Albanian military history isn't all that impressive outside of Skanderbeg, Muhammad Ali's Egypt, and the League of Prizren.
That's because there is a gap between the 16th to 18th century history of the Balkans in western literature. Kara Mahmud Bushati had spent decades carving out his independent realm in northern Albania, reaching all the way to Bosnia, fighting Ottoman, Bosnian, Serbian, Montenegrin, and western forces in the process.
In the south, Ali Pasha Tepelena had been doing similar things, forming alliances with and fighting against the different factions in Greece. The Greek Revolution was directly caused by his rebellion against the Ottoman Empire, with many prominent figures of the revolution, such as Androutsos and Botsaris, having served in Ali Pasha's court previously.
Now take a look at the bigger picture. Within one generarion, 3 Albanians have risen through the ranks of the Ottoman military system and have established their own semi-indipendent realms that directly threaten the Ottoman Empire's existence, and much of it without the support of western powers. The lands under their rule stretch from Bosnia to the Morea in Europe, and along the entire Nile in Africa. Their exploits were directly responsible for lighting the sparks of revolution in the Balkans, with other countries following suit. That in itself was one of the main reasons the Ottoman Empire underwent a massive administrative reform, and in 1830, massacred approximately 500 of the nobles, landlords and officers of Albania. Albania had been in a constant state of war from the 1780s to the 1920s, fighting on all fronts against all sorts of enemies. When you walk through its old cities and see houses that are miniature forts, or neighborhoods still encircled by medieval walls several meters high, you get an idea of what this tiny country has had to endure ever since it was taken by the Turks.
