 Before I begin, I want to shout out to my friend Maxim, who made my new YouTube banner. He does amazing photoshop art and graphics, and I'll put a link to his Instagram below. Southeastern Europe has always interested me. In fact, my interest in Bosnia and Herzegovina led me to my current infatuation with the rest of the world and its politics and history. But today I'm talking about a different Balkan country, Albania. Also one of my favorites, its eventual turn to Islam in history is one of the more overlooked events in European history. But today I will answer why Albania, along with much of southeastern Europe, retains a large Islamic population. Where was Albania's religious affiliation before its Islamization anyways? Like most of Europe and the Roman Empire, the people adhered to local pagan faiths. Christianity eventually became the main religion by the 4th century AD in much of Roman Europe. Despite retaining Christianity's the dominant faith, much of Albania was part of the Byzantine Empire several times, but also fell under the control of states like Venice, giving the country a unique position at the border of the east-west schism. As a result, much of the north of the country, which Venice controlled, maintains a Catholic majority population, while in the south and east, an Orthodox majority population remains, where the Byzantine influence was the strongest. So yes, Albania was a Christian nation before its conversion to Islam. But how did this conversion take place? One simple answer, the Ottoman Empire. But the means is not as simple to explain. The Byzantine Empire was struggling to survive in the 2nd millennium AD, and the Ottoman Turks were not aiding them. Though the Byzantines were able to hold on to Constantinople after much of their European territory, including Albania, was lost by the 14th century. That city fell too in 1453, officially marking the end of the empire. The Ottomans could now fully focus their attention to Europe and the Islamization of their new territories. In some areas it was successful, including Eastern Thrace, which now holds a Turkish majority population, and among the peasant populations of Bulgaria and Bosnia. Yet in Albania, only the Christian elite population converted to Islam, so they could retain their power and money in the new Ottoman society. One of these men was Skanderbey, one of the most well-known Albanian historical figures. Despite this, later in life he reverted to Christianity and led a revolt of Christian Albanians in the north of the country. In fact, several revolts of Christian Albanians occurred throughout the 15th to 19th centuries. Many Christians, including Pope Clement IX himself an Albanian, tried to stop the Islamization of Albania, though it was clear these efforts were futile, as many Christian Albanians ended up fleeing to southern Italy in fear of persecution. Like the rest of the Ottoman Empire, Islamic citizens had higher status than those who were of other faiths. As I mentioned, methods of persecution were used against Christians to try to speed up the Islamization of southeastern Europe. Their efforts were met with varying degrees of success, with places like Serbia having very low Muslim populations today, but for the Albanian population it was a bit more successful. The Albanians are a unique ethnic group, much different from the surrounding Slavic population, but also different from their Greek neighbors. This difference may have contributed to the swiftness of Islamization in their country, due to their uniqueness. In fact, because of the conversion of Albanians to Islam, many of them held high-ranking positions in the Balkan territories of the Ottoman Empire, despite their nation's small size. However, like all empires, the Ottomans completely fell apart in 1918, with Albania becoming independent in 1912. Unlike Balkan counterparts Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Greece, whose Muslim population to a large degree moved to the newly created Turkish Republic, Islam remained the majority religion of the Albanian population, both in Albania and Yugoslavia. However, the repressive communist regime of Enver Hoja and similar dictators threatened anyone who practiced religion in the country, and now Christians and Muslims were both equally oppressed by the anti-theist government in place. Despite this, religion has prevailed through the country, even if the population of Albania today is not super-observant about the religions they profess. Today in Albania, 59% of the population is Muslim, 10% is Catholic, 7% is Orthodox, totaling 17% Christian, with the other 24% either being undeclared or non-religious. In Kosovo, an Albanian majority state. Islam is professed by 88% of the population, and in North Macedonia, Islam is practiced by 29% of the population, many being Albanian. And hopefully more than 29% of you have made it to the end, and if you did, please like, subscribe, and share this video with all your friends. Also, please click the link to Maxim's Instagram page to see what digital art he can make for you today. It's been a pleasure making this video, and I appreciate all your support in helping me on this long road so that one day, soon, I can get 1,000 subscribers. So until next time, this has been Mac.