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You asked for a long answer, and by Jove you got it!Current areas where Albanian is spoken; tiny communities in Zadar (Croatia) and the Ukraine also exist.First, a (very much needed) TL;DR; Albania is the one country in the world that happens to be located in between Greece and Rome — and has historically appeared vaguely “Italiote-like” to the Greeks and “Greek-like” to the Italians; her territory is unusually rough, save for a bit of fertile plains on the coast. She is an integral part of the Balkans, ie. that weird, large landmass too rugged for a unified culture to exist, yet too interconnected for its inhabitants not to share a whole lot in terms of culture and mentality.The Albanians, originally a mysterious pre-Roman, non-Greek Balkan people, developed as a tribal culture with a good degree of autonomy under the Byzantines (5th - 14th Century AD); in full bloom and occasionally independent in the Late Middle Ages, they were the last corner of the Eastern Roman Empire to fall to the Ottomans, who subjected them to cultural persecution and economic opportunity (1479–1912), with a brief period of political power during that empire’s agony (~1750 to August 1830); an isolationist Stalinist country during 1944–1990 (“North Korea on the Med”). A separate ethnolinguistic Indo-European branch with an archaic language, the harsh, mountainous territory produced a tribal, bellicose, honor-bound culture with a Mediterranean legal code of exceptional strictness; to this day, they conserve cultural remnants of their originary paganism, are generally irreligious, as well as multiconfessional (Sunni Muslim, Catholic, Orthodox, Bektashi), two very distinctive traits in a corner of the world where ethnic and religious identity are usually paired. This latter point has historically caused much incomprehension with Albania’s neighbors.The origins: Illyrians/Thracians/Dacians/Carpi/(Celts)/a mix of the above.The ancient inhabitants of modern Albania, as well as the littoral up to Istria and inland Western Balkans up to varying depths, were the ancient Illyrians.There are no documents left in the Illyrian language other than a handful of names of people, tribes and places, so nothing about them can be said for sure; it is also not known how connected the three major Ancient Balkan linguistic groups, the Illyrians, Thracians and Dacians/Getae were (hypotheses range from “they were three distinct Indoeuropean language groups” to “they were three (or two, Illyrian and Daco/Thracian) subgroups within the same IE language”, and everything in between). Etymological studies, on the basis of what little has survived of those three languages/dialects, have hinted to a link between those extinct languages and modern Albanian and Romanian, but these results a) don't explain the nature of this link, b) are numerically minimal, so can’t be used to prove much, and c) don't shed much light on the relationship between Illyrian, Dacian and Thracian. This last point is very important, because we know for certain what area the I., D. & Th. occupied before and during the Roman Empire (ie. until ~400 AD), we know where the Albanians and the Romanians lived when they entered modern history (despite earlier mentions, ~1300 AD is when we can say both peoples had reached their areas of settlement we know of), but we don’t know where both peoples were between these two eras.All we can say is, both definitely inhabited the Balkans before the Slavic invasion and settlement (starting ~500 AD). The Albanians might descend from any of three above-mentioned peoples (Romanian historians have also proposed the Carpi, a related people who inhabited the Southern Carpathians, but this old theory seems unlikely), and most likely descend from either the Illyrians or some inland, syncretic Illyrian-Thracian-Dacian(?)-Celtic(?) group of tribes; syncretism seems to have been common in the border areas, so this depends on the precise place where the Protoalbanian people formed, and that is quite impossible to ascertain.The geographical distribution (with no word to the internal relations) of the Paleo-Balkan language group at the time of the Roman conquest. Messapians are known to have been related to Illyrians, the Veneti are also believed to; whereas the Macedonians’ language is a complete mystery (Greek dialect? Paleo-Balkan?), although what is known is that Philip, Alexander’s father, adopted what would become Koiné Greek as the State language.Below, what an Illyrian (1), a Thracian (2) and a Dacian/Geta (3) tribesmen would have looked like:IllyrianThracianDacian/GetaRomanization/HellenizationThat part of the history of Illyria in which the region came into contact with the Classical civilizations is the least obscure in Albania’s premodern history: the South of what is modern Albania had seen Greek colonies, the most important of which was known as both Epidamnus and Dyrrachion (modern Durrës, Central Albania), founded in the 7th Century bC by Corcyrans, themselves colonists from Corinth; Apollonia (near modern Fier), Buthrotum and others were also quite important cities at the time. The Greek and the Illyrian element mixed, as was common in Greek colonies (colonists were usually disproportionately men, with only a handful of women) and as testified by the wealth of Illyrian names in (otherwise perfectly Greek) funerary stones. In Hellenistic times all of these colonies were annexed and considered the northernmost part of the semihellenized region of Epirus, home to the famous King Pyrrhus. Pyrrhus’ ancestors had themselves been considered semibarbarous, but we don't know whether this was due to them being of mixed Illyrian/Greek culture or to them simply being Greeks less advanced than their southern compatriots (the way Thessalians and Macedonians were; but a similar question exists regarding the latter).Keep in mind that Epirus and Macedonia were feudal kingdoms, whereas the Greek heartlands abandoned those socio-political systems already back around the 8th Century: so “half-Greek” might well be a political rather than an ethnic judgment.What is known for certain, though, is that Epirote Kings did rule over a few red-blooded Southern Illyrian tribes, on the fringes of their kingdom. The independent Illyrian tribes to the North occasionally formed kingdoms, but after Alexander’s pacification of the borderlands they mostly focused on Adriatic seafaring (and a healthy amount of raiding) rather than earthbound expansion.Rome conquered the uncolonized part of Illyria, as well as Epirus, between 233–30 bC. This would be modern Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro and Northern Albania, and the most important town in the area was Scodra (modern Shkodra, Northern Albania), capital at one time of a unified Illyrian kingdom that became infamous for its fleet and its raiding and piracy on the Adriatic, affecting in no small measure Italic shore-bound trade: which is why the Romans attacked Scodra and conquered Illyria before conquering the Po Valley, ie. Northern Italy — the previous century (the 4th bC) the Samnite tribes in the Southern Italian mountains had built a similar reputation for raiding until pacified by the Romans, and in the Middle Ages, Romance Morlachs (“Black” or “Northern Vlachs”) and Slavic Uskoks (“Ambushers”) would become similarly infamous with their raids on Venetian trade, and Venice similarly pacified their homelands in Istria and the Kvarner.The Jireček line.Modern Albania is thus cut in twain by the Jireček line, which divides the linguistic areas of Latin and Greek influence in the Balkans. During the Roman Empire the inhabitants of the modern Republic of Albania and of FYR of Macedonia were throroughly assimilated into Roman and Greek society and culture. The vital highway known as Via Egnatia certainly contributed to the assimilation of the areas it crossed.The Illyrian Romans would write a glorious page in history when, late in the military anarchy of the Third Century, Illyrian army veterans formed an Army of National Salvation to stop the external invasion of Vandals, Juthungi and Sarmatians; their election of their own general Aurelian as emperor put an end to the 50-year long internal crisis, as the soldier-emperor came, solved all problems, and then got killed. A number of emperors, from Diocletian to Justinian, were of Romanized Illyrian origin.