Macedonia

The lands governed by the Republic of Macedonia were previously the southernmost part of the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia. Its current borders were fixed shortly after World War II when the Anti-Fascist Assembly for the National Liberation of Macedonia declared the People's Republic of Macedonia as a separate nation within Yugoslavia.

Over the centuries the territory which today forms the Republic of Macedonia was ruled by a number of different states and former empires.

Ancient Period

The first recorded states on this territory was the Thraco-Illyrian kingdom of Paionia, originally including the whole Axius River valley and the surrounding areas. The kingdom of Macedon took over Paionia in 336 BC and conquered the southern border regions, as well as Pelagonia under Philip II. The kingdom of Paeonia was reduced to a semi-autonomous, subordinated status. Philip's son Alexander the Great (356–323 BC) managed to briefly extend Macedonian power over Paeonia but the native dynasty however, continued to be highly respected. In 280 BC the Gallic invaders ravaged the land of the Paeonians, who being further hard pressed by the Dardani, join the Macedonians, whose downfall they shared. Generally the Paeonians continued to live autonomously until the coming of the Romans on the Balkans. Subsequently the territory became part of two Roman provinces. The greater part of it was within Macedonia Salutaris, but the northern border regions- inhabited by the Dardani- became a part of Moesia Superior. By 400 AD, however, the Paeonians had lost their identity, and Paionia was merely a geographic term. One of the most significant archeological remnant of Macedon are the ruins of Heraclea Lyncestis founded by Philip II of Macedon near what is now Bitola.

Medieval Period

In the late 6th century AD, Byzantine control over the area disintegrated, and the region was invaded by a succession of Slavic tribes from the north, pushing out some existing populations, while many others were assimilated. These included Greek, Latin, Illyrian and Thracian-speaking inhabitants in the regions of today's Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria. The Slavic invaders of Byzantine Macedonia organised themselves in autonomous rural societies called by the Greeks Scaviniai. They laid various sieges to Byzantine lands, conquering virtually all of Greece except for some major cities such as Thessaloniki and Athens. They continued to occupy the entire Balkans, including all of Macedonia, Thrace, Moesia, and even most of Greece proper. The Byzantine emperors would aim to Hellenise and incorporate the Skavinai into the socio-economic rule of Byzantium. While Byzantine achieved this with the Slavs of the Thracian theme, the emperors had to resort to military expeditions to pacify the Skavinai of Macedonia, often repeatedly. These expeditions reached their peak with Justinian II, who is said to have removed as many as 200,000 from Macedonia to central Anatolia, forcing them to pay tribute and serve in the imperial army. Whilst many of the Slavs in Macedonia had to acknowledge Byzantine authority, the majority remained ethnically independent, and continued to form the demographic majority in the region as a whole. With the growth of the First Bulgarian Empire, all these regions and their people were incorporated into the empire, cementing the Slavic character of the entire region.

The Slavic tribes in today's region of Republic of Macedonia (then part of the medieval state of Bulgaria) accepted Christianity as their own religion around the 9th century, during the reign of prince Boris I of Bulgaria. The creators of the Glagolitic alphabet, the Byzantine Greek monks Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius, under the guidance of the Patriarchate at Constantinople, were promoters of Christianity and initiated Slavic literacy among the Slavic people. They were based in Thessaloniki, where Slavic was spoken universally as a second language after Greek. Their work was accepted in early medieval Bulgaria and continued by St. Clement of Ohrid, creator of Cyrillic alphabet and St. Naum of Ohrid as founders of the Ohrid Literary School. Emperor Basil II defeated the armies of Tsar Samuil of Bulgaria and by 1018 the region had been mostly subjugated by the Byzantines.

The Byzantines resumed full control of the Balkans by the early 11th century, but by the late 12th century Byzantine decline brought about the birth of the Second Bulgarian Empire. The empire soon met with political difficulties, and in 13th century the wider geographical Macedonia region fell once again under Byzantine control. In the 14th century, it became part of the Serbian Empire, who saw themselves as liberators of Slavic kin from the despotism of Byzantine, and culture and Christianity flourished once again. Skopje became the capital of Czar Stefan Dusan's empire.

