizren, Pejë. It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, the Republic of Macedonia to the southeast, Montenegro to the west, while Serbia recognises administration of the territory by Kosovos elected government, it still continues to claim it as its own Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija. In antiquity, the Dardanian Kingdom, and later the Roman province of Dardania was located in the region, the area was inhabited by several ancient Illyrian tribes. In the Middle Ages, it was part of the Byzantine, Bulgarian and Serbian Empires, Kosovo was the core of the medieval Serbian state and it has been the seat of the Serbian Orthodox Church from the 14th century when its status was upgraded into a patriarchate. After being part of the Ottoman Empire from the 15th to the early 20th century, the war ended with a military intervention of NATO, which forced the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to withdraw its troops from Kosovo, which became a UN protectorate under UNSCR1244. On 17 February 2008 Kosovos Parliament declared independence and it has since gained diplomatic recognition as a sovereign state by 111 UN member states, Taiwan, the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, the Cook Islands and Niue. Serbia refuses to recognise Kosovo as a state, although with the Brussels Agreement of 2013 it has accepted the legitimacy of Kosovar institutions, the entire region is commonly referred to in English simply as Kosovo and in Albanian as Kosova or Kosovë. The name of the plain was applied to the Kosovo Province created in 1864, Albanians refer to Kosovo as Dardania, the name of a Roman province located in Central Balkans that was formed in 284 AD which covered the territory of modern Kosovo. The name is derived from the Albanian word dardha/dardā which means pear, the former Kosovo President Ibrahim Rugova had been an enthusiastic backer of a Dardanian identity and the Kosovan flag and presidential seal refer to this national identity. However, the name Kosova remains more widely used among the Albanian population, the official conventional long name of the state is Republic of Kosovo, as defined by the Constitution of Kosovo, and is used to represent Kosovo internationally. This arrangement, which has dubbed the asterisk agreement, was agreed in an 11-point arrangement agreed on 24 February 2012. By the independence declaration in 2008, its long name became Republic of Kosovo. In prehistory, the succeeding Starčevo culture, Vinča culture, Bubanj-Hum culture, the area in and around Kosovo has been inhabited for nearly 10,000 years. During the Neolithic age, Kosovo lay within the area of the Vinča-Turdaş culture which is characterised by West Balkan black, bronze and Iron Age tombs have been found in Metohija. However, life during the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age is not confirmed yet, therefore, until arguments of Paleolithic and Mesolithic man are confirmed, Neolithic man, respectively the Neolithic sites are considered as the chronological beginning of population in Kosovo. From this period until today Kosovo has been inhabited, and traces of activities of societies from prehistoric, ancient, whereas, in some archaeological sites, multilayer settlements clearly reflect the continuity of life through centuries
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Republic of Kosova
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The Republic of Kosova was a self proclaimed state in 1992. During its peak, it tried to establish its own political institutions in opposition to the institutions of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo. The Serbian government responded by dissolving the Assembly and the government of Kosovo, the Serb government then passed another law on labour relations which fired another 80,000 Albanian workers. The assembly went on to declare the Republic of Kosova an independent state on 22 September 1992 and this declaration was endorsed by an unofficial referendum held a few days later. Serb authorities took this seriously, and attempted to capture. Kosovo Albanians organized a separatist movement, creating a number of structures in education, medical care. From 1995 onwards, tensions in the region escalated leading to the Kosovo War which began in 1998, the KLA-led campaign continued into January 1999 and was brought to the attention of the world media by the Račak massacre, mass killings of Albanians by Serb security forces. A Kosovo Transitional Council was established to enable Kosovo political and community leaders were represented in decisions, the KLA was disbanded and replaced by the Kosovo Protection Corps, a lightly armed civilian emergency response organization. Kosovo declared independence again in 2008, jusuf Zejnullahu 1990–1991 Bujar Bukoshi 1991–1999 Kosovo Armed Forces of the Republic of Kosovo Kosovo Liberation Army First Constitution of the Republic of Kosova
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Flag of Kosovo
