When civil unrest broke out in Albania in 1997, it had an unlikely trigger: the collapse of a series of pyramid schemes. Almost two-thirds of the population had invested in such schemes in the preceding years, which promised a certain financial return but were ultimately built on sand. When around 25 of these companies went bankrupt, their liabilities totalled $1.2 billion, nearly half of Albania’s GDP at the time. The resulting conflict saw widespread looting, as armed gangs took control of much of the country and the government fell.

With evidence of human habitation since the Middle Paleolithic era, modern-day Albanians attribute their origins to ancient Illyrian and Thracian tribes. From ancient times until World War One, the region was dominated by the Roman, Byzantine, Serbian, Bulgarian and Ottoman empires. Their biggest challenge came in the 15th century from the feudal lord and military commander Skanderbeg, who unified the Albanian principalities under the League of Lezhë in 1444. Under the Ottoman rule in the 19th and early 20th centuries, a ‘National Awakening’ revived Skanderbeg as a popular hero, and the central square of modern Tirana bears his name.