However, with his death, his weak successor and power struggles between nobles divided the Balkans once again. This tragically coincided with the entry of the Ottoman into Europe. With no major Balkan power left to defend Christianity, the entire Balkans fell to Turkish rule, which would remain so for five centuries.

National Awakening

Ottoman rule over the region was considered harsh. One of the earliest uprisings against Ottoman rule came in 1689 with Karposh's Rebellion. Several movements whose goals where the establishment of autonomous Macedonia, encompassing the entire region of Macedonia, began to arise in the late 1800s; the earliest of these was the Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committees, later transformed to SMORO. In 1905 it was renamed as IMORO and after World War I the organization separated into the IMRO and the ITRO. The early organization did not proclaim any ethnic identities; it was officially open to "...uniting all the disgruntled elements in Macedonia and the Adrianople region, regardless of their nationality...". The majority of its members were however Slavic/Bulgarian-speakers. In 1903, IMRO organised the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising against the Ottomans, which after some initial successes, including the forming of the Krushevo Republic, was crushed with much loss of life. The uprising and the forming of the Krushevo Republic are considered the cornerstone and precursors to the eventual establishment of the Republic of Macedonia.

20th Century

Following the two Balkan wars of 1912 and 1913 and the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, most of its European held territories were divided between Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia. The territory of the present-day Republic of Macedonia was then named Južna Srbija, "Southern Serbia". After the First World War, Serbia became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. In 1929, the Kingdom was officially renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and divided into provinces called banovinas. So-called "Southern Serbia" (Vardar Macedonia), including all of what is now the Republic of Macedonia, became known as the Vardar Banovina of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

In 1941, Yugoslavia was occupied by the Axis Powers and the Vardar Banovina was divided between Bulgaria and Italian-occupied Albania. Local recruits and volunteers formed the Bulgarian 5th Army, based in Skopje, which was responsible for the round-up and deportation of over 7,000 Jews in Skopje and Bitola. Harsh rule by the occupying forces encouraged some to support the Communist Partisan resistance movement of Josip Broz Tito. After the end of the Second World War, when Tito became Yugoslavia's president, the People's Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was established. The People's Republic of Macedonia became one of the six republics of the Yugoslav federation. Following the federation's renaming as the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1963, the People's Republic of Macedonia was likewise renamed, becoming the Socialist Republic of Macedonia. It dropped the "Socialist" from its name in 1991 when it peacefully seceded from Yugoslavia.

Independence

The country officially celebrates September 8, 1991 as Independence day (??? ?? ????????????, Den na nezavisnosta), with regard to the referendum endorsing independence from Yugoslavia, albeit legalising participation in future union of the former states of Yugoslavia. The anniversary of the start of the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising (St. Elijah's Day) on August 2 is also widely celebrated on an official level.

Robert Badinter as a head of Arbitration Commission of the Peace Conference on the former Yugoslavia recommended EU recognition in January 1992.

The Republic of Macedonia remained at peace through the Yugoslav wars of the early 1990s. A few very minor changes to its border with Yugoslavia were agreed upon to resolve problems with the demarcation line between the two countries. However, it was seriously destabilised by the Kosovo War in 1999, when an estimated 360,000 ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo took refuge in the country. Although they departed shortly after the war, soon after, Albanian radicals on both sides of the border took up arms in pursuit of autonomy or independence for the Albanian-populated areas of the Republic.

A short conflict was fought between government and ethnic Albanian rebels, mostly in the north and west of the country, between March and June 2001. This war ended with the intervention of a NATO ceasefire monitoring force. In the Ohrid Agreement, the government agreed to devolve greater political power and cultural recognition to the Albanian minority. The Albanian side agreed to surrender separatist demands and to fully recognise all Macedonian institutions. In addition, according to this accord, the NLA were to disarm and hand over their weapons to a NATO force. In 2005, the country was officially recognised as a European Union candidate state, under the reference "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia".