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The flag of the Republic of Kosovo was adopted by the Assembly of Kosovo immediately following the declaration of independence of the Republic of Kosovo from Serbia on 17 February 2008. The flag is the result of a design competition, organised by the United Nations-backed Kosovo Unity Team. The now-used design is a variant of one designed by Muhamer Ibrahimi. It shows six white stars in an arc above a map of Kosovo on a blue field. The stars symbolise Kosovos six major ethnic groups, before the declaration of independence, Kosovo was under the administration of the United Nations and used the UN flag for official purposes. The Serbian and Albanian populations had used their own national flags since the Socialist Yugoslavia period, the Serbs use a red, blue and white tricolor, which forms the basis of the current flag of Serbia. The Albanian population have used the flag of Albania since the 1960s as their nationality flag, both flags can still be seen and used within Kosovo. The flag of Kosovo has a background, charged with a map of Kosovo. The stars are meant to symbolise Kosovos six major ethnic groups, Albanians, Serbs, Turks, Gorani, Romani. The flag of Kosovo resembles that of Bosnia and Herzegovina in terms of colors, the flag is unusual among national flags in using a map as a design element, the Flag of Cyprus is the only other to do so. The ratio of the flag was announced during the contest as 2,3, however with the passage of a diplomatic protocol law in Kosovo in April 2009, the ratio was set as 1,1.4. The colors and construction of the Kosovo flag have not yet defined, however. The unofficial RGB values of the flag have been extracted since 2009. The use of the Kosovo flag is regulated by the law, Law on the Use of Kosovo State Symbols, however, the Serbian Government objects to the use of the Kosovo flag at international meetings and gatherings. The Albanian flag is used by the Kosovar Albanians, even months after Kosovos declaration of independence, the Serbian flag was still seen at official government buildings until officially replaced by the Kosovo Government. Flags of Serbia and Serbian Orthodox Church were used in protests against Kosovo independence, however, a person was sentenced by a panel of EULEX judges on November 19,2009, for inciting hatred by raising a Serbian flag on a mosque in the southern part of Mitrovica. Until 2008, Kosovo did not have a flag of its own, however, during different periods of history, different flags were flown in Kosovo. Before 1969, the flags that could legally fly over Kosovo were those of SFR Yugoslavia
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100th Anniversary of the Independence of Albania
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Most events and activities are planned to begin in October–November, and due to budgetary reasons, many other projects did not receive government funding in 2012. Kosovo Security Force formed special unit of 65 soldiers to participate in the parade in Tirana on 28 November 2012. The government of Albania decided to bring back the remains of the king Zog of Albania from France where he died in 1961, the remains were exhumed and the return ceremony was organized on 17 November, ahead of celebrations for Albanias 100th independence anniversary. The remains were placed in the reconstructed Mausoleum of the Albanian Royal Family, the project of two architects from Germany, Visar Obrija and Kai Roman Kiklas, won the award. The artwork will be built in Austria at a cost of 350,000 euros and it resembles a house which is opening from isolation toward freedom. On 29 June 2012 Prime Minister of Albania announced that the monument is finished, twenty five artists from Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia participated on the competition 100 Years of the Albanian State, organized to create a logo of the anniversary. On its session held on 28 November 2011 the commission decided that winner is logo whose author is Zeni Ballazhi. The Prime Minister of Albania Sali Berisha proposed to replace words Albanian State in the version of the motto with Independence claiming that Albanian state existed earlier in the history. The same ministry organized an competition for TV spot dedicated to the anniversary. It is announced that Prime Minister of Turkey will participate in the celebrations of the 100th Anniversary of the Independence of Albania, Hillary Clinton promised that she will come to Tirana on the 100th anniversary of the Independence of Albania. Also many other famous Albanian stars, actors, public personalities all over the world are expected in Tirana, Clinton arrived in Albania on 1 November 2012. Shqiptarët në artin botëror by Ferid Hudhri, a new Albanian version and English translation of what is considered the first work of literature and history by an Albanian author, The Siege of Shkodra. Pavarësia - Udhëtimi i paharruar i Ismail Qemalit, by Ilir Ikonomi, the Birth of Albania, Ethnic Nationalism, the Great Powers of World War I and the Emergence of Albanian Independence by Nicola Guy. Jeta e jashtëzakonshme e amerikanit Charles Telford Erickson kushtuar Shqipërisë by Mal Berisha, in some cases events are organized not only by embassies of Albania but other institutions as well. In Macedonia and Kosovo celebrations are organized by the official authorities, the Macedonian Government participates in the financing of the celebration of 100th Anniversary of the Independence of Albania. On 17 January 2012 in Skopje, Macedonia the construction of the Skanderbeg Square has started, on 8 May 2012 the municipality of Tetovo established the organisational council responsible for the celebration and prepared some activities under motto 100 years without Albania. The central celebration of 100 years of Albania was held in Skopje on 25 November 2012 in Boris Trajkovski Sports Center and it was attended by around 20,000 people including prime ministers of Albania and Kosovo. Rita Ora plans to sing a few songs in Kosovo to celebrate this anniversary after being invited by the president of the Republic of Kosovo, the centenary of Albania was also celebrated in Preševo and Bujanovac, two municipalities of southern Serbia with substantial Albanian population
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Albanian National Awakening
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The Albanian National Awakening or the National Renaissance or the National Revival refers to the period in the history of Albania from 1870 until the Albanian Declaration of Independence in 1912. On December 20,1912 the Conference of Ambassadors in London recognized an independent Albania within its present-day borders, after the fall of the Yanina Pashalik, the power and influence of the Albanian beys had faded. The remaining beys thus attempted to restore their rule, an assembly was held in Berat in 1828. In this Convention, the leaders were Ismail Bey Qemali, Zylyftar Poda, the Ottoman Empire tried to prevent the rise of local beys, which presented a menace to centralized power. In 1830, the Sublime Porte sent a force under the command of Reşid Mehmed Pasha to suppress the local Albanian beys. The beys however, were all killed along with their guards, the last Albanian pashalik to fall was the Scutari Pashalik. The Bushati dynasty rule ended when an Ottoman army under Mehmed Reshid Pasha besieged the Rozafa Castle, the Albanian defeat ended a planned alliance between the Albanians and the Bosnians, who were similarly seeking autonomy. Instead of the pashalik, the vilayets of Scutari and that of Kosovo were created, the 1844 revolt was led by Dervish Cara while 1847 revolt was led by three main leaders, Zenel Gjoleka, Rrapo Hekali and Hodo Nivica. All these uprisings failed, however, they increased the national identity, only from the 1870s and onwards did a movement of ‘national awakening‘ evolve among them - greatly delayed, compared to the Greeks and the Serbs. The 1877–1878 Russo-Turkish War dealt a blow to Ottoman power in the Balkan Peninsula. The Albanians fear that the lands they inhabited would be partitioned among Montenegro, Serbia, Bulgaria, the first postwar treaty, the abortive Treaty of San Stefano signed on March 3,1878, assigned Albanian-populated lands to Serbia, Montenegro, and Bulgaria. Austria-Hungary and the United Kingdom blocked the arrangement because it awarded Russia a predominant position in the Balkans, a peace conference to settle the dispute was held later in the year in Berlin. The Treaty of San Stefano triggered profound anxiety among the Albanians meanwhile, in May the group called for a general meeting of representatives from all the Albanian-populated lands. On June 10,1878, about eighty delegates, mostly Muslim religious leaders, clan chiefs, the delegates declared the formation of the League of Prizren which consisted of two branches, the Prizren branch and the southern branch. The Prizren branch was led by Iljas Dibra and it had representatives from the areas of Kirçova, Kalkandelen, Pristine, Mitroviça, Viçitirin, Üsküp, Gilan, Manastir, Debar and Gostivar. The League of Prizren was set under the direction of a committee that had the power to impose taxes. The League of Prizren worked to gain autonomy for the Albanians and to thwart implementation of the Treaty of San Stefano, among other things the League requested an official status for the Albanian language in the Albanian-inhabited territories and the foundation of Albanian schools. At first the Ottoman authorities supported the League of Prizren, some delegates supported this position and advocated emphasizing Muslim solidarity and the defense of Muslim lands, including present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina
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Independent Albania
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Its assembly was constituted on the same day while its government and senate were established on 4 December 1912. The delegation of Albania submitted a memorandum to the London Conference of 1913 requesting the recognition of independent Albania. At the beginning of the conference it was decided that the region of Albania would be under Ottoman suzerainty, the ambassadors of six Great Powers met again on 29 July 1913 and decided to constitute a new state, the Principality of Albania, as a constitutional monarchy. Finally, with the Treaty of Bucharest being signed in August 1913, the name of the state used in the text of declaration of independence of Albania is Shqipëria. It is also referred to as the independent Albania, the Albanian State or the independent state of Albania, the independent Albania established on 28 November 1912 is the first Albanian state in modern history. It was a state, not a monarchy. Some sources refer to it as the Republic of Albania or the Albanian Republic, the claimed territory was much larger than the territory of contemporary Albania and than the territory over which the Provisional Government exercised its power. It comprised the territories of Kosovo Vilayet, Monastir Vilayet, Shkoder Vilayet, Kosovo was returned to Serbias possession at the London treaty, at the insistence of Russia. Independent Albania did however exercise control over one pocket of land which included Vlore, Berat, Fier, until September 1912, the Ottoman government intentionally kept Albanians divided within four ethnically heterogeneous vilayets to prevent Albanian national unification. The reforms introduced by Young Turks provoked the Albanian Revolt of 1912 which lasted in the period from January to August 1912. In January 1912, Hasan Prishtina, Albanian deputy in Ottoman parliament, the revolt was successful and until August 1912 rebels managed to gain control over whole Kosovo vilayet, a part of the Scutari Vilayet, Konitsa in Janina Vilayet and Debar in Monastir Vilayet. The success of the Albanian revolt sent a signal to the neighboring countries that the Ottoman Empire was weak. Besides, the Kingdom of Serbia opposed the plan for an Albanian vilayet, in the meantime the conquered territory was agreed to have status of the Condominium. Albanian leaders, including Faik Konica and Fan Noli, organized a meeting on 7 October 1913 in Boston. They decided that Albanians should unite fully with the Ottoman government against enemies of the Empire because if Turkey is defeated, Albanians who were mobilized in Ottoman army fought for their country rather than for the Ottoman Empire. During the First Balkan War the combined armies of the Balkan allies overcame the numerically inferior and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies, and achieved rapid success. Ismail Qemali, who had been an Albanian deputy in the Ottoman parliament, secured the support of Austria-Hungary for autonomy of Albania within the Ottoman Empire, but not for the independence. Ismail Qemali invited the representatives of all parts of Albanian Vilayet to attend the All-Albanian Congress held in Vlorë on November 28,1912
35.
Principality of Albania
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Albania had been under Ottoman rule from around 1478. The Great Powers recognized the independence of Albania in the Treaty of London in May 1913, the Great Powers selected Prince William of Wied, a nephew of Queen Elisabeth of Romania to become the sovereign of the newly independent Albania. A formal offer was made by 18 Albanian delegates representing the 18 districts of Albania on February 21,1914, outside of Albania William was styled prince, but in Albania he was referred to as Mbret so as not to seem inferior to the King of Montenegro. Prince William arrived in Albania at his capital of Durrës on March 7,1914 along with the Royal family. The security of Albania was to be provided by an International Gendarmerie commanded by Dutch officers, William never renounced his claim to the throne. World War I interrupted all government activities in Albania, and the country was split into a number of regional governments, political chaos engulfed Albania after the outbreak of World War I. Surrounded by insurgents in Durrës, Prince William departed the country in September 1914, just six months after arriving, the Albanian people split along religious and tribal lines after the princes departure. Muslims demanded a Muslim prince and looked to Ottomon Empire as the protector of the privileges they had enjoyed, hence many beys and clan chiefs, in late October 1914, Greek forces entered Albania in the Protocol of Corfus recognized Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus. Italy occupied Vlorë, and Serbia and Montenegro occupied parts of northern Albania until a Central Powers offensive scattered the Serbian army, Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian forces then occupied about two-thirds of the country. Serbia and Montenegro were promised much of northern Albania, and Greece was promised much of the southern half. The treaty was to leave a tiny Albanian state that would be represented by Italy in its relations with the major powers. In September 