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HISTORY OF MACEDONIA

Ancient Macedonia
1000 B.C. to 197 B.C.

The shores of the Macedonian plain are washed by the Aegean Sea, which has linked this region with
southern Greece, the islands, and Asia Minor since ancient times. According to Thucydides (II, 99),
the Macedonian state was founded in the seventh century B.C. and comprised the region bounded by
Mount Olympus and the sea, and the Peneus and Haliacmon Rivers. Hesiod, writing in the same period,
tells of Macedon, the first ancestor of the Macedonians, and Magnes, the founder of the Thessalian
Magnesians, two brothers who lived in the area around Pieria and Olympus. Herodotus recalls the
relations between the Macedonians and the Thessalians and speaks of the Dorians of Thessaly (I, 56).
The kings of Macedonia were Dorians, "Temenids with ancient roots in Argos" (Thuc. II. 99) and
descendants of Heracles.

The few but valuable testimonies of the seventh and fifth centuries B.C. acquire a special significance
now that archaeological explorations in Pieria and on Mount Olympus have revealed
Mycenaean cemeteries with finds which enable us to recognise this region's relations with the north -
eastern Peloponnese during the last great era of Mycenaean culture. Extensive burial grounds with a
surprising number of finds provide information about the so-called "dark ages" (1000-700 B.C.) in this
area.

By the fifth century B.C., the coastal Macedonians had organised themselves into a dynamic and
powerful state and advanced as far as the River Strymon. At a much earlier date, they had already
crossed the Haliacmon, acquired Almopia and Eordaea, and crossed the Axios too; by the sixth century
B.C. they had reached Therme (which was later to become Thessaloniki).

The mountainous part of the country, Upper Macedonia, consisted of small, local Macedonian
principalities (such as Elimia, Orestis, Lyncestis), which were linked to the Temenid state of Lower
Macedonia either as allies or as vassals.

Aegae (now Vergina), in the west Pierian foothills, was the capital of the state, and Dion, in the
foothills of Mount Olympus, was its religious centre. The archaic tombs at Vergina, not far from the
royal tombs of the fourth century B.C., contain finds of vital significance for the reconstruction of early
Macedonian culture. Similar finds have been discovered in the cemeteries of Sindos, Ayia Paraskevi,
and Therme near Thessaloniki, and also at Aeane in Upper Macedonia. Recent excavations at Aeane,
which was the capital of Elimia, have brought to light splendid evidence of the Greek art of the archaic
period.

Two sacred structures in the sanctuary of Demeter, goddess of the harvest, at Dion also date from this
period: long, narrow halls with a chamber and an antechamber, they belong to an architectural type
which was particularly important and widespread in Greece in the Mycenaean and Geometric periods.
Among the offerings to the goddess was a Mycenaean gemstone engraved with a representation of a
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lion (15th c. B.C.), a memento of the region's more ancient history. On the site where Thessaloniki was
later to be built, a splendid Ionic temple was erected in archaic times (C. 500 B.C.), a veritable
beacon for those approaching the innermost reaches of the Thermaic Gulf. The Persian Wars of the
early fifth century B.C. opened a new chapter in Greek history. Xerxes and his army passed through
Macedonia on their way to southern Greece.

According to Herodotus (IX, 45), King Alexander I helped the southern Greeks in various ways,
particularly when he revealed the Persians' plans on the eve of the great battle at Plataea. Alexander
dedicated golden statues of himself at Olympia and Delphi and took part in the Olympic Games. The
Athenians, with whom the Macedonians were already on friendly terms by the sixth century, named
Alexander an honorary official and benefactor of their city. One prominent figure of the late fifth
century B.C. set the stage for what was to become the Macedonia of Philip and Alexander. This
was Archelaus, innovative ruler of Macedonia, whom his contemporary, Thucydides, described
as having achieved more than his eight predecessors put together (II, 100). The Macedonian state,
which had been loosely structured hitherto, was organised more systematically. The royal seat was
transferred from Aegae to the more strategic site of Pella (which was closer to the eastern provinces
and the sea), and Upper Macedonia was linked by a network of military roads to the capital, which was
thus able more easily to supervise local rulers in distant areas. Finally, fortifications were built and the
army fully equipped with both horses and weapons. The King of Pella, as befits a great ruler,
now entertained a greater number of writers and artists at his court.

The leading lights of the period were invited to stay at the palace for long periods: they included the
painter Zeuxis from Heraclea and the tragic poet Euripides from Athens.