The lands governed by the Republic of Macedonia were previously the southernmost part of the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia. Its current borders were fixed shortly after World War II when the Anti-Fascist Assembly for the National Liberation of Macedonia declared the People's Republic of Macedonia as a separate nation within Yugoslavia.

Over the centuries the territory which today forms the Republic of Macedonia was ruled by a number of different states and former empires.

Ancient Period

The first recorded states on this territory was the Thraco-Illyrian kingdom of Paionia, originally including the whole Axius River valley and the surrounding areas. The kingdom of Macedon took over Paionia in 336 BC and conquered the southern border regions, as well as Pelagonia under Philip II. The kingdom of Paeonia was reduced to a semi-autonomous, subordinated status. Philip's son Alexander the Great (356–323 BC) managed to briefly extend Macedonian power over Paeonia but the native dynasty however, continued to be highly respected. In 280 BC the Gallic invaders ravaged the land of the Paeonians, who being further hard pressed by the Dardani, join the Macedonians, whose downfall they shared. Generally the Paeonians continued to live autonomously until the coming of the Romans on the Balkans. Subsequently the territory became part of two Roman provinces. The greater part of it was within Macedonia Salutaris, but the northern border regions- inhabited by the Dardani- became a part of Moesia Superior. By 400 AD, however, the Paeonians had lost their identity, and Paionia was merely a geographic term. One of the most significant archeological remnant of Macedon are the ruins of Heraclea Lyncestis founded by Philip II of Macedon near what is now Bitola.

Medieval Period

In the late 6th century AD, Byzantine control over the area disintegrated, and the region was invaded by a succession of Slavic tribes from the north, pushing out some existing populations, while many others were assimilated. These included Greek, Latin, Illyrian and Thracian-speaking inhabitants in the regions of today's Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria. The Slavic invaders of Byzantine Macedonia organised themselves in autonomous rural societies called by the Greeks Scaviniai. They laid various sieges to Byzantine lands, conquering virtually all of Greece except for some major cities such as Thessaloniki and Athens. They continued to occupy the entire Balkans, including all of Macedonia, Thrace, Moesia, and even most of Greece proper. The Byzantine emperors would aim to Hellenise and incorporate the Skavinai into the socio-economic rule of Byzantium. While Byzantine achieved this with the Slavs of the Thracian theme, the emperors had to resort to military expeditions to pacify the Skavinai of Macedonia, often repeatedly. These expeditions reached their peak with Justinian II, who is said to have removed as many as 200,000 from Macedonia to central Anatolia, forcing them to pay tribute and serve in the imperial army. Whilst many of the Slavs in Macedonia had to acknowledge Byzantine authority, the majority remained ethnically independent, and continued to form the demographic majority in the region as a whole. With the growth of the First Bulgarian Empire, all these regions and their people were incorporated into the empire, cementing the Slavic character of the entire region.

The Slavic tribes in today's region of Republic of Macedonia (then part of the medieval state of Bulgaria) accepted Christianity as their own religion around the 9th century, during the reign of prince Boris I of Bulgaria. The creators of the Glagolitic alphabet, the Byzantine Greek monks Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius, under the guidance of the Patriarchate at Constantinople, were promoters of Christianity and initiated Slavic literacy among the Slavic people. They were based in Thessaloniki, where Slavic was spoken universally as a second language after Greek. Their work was accepted in early medieval Bulgaria and continued by St. Clement of Ohrid, creator of Cyrillic alphabet and St. Naum of Ohrid as founders of the Ohrid Literary School. Emperor Basil II defeated the armies of Tsar Samuil of Bulgaria and by 1018 the region had been mostly subjugated by the Byzantines.

The Byzantines resumed full control of the Balkans by the early 11th century, but by the late 12th century Byzantine decline brought about the birth of the Second Bulgarian Empire. The empire soon met with political difficulties, and in 13th century the wider geographical Macedonia region fell once again under Byzantine control. In the 14th century, it became part of the Serbian Empire, who saw themselves as liberators of Slavic kin from the despotism of Byzantine, and culture and Christianity flourished once again. Skopje became the capital of Czar Stefan Dusan's empire.

