National Renaissance of Albania

The Albanian National Awakening or the National Renaissance or the National Revival (Albanian: Rilindja Kombëtare) refers to the period in the history of Albania from 1870 until the Albanian Declaration of Independence in 1912. Its activists are called Revivalists (Albanian: Rilindas).

The Albanian National Awakening began in the middle of XIXth century and lasted until 1912, when the Albanians declared the creation of an independent Albania, which included what is now Albania and neighbouring territories. 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 and Shahin bej Delvina. The Ottoman Empire tried to prevent the rise of local beys, which presented a menace to centralized power. In 1830, the Sublime Porte sent an expeditionary force under the command of Reşid Mehmed Pasha to suppress the local Albanian beys. On hearing the news of the Ottoman forces' arrival, the three most powerful local chiefs, Zylyftar Poda, accompanied by the remains of Ali Pasha's faction, Veli Bey (whose power base was around Yannina), and Arslan Bey, along with other less powerful beys, began to prepare their forces to resist a probable Ottoman attack. Realising the seriousness of the situation and the danger of a general uprising, Reşid Mehmed Pasha invited the Albanian beys to a meeting on the pretext that they would be rewarded for their loyalty to the Porte. 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 and forced Mustafa Reshiti to surrender (1831). 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.

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