Skanderbeg

George Kastriota Scanderbeg (1405 - 1468) was for many centuries presumably the most renowned Southeast European personality , already in his lifetime regarded as a standard bearer of resistance against the Ottoman advance. From the 19th century until the present time, many Southeastern European national movements referred to him as a symbol of their political aspirations. The oral and written memory of Scanderbeg in and outside of Southeastern Europe is impressive. Nevertheless, the historical figure and its contemporary sociocultural context are far less well explored than might be expected. The present book relies on research work realised in the last eight years in several European archives which considerably enlarged the source base, allowing a new interpretation of Scanderbegs uprising, fully integrating methods from social, economic, cultural and environmental history. This approach helps to explain why a small and poor mountain society was able to resist the overwhelming military power of the Ottoman Empire and why this struggle met such an intensive reponse in Western Europe. The book is divided into two narrative parts and a main analytical part. A last chapter is devoted to the memory of Scanderbeg and its instrumentalisation in present-day Balkan politics. Although centred on an analysis of the mountain society of present-day Central Albania and Western Macedonia, the book encompasses a much wider geographical area stretching from Burgundy and Renaissance Italy to Hungary and the core regions of the Ottoman Empire. Scanderbegs rebellion is thus put in an European context. It can be read a as case study for the social history of the Central Balkans, the implementation of Ottoman rule in this area and the intensive relations between the Medieval Balkans and Renaissance Europe. New sources shed a completely different light on the motives and the character of the uprising: growing out of a blood feud between Scanderbeg and the Ottoman dynasty, the conflict involved John Hunyadis Hungary, the Serbian dynasty of Brankovic and the opposition at the Sultans court; it was fed by the resentment of newly conquered areas which rejected the Ottoman strategy of administrative centralisation; and it became a Christian movement against the faith of the new Empire: rebells were required to confess in public their adherence to the Christian faith, and their uprising was strongly supported by the Catholic church in Albania, which provided supplies in arms , money and diplomatical contacts with Western courts. Scanderbegs involvement in the Veneto-Neapolitan antagonism in the Southern Adriatic proved to be as detrimental to his movement as the consequences of the almost ceaseless Ottoman attacks. His eventual defeat was caused by a radical change of the Ottoman strategy: a all-the-year warfare, deliberate destruction of forests, systematic mass murder and deportation of the population in contested areas laeding to a complete breakdown of the rebellious society.