Archelaus' good relations with Athens are also known from inscriptions, in which the Athenians
express their gratitude to Archelaus for providing them with Macedonian wood, which was so good for
shipbuilding.

358 B.C. Philip II ascends the throne

Philip II ascended the throne in 359 B.C. A highly gifted ruler, he enhanced his prestige immeasurably
by protecting the Macedonian mountain-dwellers from the incursions of barbarian tribes from the
north, particularly the Paeonians and the Illyrians. Philip's state became a strongly cohesive, stable,
central power. The rulers of Upper Macedonia now started sending their young princes to be brought
up in the palace at Pella. The Macedonians strengthened their relations with the Epirotes, who spoke a
related dialect and had a similar political system. In 357 B.C. Philip married Olympias, a member of
the royal family of the Molossians, who, like the lowland Macedonians, had gained sway over the other
tribes of Epirus. Within a few years, Olympias' brother Alexander was organising a campaign similar to
that of Alexander the Great, though his sights were set on the West.

To the East, Philip was achieving notable successes. He used the excuse of protecting Crenides from
the Thracians for military intervention in the region beyond the Strymon; he then renamed Crenides
Philippi and took over the Pangaeum goldmines. He also colonised the region and annexed the area
between the Strymon and the Nestus thus consolidating Macedonian presence in the heart of Thrace.
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Finally, having secured his election as ruler of Thessaly for life, Philip now felt strong enough to join in
the southern Greeks' struggle for the leadership of Greece, which had hitherto passed through the hands
of the Athenians, the Spartans, and the Thebans. In Athens, opinions about Philip were divided.
The fiery anti-Philip polemic of Demosthenes and his followers was answered by Aeschines and
his moderate circle. After his victory at Chaeronea in 338 B.C., Philip's first political act as leader of
the Greeks was to espouse a cause for which the Athenian orators had been agitating for many decades:
to organise a Panhellenic campaign against the Persians in order to liberate the Greek cities of Asia
Minor and establish security there.

In 336 B.C. Philip was assassinated. However, his death did not stem the tide of events.

336 B.C. Alexander III (Alexander the Great) ascends the throne

In 334 B.C., having consolidated his succession to the throne and his hegemony over the southern
Greeks, Philip's son Alexander launched the campaign against the Persians. He confirmed his
initial purpose by sending 300 Persian shields from the Battle of Granicus as a gift to Athena
Parthenus, with the promise that he would later send from Persia back to Greece the
symbol of Athenian democracy the statues of the Tyrant-slayers which Xerxes had seized and taken
to Susa. With the submission of Persia and the death of Darius in 330 B.C., the goal of the
great Panhellenic programme had been achieved. However, Alexander went even further: he made
Macedonia a world power and took Greek culture beyond all geographical boundaries.

The age of Philip and Alexander left an indelible mark on art and architecture. Royal votive
offerings, the work of famous artists, were erected in great sanctuaries, such as Leochares' gold and
ivory statues in the Philippeum at Olympia, and
Lysippus' twenty-five bronze statues of the Macedonian generals who fell at the Battle of Granicus in
the sanctuary of Zeus at Dion.

The large subterranean royal tombs at Aegae were also constructed, and adorned with painted facades
and marble doors. Splendid metalwork was also being produced at this time, as well as miniature
artefacts, magnificent paintings, and mosaics floors with marvellous representations. The palaces
at Vergina and PeIla are outstanding examples of royal architecture, characterised as they are by
large, spacious, elaborately decorated men's quarters, great banqueting halls, and balconies offering a
view of the landscape. The fine arts were expected to express the ideology of the new leaders who had
proved victorious in the Panhellenic political arena. Thus was the Hellenistic phase of Greek art
born. Alexander died suddenly in Babylon in 323 B.C. In Macedonia, after the brief reigns of
Antipater and Cassander, a new dynasty was founded, the Antigonids, who continued
the Argead tradition. The central figure was Antigonus Gonatas, who strengthened Macedonia
and enhanced its prestige so that it could stand as an equal with the other great kingdoms
which had emerged from Alexander's legacy: the Ptolemies in Egypt, the Seleucids in Asia, and the
Attalids in Asia Minor. At the beginning of the second century B.C., Macedonia was menaced by
a grave threat from the West.


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197 B.C. Macedonia is defeated by the Romans

In 197 B.C., the Romans defeated Philip V at the Battle of Cynoscephalae, and he was then compelled
to restrict his kingdom to its traditional borders between the Peneus and the Nestus. In 167 B.C., after
the Romans had prevailed once and for all, Macedonia was divided into four autonomous parts; and in
148 B.C. it became a province of the Roman Empire.

