has been inefficiently used for
centuries because people having large landholdings preferred to maintain
more profitable livestock herds rather than cultivate the earth for
foodstuff production. Malaria, until the 1930s, prevented development or
reclamation of the coastal lowlands. Lacking the capital investment
necessary, extensive development projects had not been undertaken by
1970.

The lowlands and the lower mountains of the south have a Mediterranean
climate; weather in the northern and eastern highlands is dominated by
the continental air masses that persist over central and Eastern Europe.
Overall rainfall is plentiful throughout the country, but most areas
receive it seasonally.

Apart from the bare rock mountains and portions of the alluvial lowlands
that are alternately parched and inundated, most of the land encourages
a wide variety of wild vegetation. Areas suitable for cultivation,
however, are small. There are good soils on about 5 percent of the land
surface, but land three or four times that percentage is considered
arable. Forests cover nearly one-half of the land. About one-fourth is
suitable for grazing animals.

The citizen relates closely to the land. Although he has been nationally
independent for only a few years in the twentieth century and very
seldom earlier, his property has been so difficult to reach that
occupying powers have often left him alone. The land has had beauty that
has fostered pride and loyalty, and a hardy breed has survived the
constant struggle to derive an existence from it.

NATURAL REGIONS

The 70 percent of the country that is mountainous is rugged and often
inaccessible. The remaining alluvial plain receives its precipitation
seasonally, is poorly drained, is alternately arid or flooded, and much
of it is devoid of fertility. Far from offering a relief from the
difficult interior terrain, it is often as inhospitable to its
inhabitants as are the mountains. Good soil and dependable precipitation
occur, however, in river basins within the mountains, in the lake
district on the eastern border, and in a narrow band of slightly
elevated land between the coastal plains and the higher interior
mountains (see fig. 2).

North Albanian Alps

The mountains of the far north of Albania are an extension of the
Dinaric Alpine chain and, more specifically, the Montenegrin limestone
(karst) plateau. They are, however, more folded and rugged than the more
typical portions o