1918, the Entente forces broke through the Central Powers lines north of Thessaloniki, Albanias political confusion continued in the wake of World War I. Italian forces controlled Albanian political activity in the areas they occupied, the Serbs, who largely dictated Yugoslavias foreign policy after World War I, strove to take over northern Albania, and the Greeks sought to control southern Albania. Serbian troops conducted actions in Albanian-populated border areas, while Albanian guerrillas operated in both Serbia and Montenegro, the deal was done behind the Albanians backs and in the absence of a United States negotiator. The Lushnjë National Assembly appointed a regency to rule the country. A bicameral parliament was created, in which an elected lower chamber, the Chamber of Deputies, appointed members of its own ranks to an upper chamber. In February 1920, the government moved to Tirana, which became Albanias capital, one month later, in March 1920, U. S. President Woodrow Wilson intervened to block the Paris agreement. The countrys borders, however, remained unsettled, Albanias new government campaigned to end Italys occupation of the country and encouraged peasants to harass Italian forces
36.
Albanian Republic
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The Albanian Republic was the official name of Albania as enshrined in the Constitution of 1925. Albania became a de facto protectorate of the Kingdom of Italy after the signing of the Treaties of Tirana of 1926 and 1927, Albania was declared a constitutional monarchy in 1928. Upon its inception, Italy demanded to be allies with the republic and this was done largely to increase Italys influence in the Balkans, and to aid Italian and Albanian security in their territorial feuds with Greece and Yugoslavia. After defeating Fan Nolis government, Ahmet Zogu recalled parliament in order to find a solution for the principality of Albania. The new constitution provided for a republic, with a powerful president serving as head of state. On January 31,1925, Zogu was elected president for a term of seven years by the National Assembly and he ruled Albania using four military governors, and appointed clan chieftains as reserve army officers who were kept on call to protect the regime against domestic or foreign threats. He also maintained relations with Benito Mussolinis fascist regime in Italy. The Zog regime was said to be responsible for the disappearance of opposition parties, the press was also strictly censored during the regime. In early 1925, a series of focused on the economy were initiated. Some of the reforms included organizing private initiatives in industry, construction and that same year, the first Albanian coin, the Albanian Gold Franga, was minted. Foreign capital was introduced as a part of the policy of the government of Zog I, but the aim of his regime was actually to strengthen personal power. The foreign capital, loans and other forms, was used as a tool to provide income for the regime, and was later used for overcoming economic crises. Fourteen new societies were created at about time, with an initial capital of 7.6 million gold francs. In 1928, the number of enterprises reached 127, and domestic capital was six times greater than in 1927, in 1925, the Albanian National Bank was created, and was awarded concessions to Italian investors. The Albanian state had a 49% share of the bank, while Italy had a 51% share, under these conditions Italy gained a stronger position in Albania. During the 1925-1928 period, the Albanian government also increased its costs. In 1925, the SVEA society was established, helping to facilitate a loan to Albania worth 50 million gold francs, in 1927, the loan was estimated at 65 million gold francs. Annual interest for this 40-year loan was 7. 5%, repayment amounts consisted of 30%-40% of the entire countrys income
37.
Democratic Government of Albania
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The Democratic Government of Albania was established on 20 October 1944 by the National Liberation Movement, as the Albanian partisan resistance of 1940–1944 came to a close. A Provisional government took power after the liberation of the country from German forces on 28 November and its interim Prime Minister was Secretary-General Enver Hoxha of the Communist Party of Albania. The interim government was to be in existence until the holding of democratic elections, the government was led by the National Liberation Movement, which in turn was dominated by the Communist Party. From the outset, the Democratic Government was an out-and-out Communist dictatorship and it sidelined the nationalist Balli Kombëtar, a task made somewhat easier by its collaboration with the Nazis. King Zog I was dethroned, and the LNC quickly established fraternal relationships with other socialist countries, elections were held on 2 December 1945. By this time, the LNC had transformed itself into the Democratic Front of Albania, on 10 January 1946 the Peoples Republic of Albania was proclaimed
38.