The Antigonid period has bequeathed us numerous artistic and architectural monuments, including the
final construction phase of the palace at Pella and most of the Macedonian royal tombs. In
King Perseus' reign (179-168 B.C.), Dion was a city full of statues of gods and Macedonian kings and
public buildings. One typical Upper Macedonian settlement from this period has been uncovered
by excavations at Petres between Edessa and Florina. The turbulence of the first century B.C., when
Macedonia did not remain aloof from the Romans' civil conflict (Battle of Philippi, 44 B.C.), was
followed by decades of peace and prosperity. Meanwhile, Thessaloniki, the city which Cassander
had built, became the new centre, the capital of Macedonia. It boasted the largest harbour in the whole
region and stood on the spot where the great road from the north met the main east-west artery. Many
foreign merchants lived temporarily or permanently in this rich commercial centre. With its
public buildings, copies of classical works, portraits of philosophers, and sarcophagi decorated with
mythological representations, Thessaloniki presented the image of a major urban centre of the Roman
period, strongly flavoured with the Hellenic tradition. Galerius, the ruler of one of the two parts of the
Eastern Roman Empire, chose Thessaloniki as his imperial seat in A.D. 300. The large palatial complex
in the eastern part of the city, the busts of aristocrats, and the metalwork produced by the royal
workshops attest a period of renewed prosperity for Thessaloniki the Macedonian metropolis which,
from the third century onwards, revived admiration for the splendours of the past and the cult of
Alexander the Great.

Byzantine Macedonia
Byzantine period overview (4
th
-15
th
century)

Macedonia was the Byzantine Empire's most important Balkan region from every point of view,
whether commercial, economic, or cultural. A centre of Greek culture, the Greek language, and the
Christian faith, it was also a crossroads of international strategic and commercial routes and the point
where East and West came together. In the late antique period, the "Diocese of Macedonia" and the
"Diocese of Dacia" (the region between Macedonia and the Danube) together comprised
the "Prefecture of (Eastern) Illyricum", whose centre was Thessaloniki.

Later on, in the eighth century, Macedonia seems to have formed a single military administrative
division which extended from western Macedonia to the east bank of the Evros. However, growing
military needs made it necessary to divide the region into the themes of the Strymon (in 809) and of
Thessaloniki (in 809 or 836), whereupon the remaining area, from the Nestus to the east bank of the
Evros, became the theme of Macedonia. Owing to its position, from the birth of the Byzantine state
onwards Macedonia sustained constant attacks from enemies from the north. But the invasions of the
fourth to the sixth century were transient phenomena and had no effect on the ethnological make-up of
the population. The concomitant slaughter and pillage, however, made it easier for Slav tribes to move
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down to the northern Balkans after the end of the sixth century.

It was in the seventh century that the first Slavs settled permanently in the north and north-west
Balkans; but in Macedonia and particularly in southern Macedonia, Slav settlements were still few and
far between. The Slavs who settled the mountainous regions remained isolated and unassimilated there
until the tenth century; but those who settled on the plains and in other unprotected areas were
soon assimilated into their Greek environment, a rapid process which was over by the end of the
seventh century. The tenth century saw wars between the Byzantines and the Bulgars, in the course of
which the latter took possession of north-west Macedonia and, in the last twenty years of the tenth
century, cities in south-west Macedonia as far down as Beroea and Servia. In the early eleventh
century, however, Basil II recovered the cities of south-west Macedonia and, when Bulgaria
was subdued some fifteen years later, the north-west was liberated too. With the subjugation of
Bulgaria, Byzantium regained the whole Balkan region and kept it for the next 167 years.

The result, as Ostrogorsky observes, was that the Greek element increased considerably and the
numbers of Slavs correspondingly fell. At the end of the twelfth century, the Bulgarian state was re-
established, and in the early thirteenth the Bulgar ruler Kaloyan managed to seize Serres, Skopje,
Naiso, Belgrade, and Branitsova. His early demise, however, in 1207 enabled the Greek Despotate of
Epirus to strike his state a crippling blow from 1215 to 1219. A few years later, in 1230, the Bulgar
Tsar Ivan Asen II defeated Theodore, the Despot of Epirus, and recaptured Serres and the cities of
north-west Macedonia. During the reign of his successor Kaloman however, John Batatzes, ruler of the
Greek Empire of Nicaea, again recovered north-west Macedonia and the cities of Velbazhd
(Kyustendil), Skopje, Velesa, Prilep, Pelagonia, and Prosakos.