(This video of the Canadian Military History Society delves deeper into the crisis of the period. The episode is mentioned after 6:30. Here is a five-minute recap of Aurelian’s rule)Rome however fell, and the 4th to 6th Centuries saw all sorts of invaders crisscross the Western Balkans, especially along the highways and the coastlines; only the very last of these invaders, the Slavs (who came after the Germanic invaders, and mostly found and settled depopulated areas in Eastern Europe) would stay and settle the Central Balkans, in the 6th and 7th Centuries.The ProtoalbaniansThroughout all these tremendous ordeals, the Roman and Greek urban and rural population were decimated, and fled the cities for safer areas, in the countryside and on hilltops; but at the same time something else happened, that was to be the beginning of the Protoalbanians.Romanization never was a coercive process: the Romans would let conquered populations keep on using their language and following their customs, but the influx of Roman and Italic merchants, veterans, administators, craftsmen etc. into the towns and farms made it necessary for the natives to learn Latin, and convenient to adopt the Roman lifestyle; but the Romans never imposed all of this to the more remote inhabitants of the harsh Albanian mountains, who kept on speaking their language and living a semibarbarous life of subsistence farming and herding. When civilization collapsed in the plains, these Illyrian (?) tribesmen descended and mixed with their Romanized former compatriots. Thus, in the half of the First Millennium AD, was the Protoalbanian nucleus formed.We know this process of ethnogenesis happened in or near the area of Kosovo or Macedonia. We have such precision in knowing how it happened and where because of a number of elements:Albanian has a a big Latin influx, but barely any independent Greek premediaeval influx at all;words indicating things and animals that are found in the sea, on the coast and, up to a point, on the plains, are mostly derived from Greek and Latin, while those indicating trees and animals found on mountains are original: the number usually given is that of 500 to 800 meters above sea level (although it is also possible that those Latin loanwords are simply due to coexistence);those Latin words that can be reconstructed to have entered Albanian in this early period (including 151 words that are present in Albanian but not in Romanian, of which 85 have survived in no other modern language) have undergone similar phonetic changes to those in Romanian, but in some cases the Albanian word has a pronunciation closer to the Latin one than the Romanian word does; moreover, Romanian seems to have a few very old Albanian loanwords (eg. kuvend > cuvînt; *stëpan > stăpîn); in short, the Protoalbanian nucleus must have been to the northeast and the Protoromanian one much to the south of where the two linguistic groups would later settle, in order for Albanian to have been able to influence Romanian without intermediaries (if you can read Romanian, I suggest you read this extremely interesting article).This is a sketch of the Albanian language, and the very structure of the language indeed hints to its history:the grammar is archaic, very similar to Ancient Greek: such rarities are present in both languages such as active/mediopassive diathesis, the aorist tense, the optative mood, the five declensions present in Greek plus a remnant of ablative in the plural, the nature of verb coordination is punctual rather than hierarchical, ie. the verbal tense stresses how that particular action happens (as in Greek), not how this action is related to another action (as in Latin). It also has a very bizzarre feature (which it shares only with wholly unrelated languages), the admirative mood. It’s used to express wonder and is a very weird thing;Much of the vocabulary is Latin in origin, although not always obviously so (mjek < medicus; pyll < padule(m) [paludem]; gaz < gaudium; shqiptoj < excipio - but then, shok < socius; kuvend < conventum; peshk < piscis; qytet < civitatem); however, the syntax is not Latin; this has led many to say that Albanian has undergone partly the process that Romanian completed, hence the label of a semilatinized language. Only Basque, surviving Celtic languages and (debated) Berber have a similar wealth of Latin influences from antiquity that were incorporated into a non-Romance language. There seem to be two treatments of Latin words: one following Romanian (thus an Eastern Balkan influence), the second following Old Dalmatian (Western Balkan littoral).Interestingly, “In 1995, Ann Taylor, Donald Ringe and Tandy Warnow described as "surprising" their finding, using quantitative linguistic techniques, that Albanian appears to comprise a "subgroup with Germanic".” see note [11] on the linked page. However, these similarities are no longer relevant in the modern languages, because “Albanian has lost so much of its original vocabulary and morphology”.Albanian underwent a very important period of Latin influence (2nd Century bC-5th Century AD), divided in three layers; another of South Slavic influence (7th to 9th Centuries): notable is the fact that many Slavic loanwords have a weaker meaning in Albanian than they have in Slavic languages (gropë(a), meaning hole in Albanian and grave in Slavic languages; trup(i), Al. “body”, Sl. “corpse”; zakon(i), Al. “habit”, Sl. “law”; bojë(a), Al. “dye”, Sl. “color”; nevojë(a), Al. “need”, Sl. “captivity”; rob, Al. “prisoner”, but also “human being”, Sl. “slave”). Beginning in the late 9th Century there is also a period of Albanian influence into Vlach (ie. Romanian), probably connected to the Bulgarian expansion into Albania, that pushed the Protoromanians to the south-west.The subdivision between Tosk and Geg seems to have been present before the Slavic invasion of the Balkans.First MentionsAfter some cursory mention — in Byzantine, Serbian, Bulgarian and Venetian chronicles, starting from around 1000 AD — of a people with a name but with no face (arbonites, arbanasi, albanoi, arbanitai, Ar'banas', Arbanon), the first mention of the Albanian language dates back from a Ragusan forensic document from 1285: in the night, the witness declares, "Audivi unam vocem clamantem in monte in lingua albanesca" [“I heard a voice calling from the mountains in the Albanian language.”]It is one of those rare cases, as Zweig would say, when History is not only a storyteller, but a poet: what better words could accompany the birth of a Nation out of the night of times, and into the known world?So the earliest surviving text in Albanian would seem to be Formula e pagëzimit, or the “baptismal formula”, written within a Latin letter from 1462 by the Archbishop of Durrës, Pal Engjëlli (Paulus Angelus) to a recently arrived priest: Un'te paghesont' pr'emenit t'Atit e t'Birit e t'Spirit Senit. (“I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost”).Arbën/ArvërDuring this whole period, the territories inhabited by Albanians remained part of the Bizantine Empire. The Albanian feudal lords were granted by Constantinople unprecedented liberties, because they ruled over one of the most strategical regions of the Empire: not only would their alliance with Serbian lords or the Venetian Republic be a terrible danger, but Western (“Frankish”) powers such as Aragon and France looked at the region as a potential beachhead for a conquest of the whole Byzantine Empire; the Normans and the Spanish Almugavars briefly invaded and raided the country, and no less that eight semiindependent Albanian principalities existed between the 12th and the 14th Centuries. In the late 13th Century Frenchman Charles I of Anjou, King of Sicily, conquered most of modern Albania and founded the Kingdom of Albania (1272–1368), which his descendants lost to the Albanian prince Karl Thopia, who proceeded to found the Principality of Albania (1368–1392).In this period Albania had tight trade and cultural ties with Puglia, Ragusa and Venice; the eponymous protagonist of the influential 1410 Italian chivalrous novel Guerrin Meschino is a fictional son of a King of Durrës/Durazzo; and it was in this age that many Albanian towns acquired an Italian name (Shkodra/Scutari, Durrës/Durazzo, Saranda/Santi Quaranta, Shëngjin/San Giovanni di Medua, Lezhë/Alessio, Krujë/Croia, Zeta/Zedda), testifying the great influx of Italian merchants, by which name they often were known in the English language until well into the 20th Century.It was also in this period that Albanian farmers were invited by Byzantine, Venetian and Genoese lords to repopulate areas of Greece uninhabited because of war, economic decline, plague etc., in regions such as Thessalia, Boiotia, Euboia (Negroponte), Attiké, the Peloponnese (Morea).Skanderbeg and the League of LezheThe Ottoman Turks, incapable of conquering the titanic fortifications defending Constantinople, the impregnable capital of a failing Empire, crossed the Hellespont into the Balkans in the 1370es, and in 1389 they defeated the Serbian, Albanian, Vlach and Bosnian army led by Serbian Tsar Lazar at Kosovo Polje — the last major power standing in the Balkans was crushed. Only pockets of resistance survived from what had been the Byzantine Empire: Costantinople (until 1453), the Despotate of the Morea (until 1460) and