People's Socialist Republic of Albania
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Albania, officially the Peoples Socialist Republic of Albania, was a socialist state that ruled Albania from 1946 to its fall in 1992. From 1946 to 1976 it was known as the Peoples Republic of Albania, travel and visa restrictions made Albania one of the most difficult countries to visit or to travel from. In 1967, it declared itself the worlds first atheist state and it was the only Warsaw Pact member to formally withdraw from the alliance before 1990, an action occasioned by the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. The Peoples Socialist Republic was officially dissolved on 28 November 1998 upon the adoption of the new Constitution of Albania, on 29 November 1944, Albania was liberated by the National Liberation Movement. The Anti-Fascist National Liberation Council, formed in May, became the provisional government. The government, like the LNC, was dominated by the two-year-old Communist Party of Albania, King Zog I was barred from ever returning to Albania, though the country nominally remained a monarchy. From the start, the LNC government was an undisguised Communist regime, in the other countries in what became the Soviet bloc, the Communists were at least nominally part of coalition governments for a few years before taking complete control. The internal affairs minister, Koçi Xoxe, an erstwhile pro-Yugoslavia tinsmith, presided over the trial of many non-communist politicians condemned as enemies of the people and those spared were imprisoned for years in work camps and jails and later settled on state farms built on reclaimed marshlands. In December 1945, Albanians elected a new Peoples Assembly, official ballot tallies showed that 92% of the electorate voted and that 93% of the voters chose the Democratic Front ticket. The assembly convened in January 1946 and its first act was to formally abolish the monarchy and to declare Albania a peoples republic. However, as mentioned above, the country had been a Communist state for just over two years, after months of angry debate, the assembly adopted a constitution that mirrored the Yugoslav and Soviet constitutions. Then in the spring, the members chose a new government. Hoxha became prime minister, foreign minister, defense minister, Xoxe remained both internal affairs minister and the partys organizational secretary. Hoxha remained in control despite the fact that he had once advocated restoring relations with Italy, the communists also undertook economic measures to expand their power. In December 1944, the government adopted laws allowing the state to regulate foreign and domestic trade, commercial enterprises. The laws sanctioned confiscation of property belonging to political exiles and enemies of the people, in August 1945, the provisional government adopted the first sweeping agricultural reforms in Albanias history. The countrys 100 largest landowners, who controlled close to a third of Albanias arable land, had frustrated all agricultural reform proposals before the war, the communists reforms were aimed at squeezing large landowners out of business, winning peasant support, and increasing farm output to avert famine. The government annulled outstanding agricultural debts, granted peasants access to water for irrigation
39.
Royal Albanian Army
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The Royal Albanian Army was the army of Albanian Kingdom and King Zogu from 1928 until 1939. Its commander-in-chief was King Zog, its commander General Xhemal Aranitasi, the army was mainly financed by Italy during period 1936–39. There were two systems, the first was replaced in 1936. The new ranks were used until 1939, shqipnja & Skanderbeg 4 Italian MAS boats Built & bought in 1926 in Venice 46 t,17 kn
40.