In the years which followed, north-west Macedonia became a veritable apple of discord between the
Despotate of Epirus and the Empire of Nicaea. The Bulgars tried to take advantage of the quarrel; but
John Batatzes proved victorious and Tsar Michael Asen I was forced to sign a treaty abdicating all
claim to north-west Macedonia.

Similar developments were also taking place in Byzantine relations with Serbia. In 1282 the Serbs
seized Skopje, which lay outside the bounds of north-west Macedonia. Fifty years later, they proceeded
to occupy north-west Macedonia itself, and in 1347 eastern Macedonia, except for Thessaloniki and
Cassandra in Chalcidice. A mere eight years later, the Serbian ruler Stephen Dushan died, and
within the next fifteen years his Macedonian dominions had been repossessed by the Governor of
Thessaloniki, Manuel (who was to become Emperor Manuel II). Manuel restored Byzantine
rule between the Nestus and Mount Bermium, having first overthrown John Uglyesha's ephemeral little
state based in Serres. A few years later, the Turkish conquest of Macedonia began, and was completed
by 1430.

From what has been said above, it is obvious that the ethnological make-up of Macedonia, and
particularly of southern Macedonia, did not undergo great changes during the Byzantine period. This
was due to the fact that the Bulgars and the Serbs did not manage to capture large areas, nor did they
retain any part of the Macedonian region for any length of time, much less permanently. The Serbs did
advance into north-west Macedonia just after 1299, and into southern Macedonia quite some time later,
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but these areas were reconquered by the Byzantines almost immediately.

The Bulgars too invaded northern fringes of southern Macedonia, but not for long. They stayed longer
in north and north-west Macedonia, where a solid Bulgar population developed, intermingled with
Serbs, Greeks from large and small urban centres, and also the Greek shepherds known as Sarakatsani
and Vlachs.

There is no trace of any other distinct, non-Serbian, non-Bulgarian, Slavonic people or tribe at any time
during the fourteen centuries of Slav presence in north-west Macedonia. As far as southern Macedonia
is concerned, the vast majority of its population was Greek or Hellenised, the tiny element consisting of
people whom the Byzantine emperors or the turmoil of the times had forced to migrate to the region.

Byzantine Macedonian archaeology and art

The arrival of the Apostle Paul in Macedonia and the founding of Europe's first Christian communities
at Philippi, Thessaloniki, and Beroea, were a landmark in the history of Western civilisation.
Archaeological finds from the fourth century A.D., which was when Constantine the Great (306-37)
decided to found Constantinople (330), separate the Eastern Roman Empire from Rome, and wed the
two worlds of paganism and Christianity, show the strongly Hellenic flavour of Christianity in
Macedonia.

At Philippi, for instance, a pagan heroon (a shrine dedicated to an ancient Greek hero) functioned side
by side with the city's first Christian church, dedicated to St Paul; and in Thessaloniki a local martyr, St
Demetrius, replaced the city's age-old deity Cabirus in the hearts and minds of the Thessalonians.
Until Justinian I's time (527-65), Christianity in Macedonia was closely interwoven with the Greek and
Roman tradition. Tombs found in Thessaloniki are decorated with wall-paintings which accompanied
the deceased on their final journey with, symbolic representations of the promised Paradise; the angels
with their wreaths and colourful banners are frequently reminiscent of the cupids of antiquity. Large
and small church complexes were built in the Macedonian cities and countryside and adorned
with lovely mosaic floors with images of deer (Amphipolis), doves (Akrini, near Kozani), and
symbolic representations of Paradise (Heraclea Lyncestis). A few wall mosaics from this period survive
in churches in Thessaloniki (in the Rotunda of St George, St Demetrius, Latomou Monastery, and
Acheiropoietos).

In contrast to the formal tradition of Constantinople and the solemn symbolism of Rome, early
Christian painting in Thessaloniki freely approaches divine visions, and colours the transcendent with
the poetry of natural light.

Late antiquity ended in Macedonia in the early seventh century and was followed by the Iconoclast
controversy (726-87 and 815-43). Archaeological remains of any note from this transitional period
are to be found only in Thessaloniki. Around 620, the Basilica of St Demetrius was restored and
the fact commemorated in the church's contemporary mosaics, in which transcendence takes the place
of the dramatic style of the fifth and sixth centuries. The sanctuary of Hagia Sophia was decorated with
iconoclast mosaics, of which all that survive today are the monograms of Constantine VI (780-7), his
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mother Irene, and Archbishop Theophilus of Thessaloniki. After the Iconoclast period and throughout
the long age of Macedonian supremacy (867-1057), Macedonia's cities were re-organised and monastic
centres, such as Mount Athos, where established.

New types of ecclesiastical architecture emerged, which departed significantly from the early Christian
models, producing smaller structures dominated by a central dome. A Byzantine church is an earthly
replica of the world above, which it simultaneously represents and contains. Metropolitan churches,
however, still tended to be basilicas: the Protaton on Mount Athos, for instance, St Achillius on Lake
Prespa, and the cathedrals of Beroea, Edessa, Serres, Melnik, and Kalambaka.

Ecclesiastical art after Iconoclasm (exemplified by the mosaic of the Ascension in Hagia Sophia,
Thessaloniki (9th c.), and the wall-paintings in the Church of St Stephen in Kastoria (10th c.) and in the
Panagia Chalkeon in Thessaloniki (1030-40)) shows a clear anticlassical tendency strongly influenced
by a world viewed through the prism of the monastic ideal.

As a reaction to this, the ideology of the Comnenian period (1081-1185) brought with it a different kind
of ecclesiastical art, which was closer to urban life, classical education, and human emotion. A number
of Macedonian monuments preserve astonishing wall-paintings with these features, some of them done
in a common and human style (as in St Nicholas Casnitzes in Kastoria), others
with somewhat academic overtones (as in Latomou Monastery), and yet others, later on, executed in a
dynamic, mannerist style (as in St George in Kurbinovo (1191) and Aghii Anargyri in Kastoria).
During this period, the cult of St Demetrius was something of a special case. As a high-ranking official
and a warrior, Thessaloniki's patron saint differed little from the city patrons and heroes of antiquity.
After Iconoclasm, however, he was transformed into an ascetic champion of the Christian faith; and the
aromatic exudation which miraculously emanated from his corpse brought him into direct and
thaumaturgical (miracle-working) contact with the pilgrims who flocked to his tomb from all
over Macedonia and the Byzantine Empire. The period of Frankish rule (1204-61) left no traces in
Macedonia, though a few wooden relief icons from the Kastoria area display a hint of Western
influence. In the Palaeologan period (1261-1453) , political, spiritual, artistic, and commercial
decentralisation allowed provincial cities to rival the capital.

At this time, Thessaloniki, as the capital of Macedonia, displayed all the typical features of
Byzantium's second city. In the city itself and in the area under its influence, churches
were characterised by the addition of an ambulatory, which gave them increased size and more
harmonious proportions (examples are the Churches of the Holy Apostles and St Catherine in
Thessaloniki and the main church of the Monastery of St John the Baptist in Serres). Amongst the
many anonymous painters from this period, a few splendid names stand out: Manuel Panselinos, for
instance, who painted the Protaton on Mount Athos in 1300. The size of his figures and the harmony of
his compositions explain why his fame was still very much alive for his fellow artists of
the seventeenth century. Eutychius and Michael Astrapas from Thessaloniki painted the Church of the
Peribleptos in Ohrid and, later on, other churches in the area, imbuing their compositions with
an unwonted richness. George Kallierges painted the Church of Christ's Resurrection in Beroea at the
beginning of the fourteenth century. Owing to its realism, Macedonian painting has come to be
regarded as a distinct school in its own right; it cannot be a purely local phenomenon, however, but
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rather a product of Macedonia's close links with Constantinople. The production of glazed ceramic
ware arose out of the commercial decentralisation of the Palaeologan period. We know of two ceramics
centres in Macedonia at this time, Thessaloniki and Serres, whose products were distributed far and
wide. When the Turks captured Thessaloniki in 1430 and overran Macedonia, the whole region
dwindled into a mere province.

But despite the city's reduced circumstances, a splendid tomb, erected in 1481 in the Basilica of St
Demetrius, is astonishing in its size and extravagance. Sculptured out of Italian stone in the Venetian
workshop of Pietro Lombardo, it can only be compared to the tombs of the doges (Venetian word for
dukes via Latin dux). It is possibly the last tomb of the Byzantine aristocracy and belongs to
Loukas Spandounis, a member of a family of Macedonian merchants, whom his epitaph describes as
"hope, life, light, delight of Byzantium and scion of the Greeks".