However, with his death, his weak successor and power struggles between nobles divided the Balkans once again. This tragically coincided with the entry of the Ottoman into Europe. With no major Balkan power left to defend Christianity, the entire Balkans fell to Turkish rule, which would remain so for five centuries.

National Awakening

Ottoman rule over the region was considered harsh. One of the earliest uprisings against Ottoman rule came in 1689 with Karposh's Rebellion. Several movements whose goals where the establishment of autonomous Macedonia, encompassing the entire region of Macedonia, began to arise in the late 1800s; the earliest of these was the Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committees, later transformed to SMORO. In 1905 it was renamed as IMORO and after World War I the organization separated into the IMRO and the ITRO. The early organization did not proclaim any ethnic identities; it was officially open to "...uniting all the disgruntled elements in Macedonia and the Adrianople region, regardless of their nationality...". The majority of its members were however Slavic/Bulgarian-speakers. In 1903, IMRO organised the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising against the Ottomans, which after some initial successes, including the forming of the Krushevo Republic, was crushed with much loss of life. The uprising and the forming of the Krushevo Republic are considered the cornerstone and precursors to the eventual establishment of the Republic of Macedonia.

20th Century

Following the two Balkan wars of 1912 and 1913 and the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, most of its European held territories were divided between Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia. The territory of the present-day Republic of Macedonia was then named Južna Srbija, "Southern Serbia". After the First World War, Serbia became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. In 1929, the Kingdom was officially renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and divided into provinces called banovinas. So-called "Southern Serbia" (Vardar Macedonia), including all of what is now the Republic of Macedonia, became known as the Vardar Banovina of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

In 1941, Yugoslavia was occupied by the Axis Powers and the Vardar Banovina was divided between Bulgaria and Italian-occupied Albania. Local recruits and volunteers formed the Bulgarian 5th Army, based in Skopje, which was responsible for the round-up and deportation of over 7,000 Jews in Skopje and Bitola. Harsh rule by the occupying forces encouraged some to support the Communist Partisan resistance movement of Josip Broz Tito. After the end of the Second World War, when Tito became Yugoslavia's president, the People's Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was established. The People's Republic of Macedonia became one of the six republics of the Yugoslav federation. Following the federation's renaming as the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1963, the People's Republic of Macedonia was likewise renamed, becoming the Socialist Republic of Macedonia. It dropped the "Socialist" from its name in 1991 when it peacefully seceded from Yugoslavia.

Independence

The country officially celebrates September 8, 1991 as Independence day (??? ?? ????????????, Den na nezavisnosta), with regard to the referendum endorsing independence from Yugoslavia, albeit legalising participation in future union of the former states of Yugoslavia. The anniversary of the start of the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising (St. Elijah's Day) on August 2 is also widely celebrated on an official level.

Robert Badinter as a head of Arbitration Commission of the Peace Conference on the former Yugoslavia recommended EU recognition in January 1992.

The Republic of Macedonia remained at peace through the Yugoslav wars of the early 1990s. A few very minor changes to its border with Yugoslavia were agreed upon to resolve problems with the demarcation line between the two countries. However, it was seriously destabilised by the Kosovo War in 1999, when an estimated 360,000 ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo took refuge in the country. Although they departed shortly after the war, soon after, Albanian radicals on both sides of the border took up arms in pursuit of autonomy or independence for the Albanian-populated areas of the Republic.

A short conflict was fought between government and ethnic Albanian rebels, mostly in the north and west of the country, between March and June 2001. This war ended with the intervention of a NATO ceasefire monitoring force. In the Ohrid Agreement, the government agreed to devolve greater political power and cultural recognition to the Albanian minority. The Albanian side agreed to surrender separatist demands and to fully recognise all Macedonian institutions. In addition, according to this accord, the NLA were to disarm and hand over their weapons to a NATO force. In 2005, the country was officially recognised as a European Union candidate state, under the reference "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia".