Athens

 

A Brief Reference to the History of Athens

               Athens was named according to the Greek mythology from competition that the goddess Athena had with Poseidon  about who will become protector of the city. The myth says that Poseidon gave a spring with sea water whilst Athena offered an olive tree as she touched the ground of the sacred rock of the Acropolis. The people of Athens choose Athena as their protector and so the city was named after the goddess of wisdom. The myth is symbolic but the two Gods symbolising the strength of Athens as a city of wisdom and as a sea power. The first settlement of Athens 3000 BC was situated on the rock of Acropolis.

According to the tradition, Athens was founded, when the king Theseus united in a state several settlements of Attica. The last king of  ancient Athens was Kodros, who sacrificed his life in order to save the homeland. Later came to power the nobles (wealthy landowners). The nobles ruled Athens by their consul the Supreme Court (Arios Pagos), from this consul where elected the 9 rulers of Athens . During this time was existed the assembly of the Athenian citizens (Ecclesia of Demos) but during this period did't had the power that had later with the lows of Solon.

                After  the period of colonisation and expansion of trade, many citizens of Athens became rich and wealthy from the trade and shipping, and they wished to participate in the administration of the state, while from the other hand the lower classes of the city where facing poverty. This fact resulted riots between the poor who wanted land and new lows with more social justice and the nobles that wanted to keep their power and authority.
Those riots tried to exploit the ambitious Kylon aiming to become a tyrant, but he failed. His movement stayed in history as 'Kylonion Agos'. After this , the nobles tasked Drakon to write new laws in response to peoples demand. But the laws of Dracon were too hard and peremptory and thus disappointed the Athenians. 
As the laws of Dracon did not meet the expectations of the people of Athens who they tasked Solon, which was considered as a very wise man, to write new laws. 
Solon gave back the debts of the citizens and let free all those who had been slaves from their debts. That law, because released the people of Athens from a very heavy burden, was named 'seisachtheia' 

 
                Solon split the Athenians into four classes, depending on their income. Archons (rulers) had the right to become only the rich. But, Solon strengthened politically and the poor, because he gave the  great strength to the Ecclesia of Demos, namely, the assembly of citizens. The assembly decided on all major issues and was voting the laws which were prepared by the House of the four hundred. Solon founded the large peoples court, the Iliaia. Those where the first steps towards democracy.  

              But even the laws of Solon reassured the Athenians. The poor wanted reframing, namely re-division of the land. During this period the nobility lost much of their old power and Peisistratos managed to gain the support of many people and become a tyrant. 
Peisistratos supported the farmers and produced numerous projects in Athens. His sons and successors, however, Hippias and Hipparchos , were hard to the Athenians and had no happy ending. Hippias escaped to Persia, where he died in exile and Hipparchos was killed by the Athenians. 

             With the end of the Tyranny, the Athenians start to organize democracy. The main creator was Kleisthenes, who radically reformed the constitution. Kleisthenes divided the Athenians in 10 races with ten municipalities each. In each race belong citizens from various areas of Attica and thus the rich ceased to be a noble themselves and a strong class as they mixed with other fellow citizens. 

            Kleisthenes gave all the power at the Ecclesia of Demos. From that assembly were elected the 10 generals who governed not only the military, but the state itself. The parliament of 400 of Solon was replaced by a new parliament with 500 deputies. The members of the new parliament where 50 Athenians from each race, selected annually by draw. With this system all the citizens of Athens were likely to be some day members of the parliament. The task of the parliament was to prepare the topics to be discussed by the Ecclesia of Demos. 

           Kleisthenes in order to secure the new constitution, introduced the ostracism. Every citizen was writing on a piece of broken vase (shell) the name of a politician who could have been dangerous for the democracy, after that they where counting the oysters and where sending to exile for 10 years the ones who had gathered 6 thousand shells with their name. 
Thus was born in Athens, the democracy, the constitution that gives all citizens the right and duty to participate in the governance of the state. Democracy was one of the most significant achievements of the ancient Greeks.