Ottoman Macedonia
First period of ottoman rule (15
th
century to 1821)

The bloody cycle of Turkish invasions of Macedonia, which had begun in the last quarter of the
fourteenth century, ended with the fall of Thessaloniki in 1430. The latest period of foreign occupation
was inaugurated by dramatic changes in the traditional system of land ownership and by the
demographic compression of the Christian population, owing to the arrival of large numbers of Muslim
settlers in the Macedonian lowlands. The situation drove the inhabitants to despair, provoking some to
convert en masse to Islam and others to flee into the mountains. These developments stripped the
Macedonian countryside of a large proportion of its productive population and also, in the early
centuries of Turkish rule at least, weakened the urban centres, turning them into mere shadows of their
glorious Byzantine past.

The negative effects of Ottoman domination on Macedonia's economic development scarcely abated at
all (until at least the mid-nineteenth century), owing to the chronic state of crisis in the
administrative institutions, the anarchy in the countryside, and the misgovernment and high-handedness
of the Sultan's representatives particularly in the provinces. Nonetheless, Macedonia's geopolitical
advantages remained unaffected by time and human intervention and were eventually able to recreate
the conditions necessary for economic development. This was preceded, as early as the mid-sixteenth
century, by a demographic recovery, assisted by a number of historical factors. The diminished
population of Macedonia's large cities, particularly Thessaloniki, was appreciably swelled in the late
fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries by what was for the time a considerable number of Jewish
refugees from Western Europe, as also Greek migrants from neighbouring areas (such as Halkidiki, for
instance). Furthermore, the Christian population of eastern and central Macedonia, which had
been decimated during the early days of the Turkish conquest, was considerably strengthened by the
arrival of farmers and stock-breeders from other parts of the Greek peninsula, such as Epirus, Thessaly,
and Central Greece.

These developments coincided with favourable circumstances of a more general nature: the expansion
of West European economic activity into the markets and ports of the Greek Levant and the creation of
suitable conditions for the development of inter-Balkan trade. The Macedonians rose to these historic
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challenges by increasing their agricultural output and re-activating their traditional craft industries.
Indeed, from the beginning of the eighteenth century onwards, the merchants of Macedonia,
particularly western Macedonia, took their retail businesses far beyond the bounds of Hellenic territory
and the Ottoman state in order to conquer the major commercial centres of the northern Balkans and
Central Europe. The long ages of domination by a people of a different faith could not distort the
basic features of Macedonian history. And this is illustrated by the fact that, despite the dangerous
demographic losses of the early years of Turkish rule, Macedonia managed to retain a stable nucleus,
consisting of precisely those people who, with their Greek language and Greek Orthodox tradition,
provided the region with the most enduring examples of its historical continuity and also the basic
components of its "ethnic" profile.

These components did not remain ossified, however, for they were constantly renewed by the social
mobility which characterised the whole Greek world. A particularly important role was played by
the Macedonians living abroad, who, as early as the turn of the seventeenth century, had begun
to "transfuse" their homeland with new cultural models, new ways of thinking, and new ideologies,
either from other parts of the Greek Levant or from the Diaspora. It is interesting to note that the initial
recipients of these external influences were the small but dynamic communities which had
been established in the mountains (particularly in western Macedonia) by early refugees from the
lowlands. These communities soon displayed considerable economic and cultural progress, which was
all the more impressive in view of their virtually inaccessible position. These facts also account for
the enduring concern of Macedonia's subjugated Greek Orthodox element for its political future. One
other basic factor contributed to this: virtually the same internal and external considerations which
influenced anti-Turkish
initiatives in the rest of the Greek world provoked corresponding revolutionary sabre-rattling in
Macedonia too.

Furthermore, throughout the period of Ottoman rule, the Macedonians remained closely allied with the
ideological developments which led to the national awakening of all the Greeks; and this illustrates the
common perception that liberation from foreign domination was not a local problem, but an issue
which concerned the whole Greek Nation. This was why the revolutionary movements in Macedonia
were usually co-ordinated with similar efforts undertaken in the Greek provinces further south from
the sixteenth century until the War of Independence.

