After the fall of the Axis powers, Albania became a communist state - the People's Socialist Republic of Albania - until the fall of the Eastern Bloc in 1990.
After the fall of the communist regime, social unrest emerged amid economic collapse, which led to an Albanian diaspora in the 1990s, mainly in Italy, Greece, Switzerland, Germany, and North America.
The economic crisis culminated in the civil war in 1997, which claimed over a thousand lives. As a result of early elections, the post-communist opposition came to power.
After eight years in power, the Socialist Party of Albania lost power, and in 2005 it was taken over by a coalition of opposition parties led by the Democratic Party.