         Athens lived its most glorious times during the 5th century BC under the reign of Pericles. During this period the Golden Age of Athens Parthenon was build. Arts , Philosophy, Drama, developed to their highest point. Unfortunately the Peloponnesian war between the Athenians and Sparta gave an end to this glory.

         But Athens continued to be a centre of culture and intellectual importance even during the Roman times. On his journeys to Greece St Paul spoke to the Athenians from the rock of Arios Pagos (Areopagos) in 44 AD . During the reign of the Roman Emperor Hadrian , Athens became his beloved city. Hadrian build and decorated Athens with magnificent monuments like the Hadrian's Library. He use to say 'to the south of Acropolis is Theseus Athens and to the north of Acropolis is Hadrian's Athens'. 

       With the fall of the Roman Empire declined Athens importance as well. During the Byzantine times Athens was a provincial town of the Byzantine Empire. But even during this times many Byzantine churches where build in Athens. The Crusaders invaded the city in the 13th century until the 15th century when the city was occupied by the Turks. After the Greek war of Independence Athens became the Capital of Greece in 1833. Under the reign of the first king of Greece, Otto the city extended to the north and many buildings where build from German and Greek Architects.

 

 

Albania

 

              The western part of the Balkan peninsula is known to the ancient Greeks as Illyria. The Illyrians, a group of Indo-Europeantribes, have been in the area since at least 1000 BC. Their region becomes prosperous during the Roman empire and is devastated by the subsequent passage of Visigoths and Huns on their way into Europe. But these waves of people, however destructive, merely pass through.

           The next to arrive in the Balkans, in the 6th century AD, are theSlavs - and they come to stay. Gradually they predominate in the entire region of Illyria except for mountainous Albania. The Albanians become the only identifable group descending directly from the Illyrians. 
 
             In its strategic but exposed position, Albania is a pawn in the shifting patterns of power through the centuries. It is in the Byzantine empire, it is prey to Normanad venturers from southern Italy, it is in the Latin empire of Constantinople, its ports are occupied by Venice and finally it is absorbed within the Ottoman empire. 

              Early rule by the Turks is repeatedly frustrated by the achievements of Albania's national hero, Skanderbeg. Son of an Albanian princely family, he is taken as a hostage to Istanbul and is brought up to be a Muslim warrior. But when sent into service in the Balkans, he changes sides, proclaims himself a Christian and leads a movement to liberate his people. 
 
             From 1443 to 1467 Skanderbeg frustrates a succession of Turkish armies sent to subdue him, on occasion even armies led in person by the sultans Murad and Mehmed II. But after his death, in 1468, Albania sinks into an uninterrupted four centuries of subjection to Turkish rule.

             Sealed off from the constant struggles between Christian nations and the Turks elsewhere in the Balkans, Albania becomes fully absorbed into the Ottoman empire. Education is only in Turkish; the only chance of advancement is in the Turkish administration or army. Eventually more than two thirds of the Albanian population are Muslim, with the rest being divided between Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox. 
 
             As a result a nationalist movement develops later in Albania than elsewhere in the region. But in the late 19th century there are attempts to print some works of literature in Albanian - an activity forbidden by the Turks and made more difficult by the lack of an agreed alphabet. 

             The defining moment of Albaniannationalism is a congress held at Bitolj in 1909, which adopts a standard way of writing and spelling the Albanian language in Roman letters. The same congress appoints a committee of national union, aiming at this stage only for autonomy within the Ottoman empire. But events move faster than the committee could possibly envisage. Three years later, turmoil in the region leads almost instantly to Albanian independence. 
 

The first Balkan War:1912-1913

The Balkan upheavals of 1912 begin in Albania. A national uprising against the Turks is so successful that an Albanian army presses far enough east to occupy the Macedonian city of Skopje. This success stirs the Balkan states to action, for an independent Albania is not part of their plans. In October 1912 Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria go to war against Turkey.

The allies rapidly make inroads into Macedonia and Albania. In the east the Bulgarians push the Turks back to their defensive lines at Catalca, only sixty miles from Istanbul. In the west the Greeks move into southern Albania and the Serbians reach the Adriatic, capturing the port of Durrës on November 28. 
 
On the same day at Vlorë, another port fifty miles to the south, the Albanians declare their independence and set up their first national government. But the issue is now taken into international hands.

Austria-Hungary, in particular, is determined not to have a strengthened Serbia on her southern border. A conference of ambassadors of the relevant powers (Italy, Austria-Hungary, Russia, the Ottoman empire) convenes in London in December to discuss the issue. It is agreed that the independence of Albania should be recognized, but there is much dispute as to the exact boundaries. Russian pressure on behalf of the Serbs results eventually in one glaring anomaly. The province of Kosovo, containing some 800,000 Albanian inhabitants, is severed from Albania and allotted to Serbia.

Read more:http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ab02#ixzz44VyroRiS

 

 

 

Bosnia 

 

 

History 
The Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina was in many ways the heart of the former Yugoslavia, both geographically and culturally. It was home to 4.36 million people (1991 census figure), 44% of whom declared themselves Bosniak ('Muslim'), 31% Serb and 17% Croat, while there were also significant numbers of Jews, Roma, Albanians, undetermined 'Yugoslavs' and others. The country's ethnic diversity, however, did not entail territorial division, since the different national groups were inextricably intermingled in their geographical distribution (the famous 'leopard skin'), and especially in the urban centres there was a high proportion of mixed marriages. Nor did it entail social separateness, since the component parts developed within a common historical, linguistic and cultural space, giving rise to a specifically Bosnian paradigm of unity within diversity.

The Bosnian state was first mentioned in Byzantine sources in the early tenth century as one of the polities that had emerged from Slav settlements on the territory of the Roman Empire. The mediaeval Bosnian state reached its high point in the fourteenth century, but in the following century it was incorporated into the expanding Ottoman Empire, within which it survived as a distinct administrative unit. Bosnia-Herzegovina remained a separate province also after being first occupied (1878), then annexed (1908), by Austro-Hungary. After World War I it was included within the newly created kingdom of Yugoslavia; after World War II, as the Socialist Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, it became one of the eight constituent federal units within the second (Communist) Yugoslavia. With the dissolution of the Yugoslav Federation, confirmed by the EU's Badinter Commission, Bosnia-Herzegovina sought international recognition, which it achieved on 6 April 1992 following an internationally supervised referendum in which the great majority of its population voted in favour of independence.

The newly independent republic was almost strangled at birth, however, by aggression waged from the neighbouring republics of Serbia and Croatia, with the aim of carving out an ethnically pure Greater Serbia and Greater Croatia at Bosnia's expense. The Bosnian population of all ethnic backgrounds suffered gravely during the 1992-95 war, particularly since Serbia's aggression from the outset assumed a genocidal character, with brutal 'ethnic cleansing' ( mass killing and deportation of non-Serbs from occupied areas), while Croatia's aggression subsequently replicated much of this - especially in 1993-4 - albeit on a smaller scale. During the war over a quarter of a million Bosnians lost their lives and over one million left the country, while a further 800,000 became refugees in their own land. The resulting transformation of the demographic and social pattern has nevertheless left the essential ethnic proportions unchanged, so that Bosnia-Herzegovina remains the home of Bosniaks, Serbs, Croats, Jews, Roma, etc.

The Dayton Accords brokered by the United States at the end of 1995 brought an end to the fighting, but left the country divided into two 'entities' - a 'Federation of B-H' in which only Bosniaks and Croats have full constitutional rights, and a 'Republika Srpska' [Serb Republic] in which only Serbs have full rights - loosely joined by a weak central government. This has left an unstable situation in which (despite a massive Nato military presence) most refugees are unable to return to their homes and the country is unable to begin serious material reconstruction and economic growth. Though Bosnia-Herzegovina's future as a single state is assured, the tempo of its recovery continues to depend on the democratic transformation not only of its own internal structures, but crucially also of its neighbours Croatia and Serbia.

 

 

 

Tirana 

 

 

Tirana is 110 m above sea level. The average annual temperatures are in July 24°C and in January 7°C. Annual rainfalls are 1200m per year. Tirana is on the same parallel as Naples, Madrid and Istanbul and on the same meridian as Budapest and Krakow.

Sulejman Pasha from the village of Mullet founded Tirana in 1614. In the beginning, he built a mosque, a bakery and a Turkish sauna. Two centuries later the Toptani family led the city from Kruja.

There exist four theories about the origins of the name Tirana:

First, it is thought that Tirana comes from the word Theranda found in ancient Greek and Latin sources because those living there called it Të ranat ("fallen material"), because the plain was formed as a result of the strong materials which were brought by the water from the surrounding mountains.

Second, Tirana comes from Tirkan. Tirkan was a castle on the face of mount Dajti. The ruins of this ancient castle still exist, which dates back to the beginning of the first century before the birth of Christ, and which is thought to have been the castle which the Byzantine historian named Prokop (6th century) called the castle of Tirkan.

Third, Tirana comes from Teheran, the capital of Iran, in remembrance of the victory by Sulejman Pasha (founder of the city), head of the Turkish army during the campaign in Persia.

Fourth, an old Tirana tale says that Sulejman Pasha took the name of the city from an old lady whom he had met at the site where he was going to build the city. When Sulejman Pasha asked the old lady what she was doing she answered “ Po tir an (meaning "spinning silk")”.

Mount Dajti is 1612 m high and is situated on the east of Tirana.

The Congress of Lushnja declared Tirana a temporary capital for the first time on February 8th 1920 and it gained this status permanently on December 31st 1925. Tirana has been the world’s Bektashi headquarters since 1925, when the Bektashis were banned and expelled from Turkey

The first district in Tirana was Bami. The mosque in the centre of Tirana, called Et’hem Bey, began to be built in 1789 by Molla Bey, who came from Petrela and was finished in 1821 by his son, Haxhi Et’hem Bey, great-grandson of Sulejman Pasha. The best artisans in Albania built it.

The clock tower was begun by Haxhi Et’hem Bey around 1821-1822 and was finished with the help of rich Tirana families. Tufina family did the installation of the clock. In 1928 the Albanian State bought a modern clock in Gemany and the tower was raised to a height of 35m. During the Second World War the clock was damaged but was restored to operation in July 1946.

The Tabak Bridge (in front of the Albanian parliament) dates back to the 18th century.

The holy tomb of Kapllan Pasha (near the Unknown Soldier monument) was built in 1816.

The fortress of Petrela is located 12km from Tirana and dates back to the 4th century BC. Its current architecture is from the 13th century during the domination of Topia tribe, and later on it became the property of the Kastriot family.

The Durres Road was constructed in 1922 and was called “Nana Mbretneshë “ (Queen Mother).

A lot of houses and gardens were destroyed for its construction.

The current Parliament building was built in 1924 and first served as officers club. There on the 1st of September Ahmet Zogu declared the monarchy.

The well-known Italian architects of the Mussolini period, Florestano de Fausto and Armando Brasini planned the centre of Tirana in the beginning of the 1930s. The Palace of Brigadiers (ex-royal palace), Ministry buildings, National Bank and the Town Hall are their work.

The boulevard "Deshmoret e Kombit" (Martyrs of the Nation) was built in 1930 and it was named Boulevard Zog I. During the period of communism, the part of the boulevard between Scanderbeg square and the train station was named "Stalin" Boulevard.

The Palace of Culture, the location of The Theatre of Opera and Ballet and the National Library, was finished in 1963. It was built over the former Tirana bazaar and Khrushchev laid the first brick in 1959.

