The original inhabitants of Macedonia were Illyrians in the West and Thracians in the East. These inhabitants gradually developed a kingdom with the first king Perdiccas (c. 707-645 B.C.). In the time of Archelaus 1 (418-399 B.C.), the kingdom was consolidated and the capital moved from Aegus to Pella. Well-known writers such as Euripides and Zeuxis were attracted to his luxurious court and from this time Greek influences became stronger on the "higher" circles in the country. Philip II (359-336 B.C.) took advantage of the disagreement among the Greek city-states and established his hegemony over all of Greece at the decisive Battle of Chaeronea in 338 B.C. His son Alexander, who was educated in Greek as were all the nobility of the time, took over on the death of Philip in 336 B.C. and extended his kingdom to India. After the death of Alexander in 323, the empire was divided and Macedonia was ruled eventually by the family of Antigonus.
In 168 B.C. the Romans defeated the Macedonians near Pydna and in 146 B.C. Macedonia became a Roman Province. Many Roman colonists settled in Macedonia and a large part of the original inhabitants became Latinized. With the division of the Roman Empire in 395 A.D. Macedonia was incorporated into the Eastern or Byzantine Empire.
The decline of the Roman Empire saw Macedonia subjected to numerous Barbarian attacks, the Visigoths in the fourth century, the Huns in the fifth century and the Slavs, Avars and others in the sixth century.
The many attacks by barbarians caused the depopulation of the area with many taken away as slaves and the remainder moving to the fortified coastal cities. This void was filled around 550 when large numbers of Slavs occupied the whole Balkan Peninsula extending south to the island of Crete. Some of the original inhabitants escaped to the mountains and were later to descend into the plains as the modern Albanian and Vlachs (a Romance language group). The Byzantines, who during this time were engaged in war with the Arabs, were unable to stem this mass migration. The various Slav tribes, together with their allies the Avars and later the Bulgars, attacked Byzantine cities such as Thessalonika during the 6th century but were unsuccessful. These cities remained Byzantine islands in a Slavonic sea.
By the middle ninth century, the Byzantine Empire experiences political and cultural revival. The Slavs had settled into farming and the cities which had previously been isolated had an economic revival. The Byzantines were able to start to Christianize (and thus to Hellenise) and establish political control over the Slavs in the Peloponnesus, Attica and southern Tessaly by the establishment of military areas called "Themes". These were settled with soldiers on small farms held on condition of hereditary military service, and governed by generals, directly under the Emperor, who exercised complete military and civil command. In spite of this it should be noted that until the time of the Turkish conquest of the fifteenth century, the Slavs on the slopes of Mount Taygetus in the Peloponnesus retained their language, ethnic identity and a tradition of insuborination to the imperial authority.
Southern Macedonia and Thrace were included in Themes by the end of the ninth century while all the Slav areas north of there were incorporated into the Slav Kingdoms of Bulgaria, Serbia and Croatia.
Until the time of the Turkish conquest, Macedonia went from being a Byzantine theme, to part of the Bulgarian Kingdom, to a brief Macedonian Kingdom under King Samuel (976-1018) with a capital in Ochrid, to part of the Serbian Kingdom and back to part of the Byzantine Empire.
The Ottoman Turks conquered Macedonia during the reign of Murad 1 (1362-1389) and incorporated the new territories into their feudal system of land tenure. In the earliest period of Ottoman domination, many Turkish settlements sprang up all over Macedonia, particularly close to more important routes, in the valleys of navigable rivers and on the coastal plains. They also welcomed the Jews, expelled from Spain and Portugal by the inquisition, who established colonies in all the important urban centres such as Salonica, Bitola, Skopje, Kastoria, Serres, Shtip, Kratovo and Strumitsa.
During this period there was an Islamisation of Macedonian Slavs. Some, like the original nobility did so to retain their holdings, others were forcefully converted. The majority of those converted were not however absorbed into Turkish culture but retained their language and even some of their folk and religious customs. The Turks did not suppress language. Written language and books were preserved in the many monasteries in the country.
During the time of Turkish domination there were many revolts which were successful for short periods of time. The last revolt took place on Ilinden (St. Elijah's Day) August 2, 1903. This revolt, because of outside influences was ill-timed. It resulted in the establishment of a short-lived Republic in the town of Krushevo which went unassisted by the neighbouring countries who had previously freed themselves from the Ottoman yoke. It was soon brutally crushed by the Turkish army and Bashi-bazouks (irregular roaming bands).
The Balkan wars of 1912-13 revealed the true aims of Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria and even Rumania who all claimed parts of Macedonia for their own aggrandizement. The result of the wars was that Serbia received 40% of Macedonia, Greece 50% and Bulgaria 10%. A few villages around Lake Ochrid were included in the newly-formed state of Albania.
The years after the First World War saw an intensive campaign at the forced assimilation of the Macedonian Slavs in Greece where they were referred to as "Slavophone Greeks" and in Serbia where they were called "Old Serbs". The Bulgarians left Pirin Macedonia in the hands of the revolutionary organization I.M.R.O. until the 1930's when they suppressed them in an effort to develop good relations with Serbia and Greece. Because of these harsh assimilation policies, a great number of Macedonians, especially from the part of Macedonia under Greece, emigrated to Canada, the United States, Australia and many other countries.
The population of Macedonia was further altered in the 1920's (1912-1927) when the Greek government made all moslems (Turkish and other) move to Turkey in exchange for Greeks from Turkey. They also made a population exchange with Bulgaria in which Slavs were sent from Macedonia in exchange for Greeks from Bulgaria. The Second World War saw many Macedonian men and women in the partisan movement against the Axis Powers, with the hope of gaining their basic human rights in a new order
This was realized only in the area previously under Serbia. In 1944 the Socialist Republic of Macedonia was created as on of the six republics making up the Federated Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia. During the Civil War in Greece (1946-1949) many Macedonians fled to the new state of Macedonia as well as to other Eastern block countries.
In the new republic, the Macedonians were at last able to create a modern literary language (based on central dialects) and develop their culture freely. Toronto's community until 1950 was mainly from the Aegean part of Macedonia (under Greece) with some of the first immigrants coming as temporary workers as far back as 1895. The result of the Balkan Wars convinced many of them to bring their families and remain in Canada. A large number of immigrants since 1950 have come from the Yugoslav part of Macedonia, mainly in search of work and many have become Canadian citizens. There has also been a large immigration from the part under Greece in the post war period, however the years of forced Hellenisation have taken their toll and many of these stay within the Greek community. This has unfortunately divided many families.
Current policy in both Greece and Bulgaria still does not recognize minority rights to language, etc. Albania, however, allows those Macedonians whose villages were incorporated into Albania in 1913 to have schools in Macedonian.
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