Modern Macedonia
Macedonia after the Greek War of Independence

The Greek War of Independence (1821-1830) changed the course of the history of Macedonia. The war
irrevocably tied developments in the land to the wars of national liberation the Greeks fought for nearly
a century. The uprising of the Greeks of Macedonia in 1821-2, which was part of the general
Greek uprising, and its bloody suppression by the Ottoman Turks tied the fortunes of the northern
Greeks with those of their southern brethren for at least two reasons: a) because they placed Macedonia
within the scope of Greek territorial annexation of historical Greek lands, and b) because they caused a
wave of refugees who settled in south Greece: These refugees and subsequent waves produced by the
rising of the Greeks of Macedonia during the Eastern crises of 1854, 1875 and 1896 became a
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formidable link connecting the independent Greek kingdom in the south with the unredeemed Greeks
of the north.

With the active support of independent Greece, but principally through the nuclei of organised political,
economic and cultural life of the Greeks of Macedonia - the community councils, the professional
guilds, the schools, the churches, and the variously named patriotic societies - the northern Greeks were
able to further develop their national identity and position in the land and to strengthen the elements
among them pressing for independence from the Turks. By the time other serious claimants to the land
appeared - the Bulgars after 1870 - the Greeks has been able to shape the land to their image which
the newcomers were unable to overrun. Nevertheless, the Bulgarian propaganda which sought to win
over Slavonic-speaking Christians living in certain enclaves in Macedonia met, predictably, with Greek
resistance and sparked off a bitter conflict between the Greeks and the Bulgars that lasted from 1904
until the Young Turks' Revolution of 1908. This was the "Macedonian Struggle," the struggle waged
by the Greeks in Macedonia to ward off the dangerous threat of Bulgarian expansionism. Both Greek
and Bulgarian guerrilla bands drew men from the Greek kingdom and Bulgarian principality
respectively, though most of their fighters were Slavonic speakers from the disputed enclaves, who
took sides according to their nationalist convictions.

The Balkan Wars

The Balkan Wars (1912-13), which terminated with the deliverance of Macedonia from Ottoman
domination, put a temporary end to the unrest in the region as the combatants acquired he former
Turkish vilayets of Thessaloniki and Monastir. The Greek kingdom secured the liberation of the main
part of historical Macedonia (almost a carbon copy of ancient Macedonia) - thus taking in Thessaloniki
and those great Macedonian centres of Ancient Greek culture: Aegae (Vergina), Dion and Pella. The
remainder of the now liberated former Ottoman region, was taken over by Serbia while a much smaller
area placed within the boundaries of the Bulgarian state.

World War I

The First World War confirmed the territorial status quo produced by the Balkan Wars, while the
treaties that ended that war radically changed the linguistic and national composition of the population
of Macedonia. The Greek-Bulgarian Convention signed at Neuilly in 1919, which provided for the
reciprocal and voluntary emigration of people from one realm to the other after liquidating their
property assets, gave the opportunity to perhaps more than 100,000 people from each side to emigrate
to the side of their choice. The Greek element in Greek Macedonia was further strengthened as a result
of the Greek-Turkish War of 1919-22 and the Lausanne Convention of January 1923, which provided
for the mandatory exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey. In the place of the
departing Muslims of Macedonia, more than 600,000 Greek Orthodox from Asia Minor, Eastern
Thrace and the Pontus settled in the land and irrevocably changed the national composition of its
population. In this way, through the voluntary migrations between the different countries, significant
progress was achieved in respect of the homogeneity of the respective populations. It is characteristic
that, according to the statistics held by the League of Nations, 88.8% of the population of Macedonia in
1926 was Greek. It is worth noting that of the remainder a large proportion was made up by the Jews of
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Macedonia. What had come by then to be known as the "Macedonian Question" was
further complicated in the interwar period (1918-1939), when the Soviet-sponsored
Communist International projected the slogan for an independent Macedonia and the theory of a
"Macedonian" nationality, and imposed them on the Communist parties of Greece and Yugoslavia. It
was in fact the line of the left-wing branch of IMRO (Internal Macedonian Revolutionary
Organization), the Bulgarian terrorist organisation that furthered before the Balkan Wars Bulgaria's
claims to Macedonia.

World War II

During the Second World War, following the occupation of Greece by the Axis, Greek Macedonia was
divided in three zones. The Bulgarians occupied an eastern zone, the Germans a central, including
Thessaloniki, and the Italians a western zone. The Bulgarian authorities deported from their zone of
occupation a portion of the Greek population and encouraged the settlement of Bulgarians with a view
to altering the ethnological composition of the population. At the same time, they used various
material inducements and spread the impression that Greek Macedonia had come under Bulgarian
control to lure a few thousand Slavonic-speaking Greeks of central and west Macedonia away
from their attachment to Greece.

