Video 1 Transcript
So one of the people that you'll probably end up hearing about a lot in Albania, his name is Skanderbeg. And if you can look up any just basic history about Albania and especially the influence of the Ottoman Empire, that is super helpful and just really good to know. It's a really good introduction to the traditions that you're going to see that people still practice today. But Skanderbeg was a really famous Albanian military leader. He was born in the 1400s back when Albania was under the influence of the Ottoman Empire. And so as a child, he was taken from Albania to like an Ottoman training camp and trained as an Ottoman, trained to like think the way Ottoman Empire leaders wanted Albanians to think and to be under their control and influence. And then as he grew up, he realized that he was Albanian and had this Albanian heritage and traditions and he wanted to stay noble to that. So he actually broke away from that and led some really famous Albanian battles against the Ottoman Empire, kind of in revolt of that. And he was very key to helping Albania still keep its identity during the Ottoman Empire.