Albania under the Ottoman Empire
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Ottoman Albania comprised Albania during the period it was part of the Ottoman Empire, from 1385 to 1912. Ottoman rule in Albania began after the Battle of Savra in 1385 when most of the local chieftains became Ottoman vassals, the Ottomans erected their garrisons throughout southern Albania by 1415 and established formal jurisdiction over most of Albania by 1431. Independence for some Albanian regions was gained during 1443-1479, with the uprising under the lead of George Kastrioti Skanderbeg, the last towns captured by the Ottomans were Shkodër in 1479 and Durrës in 1501. The territory which today belongs to the Republic of Albania remained part of the Ottoman Empire until declaring independence in 1912 during the Balkan Wars, the Ottomans expanded their empire from Anatolia to the Balkans in the 14th century. They crossed the Bosporus in 1352, and they crushed a Serbian army in the Battle of Maritsa in 1371 and Battle of Kosovo in 1389. Europe gained a respite from Ottoman pressure in 1402 when the Mongol leader, Tamerlane, attacked Anatolia from the east, killed the Turks absolute ruler, the Sultan. When order was restored, the Ottomans renewed their westward progress, in 1453, Sultan Mehmed IIs forces overran Constantinople and killed the last Byzantine emperor. The division of the Albanian-populated lands into small, quarreling fiefdoms ruled by independent feudal lords, in 1385, the Albanian ruler of Durrës, Karl Thopia, appealed to the sultan for support against his rivals, the Balšić noble family. An Ottoman force quickly marched into Albania along the Via Egnatia, the principal Albanian clans soon swore fealty to the Ottoman Empire. Gjirokastra became the county town of the Sanjak of Albania in 1419, Sultan Murad II launched the major Ottoman onslaught in the Balkans in 1423, and the Turks took Ioannina in 1431 and Arta, on the Ionian coast, in 1449. The Albanians resistance to the Turks in the century won them acclaim all over Europe. Gjon Kastrioti of Krujë was one of the Albanian clan leaders who submitted to Turkish suzerainty and he was compelled to send his four sons to the Ottoman capital to be trained for military service. The youngest, George Kastrioti, who would become the Albanians national hero, renamed Iskander when he converted to Islam, the young man participated in military expeditions to Asia Minor and Europe. When appointed to administer a Balkan district, Iskander became known as Skanderbeg, Skanderbeg then embraced Roman Catholicism and declared a holy war against the Turks. On 1 March 1444, Albanian chieftains gathered in the cathedral of Lezhë with the prince of Montenegro and delegates from Venice, all of Albania, accepted his leadership against the Ottomans, but local leaders kept control of their own districts. Under a red flag bearing Skanderbegs heraldic emblem, an Albanian force of about 10, three times the Albanians overcame sieges of Krujë. In 1450, the Albanians routed Sultan Murad II himself, later, they repulsed attacks led by Sultan Mehmed II in 1466 and 1467. In 1461, Skanderbeg went to the aid of his suzerain, King Alfonso I of Naples, the government under Skanderbeg was unstable, however, and at times local Albanian rulers cooperated with the Ottomans against him
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Republic of Central Albania
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The Republic of Central Albania was a short-lived unrecognised state established on October 16,1913 with its administrative centre in Durrës, today in Albania. The territory of the state was bounded by the river Mat in the North, the flag of the Republic of Central Albania was red with white star in lower right part. The Republic of Central Albania issued its own post stamps, faik Konica initially gave his support to the government of Essad Pasha. The most important role in establishing the Republic of Central Albania had Essad Pasha Toptani, during the First Balkan War, he became famous for his resistance during the Siege of Scutari. He was a member of the Toptani family, one of many families that were rich feudal Muslim landowners with privileged status during Ottoman rule, the Kingdom of Serbia agreed to support Essad Pashas government financially, and even with military force if needed. In exchange, Essad Pasha agreed to neutralize a large group of about 20,000 kachaks from Kosovo and they were led by Isa Boletini and supported by Ismail Qemali and his Provisional Government of Albania. Essad Pasha agreed to help the Kingdom of Serbia acquire part of the areas north of Black Drin. Young Turks from Istanbul were still hoping to restore Ottoman suzerainty over Albania and those activities resulted in an attempt to declare Ahmed İzzet Pasha, then minister of defence of the Ottoman Empire, first prince of Principality of Albania. Ahmed İzzet Pasha was to prevent those landowners from achieving privileged status with the help of several hundred