As a result, in 1944 all those Slavonic speakers who had compromised themselves as Bulgarian
sympathizers had to make for the new political entity that appeared after the end of the Second World
War, the new communist republic in the south of Yugoslavia: a number of Slavonic speakers from
Macedonia also took refuge there; thus marking themselves off from the Slavonic speakers
who demonstrated their Greek national consciousness by remaining behind.

A product of opportunism, created out of an amalgam of fascist, nationalistic and communist
elements, the leadership of this newly-formed republic on Greece's northern border committed itself
to fashioning a nation out of the region's disparate linguistic and religious elements: the pro-Bulgarian
Slavonic speakers of Greek Macedonia and Southern Serbia, Albanian-speaking Muslims, Greek
speaking Christian Vlachs, and also Gypsies. However, by adopting a name which historically belongs
uniquely to Greek Macedonia, the leaders of the communist federal state of Yugoslavia were clearly
laying claim to Greek territory.

The newly-formed communist state inaugurated a new period in the history of the Macedonian question
during which it has attempted to appropriate the name 'Macedonia' and falsify history through
a constant of propaganda, has claimed various historical symbols as its own and has also passed off as
Macedonian a language fabricated in the twentieth century thereby misleading international public
opinion. The problem has subsequently assumed dramatic proportions as, following the break-up of
Yugoslavia, the republic has changed its status from that of a province of a federal state to one of
a sovereign state which seeks to be called Macedonia and claims to embrace the Macedonian nation
within its borders.

Greek Macedonia, an organic part of Hellenism since antiquity, is politically, economically and
culturally an integral part of Greece. The linguistic and other cultural survivals in the region
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are elements of a rich and dynamic heritage - the heritage of the Greek nation, one of the oldest cultural
communities in this south-eastern corner of Europe.

The Macedonian Issue

The "Macedonian issue" has once again entered the spotlight in the international political arena since
the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991 when Greece's northern neighbor declared independence under the
name "Republic of Macedonia". Greece immediately protested (as it also did in 1944, when this
name started to be used for a socialist republic inside the federal Yugoslavia, as part of a plan of its
communist regime to annex Greece's proper Macedonian region). As a result of Greece's protests in the
early 90's, the provisional name "the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" (FYROM) has been
adopted to be used by international organizations until the name issue is resolved.

Often "the Macedonian Issue" is erroneously portrayed in the media in very simplistic terms: Greece's
refusal to accept a culturally Slavic people to use the term "Macedonia" for their newly-emerged
country and "ethnic Macedonians" as the designation for their national identity. However,
the implications are rather complex. Today, for example, over 20 years since the independence
of FYROM, an entire generation of children (and a society after the collapse of communism) has been
taught that they are descendants of Alexander the Great and the ancient Macedonians and
are constantly inundated with a barrage of propaganda, the renaming of landmarks and roads to ancient
names and the erecting of statues representing ancient Macedonian heroes, which aim at creating a
direct cultural link to ancient Macedonia.

This governmental antiquization program in FYROM has angered Greece as its cultural and historical
legacy is being exploited by the citizens of a country that have never denied their goal of creating a
"United Macedonia" - an irredentist state that they claim it would have existed at some point in history.
The FYROM diaspora organizations push the notion that ethnic Macedonian lands are "still occupied
by Greece and Bulgaria" and distribute maps showing a "United Macedonia" in an attempt to gather
international support in the mainstream societies in the west. However, such an independent state never
existed and was fabricated by the Yugoslav propaganda machine of the 40's as part of that ancient
territorial "link" in order to lay claim on Greece's historic region of Macedonia.

Bibliography:

Ancient history of Macedonia from 1000 B.C. to 197 B.C.
Written by Dimitrios Pandermalis, Professor of Archaeology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, supervisor of the Archaeological site of Dion,
Pieria and curator of the new Acropolis Museum.

Macedonia during the Byzantine period (4th-15th century)
Written by the late Ioannis Karayiannopoulos, Professor of Byzantine History at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

Byzantine Macedonian architecture and art
Written by Ch. Bakirtzis, Professor of Byzantine Archaeology at the University of Thessaloniki.

First period of Macedonia under Ottoman rule (15th Century - 1821)
Written by I.K. Hassiotis, Professor of Modern History at the University of Thessaloniki

Modern Macedonia: Macedonia after the Greek War of Independence (to WWII)
Written by J.S. Koliopoulos, Professor of Modern History at the University of Thessaloniki