The national – Albanian and state forming dimension of Gjergj Kastrioti Scanderbeg .

Abstract

"Gjergj Kastrioti-Scanderbeg (1405-17.01.1468) is the most important national hero and the greatest strategist and statesman of Albanians who led the war for freedom against the Ottoman occupation for the political-national union of the Albanians.²
The many frequent military victories glorified Scanderbeg at a national level, and he was revered even outside Albania. He became famous abroad as in his fatherland, because when Scanderbeg came out victorious in front of the big Ottoman attacks, the West itself experienced great and frequent losses in the wars against the same enemy.³ In these wars, Scanderbeg had not only protected his interests and the interests of his people, but also merely manifested a feeling of relevance, of the civilizing supremacy against a military horde that he had somehow despised. It’s almost unexplainable how a leader of a small population with so much arrogance could ever challenge the greatest military and economic power of the time.⁴ Skanderbeg's obstruction of the Ottomans' entry into Italy allowed the refinement of European cultural heritage. So, Renaissance blossomed, reformations occurred. The printing press was invented and later developed (1456). Commerce expanded and provided some impetus for exploration and colonization of the Western World where hundreds and thousands of his descendants found shelter.⁵ Consequently, Gjergj Kastrioti Scanderbeg was crowned as a hero of the western civilization, and by excelling at military actions against the enemy, he comes first in the list of the Western prominent military leaders of the time.⁶