Ottoman soldiers sent to Albania and they were all arrested by Dutch gendarmerie on January 8,1914, when they tried to disembark in Albania. The incident was officially denied by the government in Istanbul, izzet Pasha sent major Beqir Grebenali, another ethnic Albanian, to be one of his chief representatives in Albania. The Provisional Government of Albania under control of Ismail Qemali captured and executed major Beqir Grebenali, such provocative and damaging display of independence of Qemalis government angered Great Powers and International Commission of Control forced Qemali to step aside and leave Albania. This government was established by a group of Albanians led by Ismail Qemali, since the First Balkan War started before this agreement was confirmed in the assembly of the Ottoman Empire, this united Albanian vilayet remained officially unrecognized. Its independence was declared on November 28,1912 by a group of Albanians that Qemali had gathered from all four Ottoman vilayets together with four men, Albanians of Romania. In his work, Memorandum on Albania, Essad Pasha Toptani denied that Qemalis government was legitimate and these Catholics were reluctant to submit to any of the two national governments, just as they were reluctant to surrender to the Porte. Thus, after the Balkan Wars and before prince Wilhelm of Wied took control of the newly established Principality of Albania on March 7,1914, Albania was divided into three parts. Jacques The Albanians, a history, By Miranda Vickers Newspapers news about attempt of to accept call from Muslim landowners in Albania for throne of the province
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Essad Pasha Toptani
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Essad Pasha Toptani or Esad Pasha Toptani, primarily known as Essad Pasha, was an Ottoman army officer who served as Albanian deputy in the Ottoman parliament. He was a prominent politician in the early 20th century Albania, Toptani cooperated with the Balkan League after the Balkan Wars and established a state in central Albania, based in Durrës, called the Republic of Central Albania. He held the title of Pasha of the Ottoman Empire, Essad Pasha was born in 1863 in Tirana, Ottoman Empire the son of Ali Bey Toptani and Vasfije Alizoti. He belonged to prominent landowning family Toptani which founded contemporary Tirana, in 1908, having served as gendarmerie commander in Janina, he joined the Young Turks and became a member of the Turkish parliament as the deputy of Durrës. During the Albanian Revolt of 1912 Essad Pasha Toptani obliged himself to organize the uprising in Central Albania and Mirdita. On January 30,1913, Hasan Riza Pasha, commander of Shkodër, was ambushed and killed by Osman Bali and Mehmet Kavaja, Riza Pasha wanted to keep up the defense of the besieged city, and after his death Essad Pasha continued his resistance until April 1913. He turned the fortress of Shkodër over to Montenegro, only in April 1913 after a war and great heroism of Albanian. Essad Pasha was allowed in return to leave the town with his army, officially Serbia simultaneously helped a number of other small tribal chiefs who resisted Ismail Qemalis government, directing them towards cooperation with Essad Pasha. Back in Albania, relations between the Prince and the scheming Toptani, now minister of war and minister of the interior soon soured, Essad Pasha led a faction of his own in the Peasant Revolt in Albania against Prince Wilhem. He was the person in Albania to have a self-contained army of his own. On 9 January, his men tried to take Elbasan, but they were repulsed by the governor of the town, Aqif Pasha Elbasani. On 19 May 1914, when Toptani refused to lay down his weapons, armed forces under Dutch gendarmerie officer Johan Sluys surrounded and shelled his house in Durrës, forcing him to surrender. He was arrested for conspiracy, though after consultations with Prince Wied, he was not court-martialled but sent to Bari in southern Italy, from exile in Rome, he maintained close links with the Serbian and Montenegrin governments. With Italian and Serbian financial backing he established armed forces, Toptani invaded Dibër on 20 September, Serbian Prime Minister Nikola Pašić ordered that his followers be aided with money and arms. His power base in central Albania was weakened in November 1914 by an uprising of Muslim rebels who turned against him, but he managed, with Italian support, to hold on to the town of Durrës. When Serbian forces invaded Albania in mid-June 1915, swiftly occupying Pogradec, Elbasan, Tirana and Kavaja, though his rule was not stable because of the First World War. In the end of 1914, Essad secretly agreed with the Greek government to support the annexation of the provinces, known to Greeks as Northern Epirus. He soon declared war on Austria-Hungary to show support for the Entente, during this time Tirana and much of central Albania was controlled by his Field Commander, Osman Bali
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