什么是阿尔巴尼亚

正式名称阿尔巴尼亚共和国（Republic of Albania）

巴尔干半岛西部滨亚得里亚海的国家。面积28,748平方公里。人口约3,091,000（2001）。首都︰地拉那。居民多为盖格人（Gheg）和图斯克人（Tosk）。语言︰阿尔巴尼亚语（官方语）。宗教：伊斯兰教；少数为基督教（希腊东正教和罗马天主教）。货币︰列克（lek）。地形可划分为两大区：多山高地区和西部沿海低地区（全国耕地和大部分人口多集中於此）。1991年以前实施国有的社会主义制度，形成开发中经济国家。1992年政府开始经济改革，鼓励自由市场经济。

阿尔巴尼亚人是古代印欧民族伊利里亚人的後裔，他们居於欧洲中部，铁器时期开始他们向南迁移（参阅Illyria）。有两组主要的伊利里亚迁移群，其中盖格人定居在北部，图斯克人与希腊殖民者一起定居在南部。西元前1世纪该地区受罗马人统治；西元395年以後，行政上它与君士坦丁堡连在一起。14世纪时土耳其人开始入侵，并持续到15世纪；虽然民族英雄斯坎德培抵抗了他们一段时间，但在他死後（1468），土耳其人就巩固了他们的统治。1912年该国获得独立，1920年被国际联盟承认。经过短暂的共和国（1925～1928）後成为索古一世统治下的君主国。他最初与墨索里尼结盟却引来了1939年义大利入侵阿尔巴尼亚。战後，在霍查（E. Hoxha）领导下建立了社会主义的政府，阿尔巴尼亚逐渐地与非社会主义的国际社会脱离了关系，最终它与所有国家都断绝了关系，包括它最後一个政治盟友中国。到了1990年，经济困难导致了多次反政府示威，1992年建立了非共产主义的政府，结束了阿尔巴尼亚在国际上的孤立地位。1997年因金字塔式的投资计画崩溃，使它陷入了混乱。1999年掀起一股阿尔巴尼亚人逃出南斯拉夫寻求庇护的热潮（参阅Kosovo conflict）。

Albania

Nation, western Adriatic coast of the Balkan Peninsula. Area: 11,000 sq mi (28,700 sq km). Population (1992 est.): 3,400,000. Capital: Tiran?. Ethnic Albanians are the Ghegs and the Tosks. Language: Albanian (official). Religions: Islam; minority, Christianity (Greek Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism). Currency: lek. Albania may be divided into two major regions, a mountainous highland region and a western coastal lowland region that contains the country's agricultural lands and most of its population. It has a developing economy that until 1991 was shaped by a socialist system of state ownership. In 1992 the government introduced economic reforms encouraging a free-market economy. The Albanians are descended from the Illyrians, an ancient Indo-European people who lived in central Europe and migrated south by the beginning of the Iron Age (see Illyria). Of the two major Illyrian migrating groups, the Ghegs settled in the north and the Tosks in the south, along with Greek colonizers. The area was under Roman rule by the 1st century BC; after AD 395 it was connected administratively to Constantinople. Turkish invasion began in the 14th century and continued into the 15th century; though the national hero, Skanderbeg, was able to resist them for a time, after his death (1468) the Turks consolidated their rule. The country achieved independence in 1912 and was admitted into the League of Nations in 1920. It was briefly a republic (1925-28), then became a monarchy under Zog I, whose initial alliance with Benito Mussolini led to Italy's invasion of Albania in 1939. After the war a socialist government under Enver Hoxha was installed, and gradually Albania cut itself off from the nonsocialist international community, and eventually from all nations, including China, its last political ally. By 1990 economic hardship had produced antigovernment demonstrations, and in 1992 a non-Communist government was elected and Albania's international isolation ended. In 1997 it plunged into chaos, brought on with the collapse of pyramid investment schemes. In 1999 it was overwhelmed by ethnic Albanians seeking refuge from Yugoslavia (see Kosovo conflict).