The monument of Scanderbeg was built in 1968. It is a work of Odhise Paskali with the collaboration of Andrea Mano and Janaq Pano. It was put up on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the death of our national hero.

The monument "Nena Shqiperi" (Mother Albania), 12 m tall, was inaugurated in the "Deshmoret e Kombit" cemetery in 1971.

The Academy of Sciences was finished in April 1972.

The National Art Gallery was opened in 1976 and it includes about 3200 works of Albanian and foreign artists.

The National History museum was built in 1981 and the mosaic on the front of the building is titled "Albania".

The International Centre of Culture, formerly the mausoleum of Enver Hoxha was inaugurated in 1988. It was designed by a group of architects under the direction of Pranvera Hoxha and Klement Kolaneci.

 

 

Macedonia

 

Macedonia, country of the south-central Balkans. It is bordered to the north byKosovo and Serbia, to the east by Bulgaria, to the south by Greece, and to the west byAlbania. The capital is Skopje.

The Republic of Macedonia is located in the northern part of the area traditionally known as Macedonia, a geographical region bounded to the south by the Aegean Sea and the Aliákmon River; to the west by Lakes Prespa and Ohrid, the watershed west of the Crni Drim River, and the Šar Mountains; and to the north by the mountains of the Skopska Crna Gora and the watershed between the Morava andVardar river basins. The Pirin Mountains mark its eastern edge. The Republic of Macedonia occupies about two-fifths of the entire geographical region of Macedonia. The rest of the region belongs to Greece and Bulgaria. Most people with a Macedonian national identity also refer to the region that constitutes their country as Vardar Macedonia, the Greek part of Macedonia as Aegean Macedonia, and the Bulgarian part of Macedonia as Pirin Macedonia. In this article, unless otherwise indicated, the name Macedonia refers to the present-day state the Republic of Macedonia when discussing geography and history since 1913 and to the larger region as described above when used in earlier historical cont1Member of the United Nations under the name The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM).Official name1Republika Makedonija (Macedonian); Republika e Maqedonisë (Albanian) (Republic of Macedonia)Form of governmentunitary multiparty republic with a unicameral legislature (Sobranie, or Assembly [123])Head of statePresident: Gjorge IvanovHead of governmentPrime Minister: Nikola GruevskiCapitalSkopjeOfficial languagesMacedonian; AlbanianOfficial religionnoneMonetary unitdenar (MKD)Population(2014 est.) 2,066,000EXPANDThe region of Macedonia owes its importance neither to its size nor to its population but rather to its location at a major junction of communication routes—in particular, the great north-south route from the Danube River to the Aegean formed by the valleys of the Morava and Vardar rivers and the ancient east-west trade routes connecting the Black Sea and Istanbul with the Adriatic Sea. Although the majority of the republic’s inhabitants are of Slavic descent and heirs to the Eastern Orthodox tradition of Christianity, 500 years of incorporation into the Ottoman Empire left substantial numbers of other ethnic groups, including Albanians, Turks, Vlachs(Aromani), and Roma (Gypsies). Consequently, Macedonia forms a complex border zone between the major cultural traditions of Europe and Asia.Ottoman control was brought to an end by the Balkan Wars (1912–13), after which Macedonia was divided among Greece, Bulgaria, and Serbia. Following World War I, the Serbian segment was incorporated into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (renamed Yugoslavia in 1929). After World War II the Serbian part of Macedonia became a constituent republic within the Socialist Federal Republic ofYugoslavia. The collapse of Yugoslavia led the Republic of Macedonia to declare its independence on December 19, 1991. The two major problems facing the Republic of Macedonia since its independence have been ensuring that its large Albanianminority enjoys the rights of full citizenship and gaining international recognition under its constitutional name and membership in international organizations in the face of strong opposition from Greece, which claims a monopoly on the use of the term Macedonia. (See Researcher’s Note: Macedonia: a contested name.)exts.