text: Overview of state histories Albania: The proto Albanians were likely a conglomerate of Illyrian tribes that resisted assimilation with later waves of migrations into the Balkans. The Ardiaean kingdom, with its capital in Scodra, is perhaps the best example of a centralized, ancient Illyrian state. After several conflicts with the Roman Republic, building up to the Third Illyrian War, Ardiaean as well as much of the region in Southeast Europe was brought into Roman rule for centuries onward. Its last ruler, King Gentius, being taken captive in 167 BC to Rome. After the Western Roman Empire's collapse the territory of what is today Albania remained under Byzantine control until the Slavic migrations. It was integrated into the Bulgarian Empire in the 9th century. The territorial nucleus of the Albanian state formed in the Middle Ages, as the Principality of Arbër and the Kingdom of Albania. The first records of the Albanian people as a distinct ethnicity also date to this period. Most of the coast of Albania was controlled by the Republic of Venice from the 10th century until the arrival of the Ottoman Turks (Albania Veneta), while the interior was ruled by Byzantians, Bulgarians or Serbs. Despite the long resistance of Skanderbeg, the area was conquered in the 15th century by the Ottoman Empire and remained under their control as part of the Rumelia province until 1912, when the first independent Albanian state was declared. The formation of an Albanian national consciousness dates to the later 19th century and is part of the larger phenomenon of rise of nationalism under the Ottoman Empire.