The members contributed to the league with men and money while maintaining control of the internal affairs of their domains.

The peace treaty of the Albanian-Venetian war signed on October 4, 1448, is the first diplomatic document on which the league appears as an independent entity.

When Ottoman forces entered Albania, they were faced with small principalities that were engaged in vicious fights among themselves.

[7][8] In the 15th century, the Ottoman Empire established itself in the Balkans with no significant resistance offered by local Christian nobles.

Although a civil war broke out between Bayezid I's sons in 1402–13, none of the Christian noblemen in the Balkans at the time seized the opportunity to repel the Ottomans; on the contrary, Bulgarians, Serbs, and Hungarians even helped the future Sultan Mehmed I seize power by participating as his allies in the final battle against his brother.

[9] After the Ottoman civil war was over in favor of Mehmed I, his forces captured Kruja from the Thopia in 1415, Berat in 1417 from the Muzaka, Vlorë and Kaninë in 1417 from Rugjina Balsha, and Gjirokastër in 1418 from the Zenevisi.

[15] The military alliance[16][page needed] was made up of the feudal lords in Albania, who had to contribute to the league with men and money.

[6] Initiated and organized under Venetian patronage,[22][better source needed] through treaties, the league was put under King Alfonso V, with Skanderbeg as captain general.

However, the Ottomans founded the fortress Elbasan south in the valley of the Shkumbin and thus finally settled in Albania.

By 1450, it had certainly ceased to function as originally intended, and only the core of the alliance under Skanderbeg and Arianiti continued to fight against the Ottomans.

[32] Threatened by Ottoman advances in their homeland, Hungary, and later Naples and Venice – their former enemies – provided the financial backbone and support for Skanderbeg's army.

In these cases, struggles against the Ottoman Empire and other foreign powers and processes of national self-definition support the ideological framework linked to that period.

[39] Nikola und Paul Dukagjin, Leka Zaharia von Dagno, Peter Span, Herr der Berge hinter Drivasto, Georg Strez Balsha sowie Johann und Gojko Balsha, die sich zwischen Kruja und Alessio festgesetzt hatten, die Dushman von Klein-Polatum sowie Stefan (Stefanica) Crnojevic, der Herr der Oberzeta Andrea Thopia of Scuria between Tirana and Durazzo with his nephew, Tanush ThopiaEven this was loose association of the territorial lords who felt free to go their own way if they so choose.