even faraway Trebizond (1461).As was his tradition, the Sultan took hostages from, among others, the Albanian prince of Kruja, former vassal of the Tsar, by the name of Gjon Kastrioti (Giovanni Castriota); the Sultan took his eldest son, Stanisha, and later the other three males, Reposhi, Konstandin and Gjergj.Gjergj (George), was converted to Islam and was trained — as was customary for hostages — in the Enderûn School, where the élite Janissaries were trained; he displayed such talent in military matters that he was nicknamed Iskandar Beg, meaning “Prince Alexander” (as in, Alexander the Great). During his time as hostage, he would also meet a younger hostage, Vlad III of Wallachia, later known, as Vlad Țepeș (“impaler”) or Dracula, as one of the heroes of the Antiottoman resistance. He became a good friend of the future Sultan, Murad II, and was eventually dispatched home to Albania. There he sat out a revolt against Ottoman rule in 1432–36, and in that decade he was promoted to vali or governor over a sizable timar, meaning that he also led 5000 cavalrymen in battle.After his brothers Konstandin and Reposhi, and his father Gjon died, Gjergj and his brother Stanisha decided to keep their alliance with the Republic of Ragusa and the Republic of Venice. In the 1438–1443 period he was promoted to Sanxhakbej of Dibra, and fought for the Sultan against the Crusade led by János (John) Hunyadi; finally, the latter’s long campaign’s early successes convinced Skanderbeg that the Turks could be defeated in Albania, and he left the field of the Battle of Nish (1443) along with his troops, riding home to establish an independent Sanxhak. He is known to have said, to the population who had already rebelled in the ‘30es, and whom he was leading in a new, much hoped for rebellion: “I’m not bringing you liberty: I found it among you” - meaning, if my interpretation has some merit, that he was relieved to finally have seen a realistic chance to rise up against a tyranny he’d never liked.He had deserted in November 1443; using a forged letter purporting to be Murad’s (his old friend had now become Sultan), he bluffed the Vali of Kruja into giving the stronghold over to him; he then moved on to conquer a number of minor fortresses (Petrela, Prezë, Guri i Bardhë, Svetigrad, Modrič and others). He contacted his Ragusan and Venetian allies. He knew the blow would eventually come, and it would shake the earth.Such a high-level defection inspired other feudal lords. Gjergj (George) Arianiti, a former hostage himself and later Skanderbeg’s father-in-law, had been part of the Albanian revolt of 1432–36, and had started another revolt in August 1443, short before Skanderbeg’s defection; Andrea Thopia of Scuria had been the leader of that earlier revolt, Northern prince Nikollë Dukagjini had also participated. Skanderbeg invited a dozen lords of Central and Northern Albania (most were Albanian, four were Serb) to a meeting in Venetian-owned Lezhë (Alessio in Venetian documents) where, on March 2, 1444, they formed the League of Lezhë, the first unified Albanian polity. Scanderbeg would be its kryekapedani, or “chief captain”, ie. a primum inter pares.The banner of the League of Lezhë took the eagle from the Kastrioti family coat of arms, while the star derives, to the best of my knowledge, from a Northern family.The League was thus born in early spring, awaiting the Turkish onslaught that would come, as all fighting at the time did, in the summer.On June 29, 1444, an Ottoman expeditionary force of 25–40.000 men camped atop the slightly sloped plain of Torvioll, facing the League’s 7000 infantry and part of its 8000 cavalry. Seeing an easy victory, Ottoman general Ali Pasha attacked without preparations, baring his flanks to the hidden bulk of Skanderbeg’s cavalry. The battle was an utter success for the League, and would be the beginning of a long resistance.One year later, having freed his hands by crushing Hunyadi and his Crusader (Polish, Wallachian) allies in Varna, Sultan Mehmet II wrote a letter to Skanderbeg, who had converted back to Catholicism and answered declaring that he had no intention of backing down. Mehmed sent Firuz Pasha with 9–15.000 men against Skanderbeg, whose 3.500 men (2k cavalry, 1,5k infantry) triumphed a second time at Mokra (1445). After the Crusader catastrophe at Varna, Mokra regalvanized Christian hopes, with Pope Eugene IV and King Alfonso V of Aragon, Naples etc. sending their congratulations; Skanderbeg sent to the latter four Ottoman standards, starting an alliance with the shrewd King that would later be of great importance.In 1446, as Murad was preparing to fight Hunyadi anew, he sent 15.000 cavalry under Mustafa Pasha against Skanderbeg, with precise orders to pillage and terrorize the countryside and avoid pitched confrontations. Mustafa split his troops to this purpose, and when Skanderbeg got word that around half the Ottoman host had encamped in the fortified position of Otonetë to ensure a supply center, he struck there with his 5.000 men, “turning the camp into a slaughterhouse”. Sultan Murad then decided to forbid any raids within Albania, limiting his forces to defending the frontiers.1447 was a very eventful year: it started with Nikollë (Nicholas) Dukagjini killing fellow League member Lekë (Alexander) Zaharia, prince of Dagnum over who should marry Erina Dushmani, daughter of the prince of Zadrima; some say that Dukagjini actually wanted to annex Dagnum (Dajë/Dagno), which guarded an important trade route. The mother of the deceased gave the fortress to Venetian Albania and, upon the Senate’s refusal to give the outpost to the League, Skanderbeg prepared for war with his erstwhile ally. Venice saw the League of Lezhë as no more than a buffer between themselves and the Ottomans, so they also prepared for war, all the while putting a reward on Skanderbeg’s head and sending ambassadors to Murad II, advising him to strike simultaneously.The conflict with Venice had not yet escalated into war when news came that Murad II was personally leading a huge host (around 80.000 men and two cannons) against Svetigrad (in modern Macedonia), which guarded the mountain passes into Albania; as was his usual strategy in sieges, Skanderbeg left a small garrison inside the fortress, while he himself led a disruptive force of 4.000 (enlisting more men from the area) outside the gates. He defeated an Ottoman ambush, ambushed patrols and supplies and even raided the Ottoman camp at night. The Albanians hoped their enemy would lift the siege, but Murad decided to no longer take the bait and the siege continued, hoping to starve the fortress into surrender.Unaware of Venice’s pact with Murad, Skanderbeg asked the Republic for reinforcements, but none came. Ragusa and Naples sent some help. The situation degenerated to the point of war. Skanderbeg received the support of the Serb Despot (and adversary of Venice) Đurađ Branković and League member Stefan Crnojević, while a few other members refused to fight Venice; he left 4.000 to besiege Dagnum and led the other 10.000 to disrupt trade with Durrës/Durazzo and finally marched towards the Venetians’ main city in Albania, Shkodër/Scutari: he defeated the Venetians on the river Drin, and received good terms of peace. Eight days later, the garrison at Svetigrad finally surrendered, and was let through the Ottoman lines and to Skanderbeg’s forces. Pjetër Perlati, commander of the garrison, begged forgiveness from Skanderbeg, but the latter thanked him for holding out so long.Skanderbeg got word that Hunyadi’s forces were marching towards Kosovo, and planned to join them with his now 20.000 men, but was prevented by Branković, who controlled the roads to Kosovo and who was allied with the Sultan. The latter, as promised to the Venetians, sent Mustafa Pasha into Albania with 15.000 men, but he was defeated and captured at Oranik (1448). Hunyadi was also defeated in Kosovo.In 1450 Sultan Murad entered Albania: he took Berat by stratagem and besieged Krujë with 100.000 men, but was repulsed.The League was beset by contrasting interest and, around 1450, only its core members remained. Hungary, Ragusa and Naples helped the resistance financially, and finally, in 1451, Skanderbeg put both the League and himself under Alfonso V of Aragon: the pact was that Alfonso would aid the Albanian resistance and, once the Ottomans were definitely defeated, liberated Albania would enter Alfonso’s Kingdom. Alfonso signed similar treaties of vassallage with Gjergj Arianiti and the Greek Despot of Morea, Demetrios Palaiologos. Murad II died that year.Turkish infighting in Anatolia and the new Sultan Mehmet II’s preparations meant a window of respite (in a very hard time) for Skanderbeg, aside for a relatively moderate (25.000 Ottomans) campaign in 1452. Skanderbeg’s behavior in this particular occasion made him famous thoughout the Mediterranean for his magnanimity and mercy, after he spared, respected and freed the enemy general Hamza Pasha and his men. This victory, reported to Alfonso by his envoy Ramón d’Ortafá, provoked great exhuberance, and reconciliated Kastrioti with the Albanian lords.Another Albanian victory in 1453 was overshadowed by Mehmet’s conquest of Costantinople.Scanderbeg resisted numerous onslaughts for ten more years, preparing for a Crusade from the West that - as it had failed to come to Costantinople’s aid - never materialized. His late intervention to the Albanian Siege of Berat (1455) didn’t prevent it from failing; Moisi Golemi Arianiti briefly defected to the Ottomans, but was defeated in the second battle of Oranik (1456) and rejoined the Albanian ranks (Golemi’s calculation had not been entirely without merit). Skanderbeg had his hands full trying to counter treason and infighting when an Ottoman host of 70.000 reached the coast between Lezhë and Krujë - Scanderbeg’s heartland. He avoided meeting them for months, giving the Ottomans and the whole of Europe the impression that he had been defeated, before triumphing at the Battle of Albulena (Ujëbardha) in 1457. Two of his nephews, Gjergj Strez Balsha and Hamza Kastrioti had betrayed him, and were imprisoned in Naples.Consequence of the battle was a five-year truce with Mehmet, which Skanderbeg used to raise funds for his army, with little success. Pope Callistus III gave him the title of Athleta Christi, which later Popes would renew. Skanderbeg also extended his scope of operations to Southern Albania and Greece, appointing Leonardo III Tocco, lord of Epirus, his lieutenent in the South.Alfonso’s death in 1458 put an end to Aragonese dreams of a Mediterranean empire; Skanderbeg tried to warm up his relationship with Venice, even as he gave his loyalty to Alfonso’s brutal and narrow-minded son Ferdinand I of Naples; his position was becoming increasingly precarious.Nonetheless, he aided Ferdinand when the green King was faced with an Angevin insurrection, campaigning for two years in Southern Italy (1460–1462), thus earning Ferdinand’s trust and friendship.He returned home to face three Ottoman armies, which he defeated in Mokra, Ohrid and Shkup. This led to a ten-year peace treaty which Skanderbeg, although initially unwilling, was convinced by Tanush Thopia to sign. Venice, meanwhile, allied with him, guaranteeing Albanian independence, enlisting him into their own Senate and entering war with the Ottomans (1463–1479).Another Crusade was dreamt of and never realized; meanwhile, Morea (1460) and Trebizond (1463) fell. Skanderbeg won a great battle at Vaikal (1465), but his Albanian enemy, Sanxhakbej Ballaban Badera, captured 21 officers, among whom Moisi Golemi, Vladan Jurica and Skanderbeg’s nephew Muzaka, who were brought to Constantinople, flayed alive for fifteen days, cut to pieces and fed to the dogs.A second battle at Vaikal (where all Ottoman prisoners were slaughtered as an act of revenge) and a second siege of Krujë (1466–67) ensued; during the latter, Ballaban Bej was killed by an arquebus bullet shot by a hunter from the battlements of the fortress, thereby crippling Ottoman operations in Albania. Giving up, as his father had, on taking Krujë, Mehmet had the fortress of Elbasan built as a supply center for attacking Durrës.Skanderbeg tried to take Elbasan, but the task, in the absence of any Albanian artillery, was impossible. Ballaban’s death and the attempted siege of Elbasan forced Mehmet to intervene, sending none other than the Grand Vizier, Mahmud Pasha Anđelović, to a fruitless third siege of Krujë (1467).The immense degree of destruction, the death of so many noblemen, the ruinous state of the Albanian economy convinced Skanderbeg to call the remaining lords to Lezhë in January 1468, to try to form a second League. While there, he fell ill with malaria and died, at 62 years of age.Left without a leader, the Albanian lords went each his own way, some pledging loyalty to the Sultan, some allying with Venice or whoever was left to help them. Defeat was inevitable.Christian Albanian refugees (among whom the Castriota family) would flee to the Kingdom of Naples, with another group fleeing to Venice itself and to the Venetian city of Zara di Dalmazia; another small group found its way, almost two centuries later, to the Ukraine.This flag, from a 1555–1565 fresco by Paolo Veronese in Saint Sebastian’s Church in Venice, has recently been identified as that of the League of Lezhë, a contemporary metaphor for the Biblical story of Mordechai’s struggle for Jewish independence.The Ottoman rule and its successorsA mosque was built over the church were Gjergj Kastrioti’s remains rested, and his bones were made into amulets by marauding Turkish soldiers.The Ottoman final conquest of Albania was barbarous: the last living lords were impaled and flayed. Kruja would not stand its fourth siege: starving and destitute, the fortress would fall in 1478. Shkodra/Scutari, the last city to fall, in 1479, was considered untenable by the Venetians, and the whole of its population (according to eyewitness Marin Barleti) abandoned it together with the Venetian administration.Ottoman rule treated Albania peculiarly until the end of its rule there: while all the neighboring nationalities (Serbs, Greeks, Vlachs, Bulgarians, Italians, Jews etc.) could have schools, libraries and (later) print houses in their own languages, the teaching and written usage of Albanian was punished by death (many secret country schools existed and, when found, the teacher and all children would be killed). To the best of my knowledge, this went on until mid 19th Century (Albanian was officially recognized as a language by the Ottoman government in 1909). At the same time, Albanians weren’t discriminated at all, but were actually encouraged, when becoming soldiers, sailors, merchants etc. Thus, despite having no power in their dispossessed homeland, great numbers of talented Albanians served foreign powers:the Ottomans: many Albanians became Viziers and a few Sultans had some Albanian blood; to this day there are many Libyans, Egyptians, Syrians, and especially Turks of Albanian origin; Mehmet Ali Pasha won Egyptian autonomy from the Sublime Porte; Ali Pasha of Tepelena almost succeeded in doing the same with Southern Albania; Sami Frashëri wrote the first Turkish encyclopedia; Mehmet Akif Ersoy, son of an Albanian, wrote the modern Turkish national Anthem; there is a very interesting thread on Quora on how Turks today see Albanians;Italian powers: aside from the Arbëreshë and their half millennium of loyal, bilingual service (an Arbëreshë would go on to become PM of United Italy), many Catholic Albanians went on to serve Venice, the Papacy, Naples or other Italian powers (of the three most influent families in the Republic of Genoa after the Grimaldi left, one was the Durazzo) as soldiers (initially capitalizing on the skills in dealing with the Turks learnt under Skanderbeg), priests and merchants. Historian Noel Malcolm has written a fascinating book, reconstructing the story of two such families from Ulqin/Dulcigno, that reads like a novel;after Romanian independence in the mid 19th Century, many Albanian intellectuals saw the Carpathian country as a friendly neighbor (almost an oxymoron for Albanians), and settled there, working both to serve the newly independent country and publishing books and newspapers on the question of Albanian independence.In general, if you speak Albanian, Youtube is full of documentaries about Albanians from Italy, Greece, Croatia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Syria, Turkey.Costumes of urban Albanians from the Codice de Trajes of 1547: Albania was still majority-Christian at the time. Those weird, long coats (unattested after the 17th Century) seem to be cut open at the armpit, a feature that still survives in Albanian traditional clothing and that was known in Western Europe during the 16th and 17th Centuries as tailoring à l’Albanaise or all’Albanesca.From the same manuscript: Janissary, Albanian, Turkish Pasha, Sultan, Mamelukes.[1]I think there is an argument to be made, as I said in another answer, that the Albanians at the time were in a position very similar to that of the Armenians.While all these fascinating events unravelled in the Mediterranean, life in the four Albanian Vilayets was comparatively underwhelming. Lekë (Alexander) Dukagjini, a minor participant in Scanderbeg’s resistance, is credited with coding a much more ancient legal code, the Kanun (a Turkish loanword, deriving from an Arabic word derived from Greek κανών, “[measuring] rod”), which prescribes duties and rights on every imaginable area of life (eg. how to treat bees), punishes quite a number of crimes with blood feuds, is generally inflexible and infinitely interesting.The mountains of Northern Albania were impassable enough to keep out Ottoman laws, decrees, religion, taxes and government; elsewhere within Albania Islam spread, not much out of spiritual reasons, but because of a sizeable number of taxes, corvées, years of military service a Christian had to perform and a Muslim didn't; this said, Albanian Islam was always of a gentler nature than Arab or even Turkish Islam was: Albanian Muslims often were, and to this day are, Sufi, Bektashi, or otherwise the raki-drinking, pork-eating, Christian-marrying sort.The Albanian Nation, due to the absence of a national Church (unlike all its neighbors) lost a sizeable minority of her members, who were assimilated into Greek or Slavic populations, but was able to peacefully become a Nation of three religions (Catholic, Orthodox and Muslim) — again, a regional record. The tides of trade and the cultivation of unused fields built large mixed-language areas, between the different ethnic groups, and great communities of Albanian speakers were to be found as far north as Novi Pazar (Tregu i ri) and as far south as the Peloponnese.Illiterate rapsodes (lahutarë, the very last of whom are dying out) kept prechristian Albanian mythology and the more recent epic poems (kënga kreshnikësh) alive; the latter are divided, roughly, in:the Bosnian cycle, originally sung in Ottoman military camps in Hungary, was based on traditional Slavic material adapted to the celebration of religious warfare against the infidels; this tradition, once brought back to Albania, was translated and adapted to the subject of ethnic warfare between Albanians (Shqipëtarët) and Slavs (Shkjet). It thus has, aside from a few heroes and situations, a robustly original nature;the Albanian cycle, built around historical heroes, first and foremost Skenderbeg: it is thanks to this tradition that, although no flags survived from his day, everyone knew what flag to fly and how it should look like, in 1912. Even during and after the National reawakening (rilindja), the red and black flag was quite a common topic in poetry.The flag of the League of Prizren, 1877. Introduced by the Comneni family to Costantinople, the double-headed eagle soon became a symbol of the Capital; the Kastrioti family had probably lived there for a period, and integrated it into their coat of arms. No longer purple or gold, as in the Imperial flag, but red, it flew over the last corner of the Byzantine Empire to stand free, Albania. It was flown again only when the Ottoman Empire in Europe collapsed, yet its design was not at all unfamiliar, as the lahutarë had never ceased describing it in song.Two mysterious alphabets, the Elbasan alphabet and the Todhri alphabet were used during the 18th/19th Centuries. It is not known why they were invented and only a few books in those script survive. They may have been invented as a countermeasure to the prohibition on written Albanian, but that's just a hypothesis.The rest of the story is more recent and better known so, if you don't mind, I’ll leave it for another day.The ethnic situation before the fall of the Ottoman Empire in Europe.Footnotes[1] Veshje dhe kostume të ndryshme 1000-1850

Polygamy, or plural marriage as it is known inside the Church, was never practiced by a large percentage of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint members. Some were called by the Church to practice it, but all were required to get permission from Church leadership before engaging in it. Plural Marriage was allowable only if it was commanded by God, as in the days of the Patriarchs of the Old Testament.In the mostly Protestant religious background of the early Church members, many didn’t want to follow plural marriage. Joseph Smith reported following the commandment only at the threat of an angel bearing a sword. And even though he married many times, he never had children by any woman other than his first wife. Brigham Young wasn’t enthusiastic about it either, and stated, “it was the first time in my life that I had desired the grave.” However, God commanded and they obeyed.In its limited practice, Church members understood that it wasn’t popular in the United States, but they also believed that the religious protections of the Constitution would protect them.Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;–The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United StatesHowever, beginning in 1862, the United States government passed a series of laws designed to force Church members to stop plural marriage. The problem is that members of the Church don’t consider God’s commandments negotiable, and their marriages and duty to their spouses and children were sacred covenants, or promises, that could not be set aside. However, members of the Church also “believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.” It was a dilemma.The President of the Church at the time stated privately- “The whole thing in a nut shell is this, you should keep your covenants with your family and you should also not violate the law. Now if you can comprehend it– you will grasp the situation.”Enforcement actions by the Federal Government began against leaders and members of the Church in 1887. The issue went before the Supreme Court, but the court ruled in favor of the Edmunds-Tucker Act in 1890. This law not only heavily fined the Church, but also legally dissolved it by name. In the Utah Territory, women’s voting rights were removed. Children in polygamous families right to their inheritance was stripped away. And people who would not swear obedience to the law by name had their voting rights, and the ability to serve on a jury or hold public office, taken from them.That the acts of the legislative assembly of the Territory of Utah incorporating, continuing, or providing for the corporation known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints… so far as the same may now have legal force and validity, are hereby disapproved and annulled, and the said corporation, in so far as it may now have, or pretend to have any legal existence, is hereby dissolved.– Federal Code, 5352 of the Revised Statutes, Section 17In case you’re wondering, the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution including the equal protection clause was passed in 1868, well before this Supreme Court case. And so this law should have been illegal on those grounds alone, let alone the religious protections in the Bill of Rights.No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.– The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United StatesThe government began seizing property, jailing men, and left grieving families without a means of support. There was even word that meetinghouses (chapels) and temples would be seized- stopping the saving ordinances of the temple, such as work for the dead and eternal marriage.The Church, which had already fled the United States once after persecution, imprisonment, forfeiture of property, and death, the Missouri Extermination Order, the destruction of the Nauvoo Illinois Temple, and eventually the death of the founder and prophet Joseph Smith, discussed whether they needed to flee the United States again.The Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the state…– Missouri Executive Order 44, the “Mormon Extermination Order”In 1890, President Wilford Woodruff, after much consultation with other leadership, and after much prayer, issued the “manifesto” banning any new plural marriages, although existing marriages remained intact. In it, he stated, “I should have let all the temples go out of our hands; I should have gone to prison myself, and let every other man go there, had not the God of heaven commanded me to do what I do; and when the hour came that I was commanded to do that, it was all clear to me.”The Salt Lake Temple was dedicated in 1893. In the same year, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir participated in the World Fair in Chicago.In 1895, The first “stake”, similar to a diocese, was organized outside the United States in Cardston, Alberta, Canada.Utah was admitted as a state of the United States in 1896. Widespread celebrations broke out across the state even though the Federal Government had been in a de facto state of war with territory for decades just a few years before.In 1903, the US Senate refused to allow Senator Reed Smoot to be seated due to charges that he was a Mormon (He didn’t deny this. He was actually one of the leaders of the Church, serving in the Quorum of the Twelve), of polygamy (he had only a single wife), and that the Church was too influential in Utah (Church members constituted over 90% of the population of Utah at the time.) The hearings went on until 1907 when he was exonerated of all charges. He served as a Senator for 26 years.In 1912, the Church begins the seminary program for high school students to receive weekday religious instruction.In 1919, the Hawaiian Temple was dedicated, the first outside the continental United States.The Cardston temple is dedicated in 1923.In 1927, Church member J. Willard Marriott founds Marriott International.In 1936, the Church Welfare program was created to aid the poor. This was motivated by the Great Depression.In 1947, Church membership surpasses one million members.In 1952, the Primary Children’s Hospital opens and is still one of the premiere pediatric hospitals in the world.In 1953, Ezra Taft Benson, future president of the Church, is named US Secretary of Agriculture. Ivy Baker Priest is named Treasurer of the United States.In 1955, the Switzerland Temple is dedicated, the first in Europe.In 1958, the New Zealand Temple is dedicated, the first in the South Pacific.In 1961, the first Spanish-speaking Stake was organized in Mexico City.In 1963, Church membership reaches two million members. George Romney becomes governor in Michigan- father to Mitt Romney.In 1964, the Mormon Pavilion opens at the New York World Fair. In the same year, the Church begins the home teaching program, which helps to ensure that everyone in each congregation (“ward”) spiritual and temporal (food/shelter/clothing) needs are being met through a system of asking each priesthood holder (most men) to watch over some of the families and visit them at least once a month.In 1966, the São Paulo Brazil Stake is established, the first in South America.In 1969, Former Michigan Governor George Romney is named US Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.In 1970, the Tokyo Japan Stake is established, the first in Asia. The same year, the Transvaal South Africa Stake is organized, the first in Africa. John Huntsman founds the Huntsman Corporation. He goes on to found a philanthropic foundation that has given over $1.5 billion in grants.In 1971, Church membership passes three million.From 1971 to 1979, the Osmonds had hit records, television shows, a Saturday morning cartoon, and the Donny and Marie show that became a staple of television and were watched by millions. Later, Donny Osmond in 1989 was reintroduced into the popular music mainstream with album “Soldier of Love” charted in both the US and UK and peaked at #2 on the US and UK charts. He would go on to become the most performing singer on Broadway with over 2,000 performances of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and more recently performed Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.In 1972, Jack Anderson wins the Pulitzer Prize for journalism.The Missouri Extermination Order, which called Mormons the enemy who “must be exterminated or driven from the State” of Missouri, was finally repealed in 1976.In 1977, Church membership passes four million.In 1978, the São Paulo Brazil Temple was dedicated, the first in Latin America. The Edmunds-Tucker Act, which singled out the Church for federal enforcement actions, was repealed. The Church also removed all prohibitions of race related to holding the priesthood or attending the temple.In 1981, the President of the Church outlines the mission of the Church which has since become the Four-Fold Mission of the Church: Perfect the Saints (members), Proclaim the Gospel (missionaries), Redeem the Dead (family history), and Care for the Poor and Needy (humanitarian work). Ronald Reagan calls the Mormon Tabernacle Choir “America’s Choir”, after they perform Battle Hymn of the Republic at the presidential inauguration. This begins a tradition where they have performed at several presidents’ inaugurations including most recently, Donald Trump’s inauguration. Terrell Bell becomes US Secretary of Education. Angela Buchanan becomes Treasurer of the United States.In 1982, the Church membership numbers over five million.In 1985, the Johannesburg South Africa Temple was dedicated, the first in Africa. Quarterback Steve Young, College Football Hall of Famer, enters the NFL, and goes on to become an NFL MVP twice and Pro Football Hall of Famer. Steve Young is the great-great-great-grandson of Brigham Young.In 1986, Church member Nolan D. Archibald becomes CEO of Black and Decker. Orson Scott Card is awarded a Hugo award for writing Ender’s Game.In 1987, Evan Mecham is elected governor of Arizona.In 1989, Church membership reaches six million. Steve Covey writes the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People eventually selling over 25 million copies.In 1990, Church membership passes seven million.In 1991, Church membership exceeds eight million.In 1995, the First Presidency and Council of the Twelve Apostles released the statement, the The Family: A Proclamation to the World. Church membership exceeds nine million people.In 1996, for the first time there are more Church members living outside the United States than in it. It has continued to be true ever since.In 1997, Church membership exceeds 10 million people.In 1998, the Mormon Helping Hands program is begun. Local congregations volunteer to help communities with service needs and to recover from natural disasters. Although started in South America, the yellow shirts have become well known in North America as well after Hurricane Katrina and flooding in the Northeast. Mormons often get to disaster areas faster than FEMA and coordinate relief efforts across the impacted communities through local Church leadership.In 2000, it's announced that 100 million copies of the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ have been distributed around the world. In the same year, the Boston Massachusetts Temple is dedicated, as is the new Conference Center that can seat over 21,000 people and is used primarily for the semi-annual, globally-broadcast General Conference. Church membership passes 11 million.In 2001, the Perpetual Education Fund is established to help those around the world gain education and receive better employment. In the model of the Perpetual Immigration Fund, where immigrants who moved to Utah in the early days of the Church would pay back funds to allow others to come. PEF a student loan program where those who receive money, pay it back after completing their program.In 2002, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sings at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City to an audience of 3.5 billion. In the same year, construction of the formerly destroyed Nauvoo Illinois Temple is completed and it is dedicated.In 2004, the Church President, Gordon B. Hinckley is interviewed on CNN’s Larry King Live. There a now a million members in Mexico alone. Overall Church membership passes 12 million.In 2005, Harry Reid becomes the Senate Minority Leader, becoming the highest ranking Mormon politician ever. He also serves as Senate Majority Leader from 2006 to 2015. Mike Leavitt becomes US Secretary of Health and Human Services.In 2007, Church membership passes 13 million.In 2010, the Kyiv Ukraine Temple is dedicated. Church membership exceeds 14 million.In 2011, Clayton Christensen, author of the Innovator’s Dilemma and professor at Harvard’s School of Business, is awarded Forbes Most Influential Business Theorist in the past 50 years. Newsweek declares the “Mormon Moment.”In 2012, Mitt Romney is the first Mormon candidate of a major political party for the office of President of the United States. Mitt Romney appears on the October 8, 2012, cover of Time magazine. A Pew Research Center study finds Mormons the most religiously devoted group in America.In 2013, Church membership exceeds 15 million.In 2015, the Church helps sponsor and welcome the World Congress of Families in Salt Lake City.In 2016, the Philadelphia Pennsylvania Temple is dedicated.In mid-2017, when this was written, the Paris France Temple has been recently dedicated. The Church has nearly 16 million members, over 30,000 congregations, Church materials are published in 188 languages, over 70,000 full-time missionaries in 422 missions, 189 countries being served by Church humanitarian aid with many millions of hours of volunteer service contributed, 156 temples, nearly a million seminary and institute students, over 5,000 family history centers, and continues to have more members outside North America than within it. Members of the Church are prominent in culture, sports, business, law, science, and politics.Yes, I’d say the Church is “relatively mainstream” these days.

After years following “Trump/Russia” collusion, we should probably rethink a few assumptions held within this question.From Trump Russia ties: The definitive scandal guide - POLITICO[1]Let’s not forget, for three years media and left-leaning politicians doggedly drug the rest of us along as they pursued a narrative of a corrupt criminal president who was only given his seat of power, so that he could be a personal puppet to Vladimir Putin and the Russian government, who, by using hacking methods beyond our wildest fantasies, manually changed the voter counts just enough to give Trump his victory. People treated this fantasy as such a known fact that my once friends, people I considered once very intelligent people, called me a traitor simply for not disavowing him and acknowledging when he did things right. Note, never, not even once have I to this day called myself a “Trump Supporter”. What I have said is that I am a supporter of Trump Supporters. They are my friends and family, and people from where I was born and raised. I believe them to be people who have been very badly mistreated by the culture at large and people who have very important ideas and things to say, once someone actually communicated them honestly. But because of that, and this collusion fantasy, my friend who I worked with for many years, called me, a US military veteran who has written scores of answers defending the United States — a “traitor.”That’s important because we need to talk about these conspiracy theories and the power they have, at least, the power they have on how the left treats people on the right. Let’s look at other areas.Nuclear energy will poison the Earth for all time[2]Cops regularly murder blacks[3]9/11 was a false flag attack so George Bush could profit from oil[4]“The Vast right-wing conspiracy” that is to blame for all failures of the left[5]Anti-vax originated from the religious right[6]Republicans want to revive slavery. (You remember, because “Mitt Romney wants to put ya’ll back in chains. — Joe Biden”) [7]Republicans want to outlaw contraception and force all women back into the kitchen.[8]Islamic terrorists in Europe are really false flags to make Europeans fear Muslims.[9]I could go on. Note, I didn’t give even a single additional mention of Trump and the many hyperbolic statements about things he did and didn’t say, and was even nice enough to leave out literally anything dealing with the NRA, lobbyists, the military/industrial complex, or big oil. That was me being kind.That said, the issue isn’t that the right or left have more conspiracy theories. The issue is that conspiracy theories on the left seem to have no one calling them conspiracy theories, so people wondering in this question assume it’s true, having no problem citing “Pizzagate”, while completely dismissing categorizing Trump/Russia as the single largest conspiracy hoax since the Kennedy Assassination. The reality, as we see it, is that left wing conspiracy has a much greater chance of becoming quickly and universally considered, normalized, and then treated as if undeniably true based on nothing but a suggestion and a wish.Here’s just one example.One might cite inaccuracies of Fox news. That’s fine. Go ahead. I don’t watch it, but I do remember one event that serves as evidence for many of how dangerous the left wing is for passing on fake news — the killing of Michael Brown.Less than a day after the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson Missouri(August 9, 2014), a story began circulating about how he was trying to surrender peacefully to the police officer who shot him. What was circulated was that Brown was on his knees with his hands in the air and his back to the Ferguson Police Officer screaming, “Hands up! Don’t Shoot!”. He was then violently murdered, gunned down by a hate-filled white police officer abusing the power entrusted to him by the people. This story incited the nation at the injustice of what people called the murder of Michael Brown. The story went viral and could be seen everywhere, from protests and student groups, football players in pregame, the Senate floor and the desk of CNN.This narrative, however, failed to mesh with a great deal of evidence also circulating at the time. This included numerous eye-witnesses and photo evidence showing that the police officer had been assaulted somehow in the event. The officer was widely mocked, with trending hashtags like #HurtWorseThanDarrenWilson, believing that there should have been much more grievous injuries to warrant the killing of Brown. But the very fact that the officer in question had visible evidence of being attacked completely disproved the notion that Brown was simply on his knees with his back to the officer trying to surrender. Most of the media remained silent about this obvious inconsistency.Those who said that the case was suspicious and that we needed to wait for the facts before jumping to conclusions were shut down for creating racist comments and a lack of political correctness. “Black people in this nation are the victims of police brutality and, therefore, siding with the police (even though waiting on the evidence isn’t siding with anyone) is a subtle brand of racism.”Months later, a Department of Justice investigation proved conclusively that the whole “Hands Up; Don’t Shoot” story, was a lie. It was a story fabricated by an accomplice of Brown, who took part in the robbery immediately before the shooting. It was an attempt by one of the guilty to redirect attention from himself and cast the wrath of a nation on a police officer completely justified in his actions. A meme that affected the way the entire nation viewed the shooting, and BLM was based on a lie.Few of those who spread the lie have done anything to amend or acknowledge it. Fewer still among the public even knew that “Hands up; Don’t shoot” was based on a lie, as the slogan continues to be a rallying cry to this day. For many, this answer is the first time you’ve heard that Hands Up; Don’t Shoot, never happened. You might never have heard that Michael Brown, a name which still exists on virtually every list of unjustified police shootings, brought about his own death by his actions. And you might not be aware that the officer who shot him was completely innocent of any wrong doing as proven by the Obama led Department of Justice’s investigation.The Brown case shows just how quickly and universally a narrative which fits the left’s ideology can snowball, where CNN anchors held up their hands as activists, followed by senators, followed by professional athletes on prime-time TV. There were protests and even riots following the event. Because it happened, and because it axiomatically happened, meaning that so many people said it, it must have been true without question, it served as proof of white racism.It was all false. Who knew that and lied versus who were simply wrong, who knows? But today, a majority of people who remember “Hands up; Don’t Shoot” believe that a racist white cop murdered an innocent young black teenager. This was due entirely to the speed and universal acceptance that a narrative is capable of becoming embedded the in mainstream left.Compare that to the right.What would a “viral moment” for the right look like, the sort of thing that gets endless air-time, and is talked about for months on end, where celebrities are voicing outrage, and where “Someone must do something, now!”? It would probably look like this:A militant atheist walks into a church and guns down 26 innocent men, women, and children. Then a NRA instructor passerby pulls out his AR-15 rifle and ends the massacre by fatally wounding the killer. I mean, if the right really wanted to have a moment where so many of their beliefs were verified, such as where they could create and shove the narrative of left-wing Christianophobic bigotry and a wrong headed idea of gun ownership in the United States down the throats of everyone, that is exactly the type of story they would use.The problem, however, is that that story actually did happen. It happened exactly as I said it did. That’s the story of Southerland Springs, Texas. But you didn’t see the narrative I mentioned. Not at all. In fact, two weeks later, no one remembers it was thing. It baffles me that that event, which killed so many people received almost no attention compared to something like Parkland High School, where child activists were made in celebrities with magazine covers, Town Halls, featured on the news and leading rallies for months (all of them except Kyle Kashuv.) More than twice as many people were killed in that church in Texas that Sunday morning, but the news of it died before the bodies were cold.Switching gears to other topics that oddly no one talks about, what about the time when a Bernie Sanders campaign aide attempted to assassinate Steve Scalise, the Republican’s United States House of Representatives Minority Whip, at a softball game in 2017?Imagine if the roles were reversed, if a Trump campaigner tried to murder a sitting member of the Democratic Party. Imagine how long that story would run — about the endless “conversation” we would need to have in our country about bigotry and intolerance (from the right). We got about a week and a half on both these stories and rather than talking about the murderous hate which exists in many on the left… both events were used to push gun control.Not to be outdone, we have the North Carolina Republican campaign office firebombed in the days before the election. Never-mind the “Nazi Republican - Leave Town or Else” threat very clearly spray-painted outside for the world to see. The biggest story about that? It wasn’t speaking about the fact that we literally just experienced a left wing act of terrorism on the Continental United States, one which the culprits… excuse me… terrorists — are still at large to this day. No, but instead, the viral headline was the GoFundMe to pay for damages.Need something more current?How about racist white Trump Supporter mocks Native American veteran? Yeah, you should look into how deeply that story was falsified. Even as the actual footage proving that Nick Sandmann did absolutely nothing wrong circulated everywhere, major media outlets including CNN, Washington Post, New York Times, and others, continued a narrative that this kid committed some sort of hate crime. It was invented out of thin freaking air. They knowingly libeled a child guilty of little else but wearing a hat because they thought he wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.Well, now Nick Sandmann is suing all of them for libel and winning.So it isn’t that I’m saying the right doesn’t have conspiracy theories. It has many. Some are hilarious. Others make you facepalm. But even they need to be talked about. All the time, I hear my liberal friends demand an explanation from me about some strange sort of event because it, somehow, represents major mainstream views on the right. The reality is that this practice of demanding an explanation, a practice which almost always goes only one way, seems to invariably be about beliefs that conservatives supposedly believe, according what the left shares among themselves, but which the majority of people on the right neither care about, nor care. We’ll start off with something small — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez dancing.We weren’t. Honestly no one cared. Those who knew thought it was attention seeking silliness that was unfit for an elected politician, but frankly, after an eye-roll, those few of us who knew about it or even knew who she was, went back to work. However, if you ask left leaning media outlets, “Republicans are FURIOUS!” “Triggered!” and other such blah. What happens is that a narrative needs to be produced, so you go through whatever post happens, look to whatever angry comments show up, even if they are comments from people who literally no one follows, no one liked, and no one retweeted. In videos, content, and messaging put out with audiences of millions, they take literally the most angry comments, then write blog posts using them as evidence, and say that this reflects all Republicans/Conservatives/whatever.It’s silly. Quite honestly, if I poll people on the street, to this day most conservatives still don’t know and wouldn’t care if you told them who Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is.But going darker, there is another new phenomenon that is affecting the way the left views everyone who isn’t. Immediately after the election news of hate crimes from Trump supporters went viral. One such case was that of a young gay man who was attacked at a bar by Trump supporters. The truth of that story was that he made up the allegations, and probably was involved in starting the fight as evidenced by the hospital visit and other reports of the event.The second was a viral share of a KKK march in support of Trump.Same people, same bridge, different angle.It seems that one was called a KKK rally for the mere presence of a Christian flag, used by millions of Christians, including my church. Again, with the Christianophobic rhetoric. Odd how that is not a word because privilege. Whatever. Both of these events I detailed in my answer to What can Republicans do to allay the fears of Democrats without betraying our own ideals? which I wrote literally days after the election after these and thousands of other false accusations of hate crimes, as time has proven, were made. Perhaps reminding readers of Jussie Smollett right now would be useful, the actor who staged a hate crime after being written off a show.I want to be clear, there are hateful people on the right. I’m writing a book about them — Righting the Alt-Right. They are out there, but if ever they happen, they suddenly become representative of anyone who ever voted Republican when realistically, they represent such a minority of the right, that it is questionable why so many people talk about them so much and even worse, lie about times where they did things they didn’t.But the real problem, as a conservative, that we see, is how quickly and universally untruths are disseminated and accepted on the left, becoming so ingrained that they are beyond question in a matter of days. This isn’t by some fringe people on the far left. Untruths get mainstreamed in days, and real truths, truths that matter to us, are covered or buried immediately. Meanwhile, bizarre notions that I have never heard of suddenly are representative of at least thirty million people. Until they aren’t… then the subject changes.So, to answer the question as it was written:Why are right-wing conspiracy theories much more popular than left-wing conspiracy theories?They aren’t. The crazy off the wall conspiracy theories, like Pizza-Gate or that various mass shootings are hoaxes, are blown up and given massive press, namely by people on the left trying to paint conservatives as all crazy, even when polls would show most people on the right have never heard of them. Just as a point that needs to be said, most conservatives don’t actually know who Alex Jones is. So it should lead us to ask why so many on the left give him so much attention. The wild conspiracy theories believed by some on the right are out there, but they are simply a hurricane in a teacup when the important question is how many people actually believe it.Meanwhile, some of the major news stories of the past decade were false narratives that came from the left. They were conspiracy theories. They were talked about, reported over, fit into politician’s speeches… and the moment they unraveled, no one ever heard of them again. On to the next point of outrage. Certainly no one ever said, “Yeah, Trump didn’t actually collude with Russia.” No, instead, you get people like the editors of the New York Times, immediately and intentionally switching the narrative from Trump/Russia to Trump/racism. [10]So there are right wing conspiracy theories that are weird, but everyone knows this and calls them out, even people on the right. But there are also just as many, if not more, that are far more mainstream on the left that no one ever suggests may be false.As for me and my little conspiracy theory? Yeah, as you probably noticed throughout this answer, I have earned a mistrust of our institutions that disseminate news and information. Saying that they, as a whole, are biased against conservatives, the right, Trump, rural voters, whatever, seems undeniable at this point.So, as the elections draw nearer, all I ask is that readers consider if maybe, just maybe, many of the notions that they thought were without question, may need to be questioned. Maybe, if they are drawing their conclusions based on the facts that Trump supporters, and Trump by extension, are evil racist nazis, white supremacists who want to make slaves of women, blacks, and evict all brown people from the country, or are simple illiterate rubes who couldn’t find Ukraine on a map what with all those elitist big words… to quote CNN… maybe you need to start asking them directly what they think and believe instead of trusting second-hand sources. I’m just saying, if what you are basing your decisions on is assumptions of how evil the other guys are, you need to start questioning more of your assumptions.Liked this? Please consider supporting me through Patreon to help me make more content like this. Relaxed. Researched. Respectful. - War ElephantFootnotes[1] The definitive guide to Trump’s Russia ties[2] Why the Greens Hate Nuclear Power[3] No racial bias in police shootings, study by Harvard professor shows[4] 9/11 Truth movement - Wikipedia[5] Hillary Clinton: The vast, right-wing conspiracy" is "even better funded" now[6] The Religious Right's Anti-Vaccine Hysteria Is Reviving Dead Diseases In America[7] Joe Biden To Supporters: Mitt Romney Will 'Put You All Back In Chains'[8] Is Trump’s presidency the patriarchy’s last gasp?[9] https://www.unilad.co.uk/news/conspiracy-theorist-reveals-surefire-sign-london-tube-bombing-was-a-false-flag/https://www.unilad.co.uk/news/conspiracy-theorist-reveals-surefire-sign-london-tube-bombing-was-a-false-flag/[10] New goal for New York Times: 'Reframe' American history, and target Trump, too