Timeline of Albanian History To 1993 - 19th Century

19th Century

1822 Albanian leader Ali Pashë Tepelena assassinated by Ottoman agents for promoting an autonomous state.

1830 500 Albanian leaders were invited to meet with Ottoman general in Monastir. They were trapped and killed in an ambush.

1835 Ottoman Sublime Porte divides Albanian-populated lands into vilayets of Janina and Rumelia with Ottoman administrators.

1848 Uprising of Albanians against Tanzimat reform.

1861 First school known to use Albanian language in modern times opens in Shkodër.

1877-1878 Russo-Turkish War. The Ottoman Empire is defeated by its rival Russian Empire, seriously weakening Ottoman power over Albanian-populated areas.

1878 Albanian leaders met in Prizren, Kosovo, to form the League of Prizren, initially advocating a unified Albania under Ottoman suzerainty, with the intention to oppose the Treaty of San Stefano, signed after the Russo-Turkish War, a treaty which assigned Albanian-populated lands to the Principality of Bulgaria, the Principality of Montenegro, and the Principality of Serbia; but Austria-Hungary and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland block the treaty's implementation. During the Congress of Berlin, the Great Powers overturn the Treaty of San Stefano and divided Albanian lands among several states. The League of Prizren begins to organize resistance to the Treaty of Berlin's provisions that affect Albanians.

1879 Society for Printing of Albanian Writings, composed of Roman Catholic, Muslim, and Orthodox Albanians, founded in Constantinople.

1881 Ottoman forces crush Albanian resistance fighters at Prizren. Prizren League's leaders and families arrested and deported.

1897 Ottoman authorities disband a reactivated League of Prizren, execute its leader later, then ban Albanian language books.