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| Etymology | |
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Look up Macedonia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
The name "Macedonia" derives from the tribal name of the ancient Macedonians, attested in Greek sources as Μακεδόνες (Makedōnes). It is usually linked to the Indo-European root *māk-, meaning 'long' or 'tall'. The root is also encountered in the Greek words makednos "long, tall", (attested in Homer, and recorded by Hesychius of Alexandria as a Doric word meaning "large"), or makros ('long, large'), as well as related words in other Indo-European languages. It is commonly explained as having originally meant 'the tall ones' or 'highlanders'.[1] R.S.P. Beekes claims that the morphological analysis make- (root) + -dnos (suffix) is impossible in an Indo-European word and that it is more likely that the word has a Pre-Greek origin.[2]
In Greek mythology, Makednos was the eponymic ancestor of the Macedonians. He is described as a grandson of Deucalion and nephew to Hellen, the ancestor of the Greeks (according to Hesiod), or as a son to Aeolus, the ancestor of the Aeolians (according to Hellanicus).[3]
[edit] Tags:Greek,Ancient Macedonians,Hesychius Of Alexandria,Doric,R.s.p. Beekes,Pre-greek,Greek Mythology,Makednos,Eponymic,Deucalion,Hellen,Greeks,Hesiod,Aeolians,Hellanicus,Macedon,Macedonia,Language,Macedonians,Macedonian, | |
| History | |
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Main article: History of the region of Macedonia
Historical Macedonia
Ancient Macedon
Roman Province
Byzantine province
(approximate borders)
Ottoman period
(approximate)
Ancient Macedon: Approximate borders of the kingdom before its major expansion, c. 350 BC
Roman province (approximate borders of maximum extent). There was also a later diocese of Macedonia.
Byzantine province: situated much further east than previous and later units (approximate borders).
Ottoman period: During the first four centuries of the Ottoman period, western scholars thought of Macedonia in terms of Greco-Roman geography. The Ottoman Empire did not have an administrative unit by that name. In the early 19th century, the definition of Macedonia by most scholars, approximately matched the contemporary region, with occasional variations.[4]
The region of Macedonia has been home to several historical political entities, which have used the name Macedonia; the main ones are given below. The borders of each of these entities were different.
[edit] Tags:Region Of Macedonia,Roman Province,Ottoman Period,Diocese Of Macedonia,Byzantine Province,Ottoman,Administrative Unit,Kingdom,Ottoman Empire, | |
| Ancient Macedonia | |
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Macedonia or Macedon, the ancient kingdom, was centered on the fertile plains west of the Gulf of Salonica; the first Macedonian state emerged in the 8th or early 7th century BC. Its extent beyond the center varied; some Macedonian kings could not hold their capital; Philip II expanded his power until it reached from Epirus, across Thrace to Gallipoli, and from Thermopylae to the Danube.[5] His son Alexander the Great conquered most of the land in southwestern Asia stretching from what is currently Turkey in the west to parts of India in the east. The kingdom fell apart after his death in 323 BC; several of his Successors attempted to form a kingdom for themselves in Macedonia; the kingdom formed by Antigonus Gonatas contained all the land Philip II had started with and controlled much of what is now modern Greece; it lasted until the Romans divided it into four republics in 168 BC.[6]
[edit] Tags:Greece,Philip Ii,Epirus,Thrace,Thermopylae,Alexander The Great,Successors,Race, | |
| Roman Macedonia | |
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The ancient Romans had two different entities called Macedonia, at different levels. Macedonia was established as a Roman province in 146 BC. Its boundaries were shifted from time to time for administrative convenience, but during the Roman Republic and the Principate it extended west to the Adriatic and south to Central Greece.
Under Diocletian, Thessaly, including parts of West Macedonia, was split off to form a new province, and the central and southern Balkan provinces were grouped into the Diocese of Moesia. At some point in the 4th century (first securely attested in 370) this was divided into two new dioceses, the mostly Latin-speaking Diocese of Dacia in the north and the mostly Greek-speaking Diocese of Macedonia in the south. Under Constantine the Great, the western part of the province of Macedonia was also split off to form the new province of Epirus nova. After Constantine's death, the western Balkans, Macedonia included, became part of the praetorian prefecture of Illyricum.[7]
With the exception of a short-lived division between Macedonia Prima in the south and Macedonia Salutaris in the north towards the end of the 4th century (attested only in the Notitia Dignitatum), Macedonia formed a single province until re-divided into southern and northern parts sometime in the late 5th century (the division is first securely attested in 482), although the province seems to have been reunified by 535. According to the 6th-century Synecdemus, Macedonia Prima, with Thessalonica as its capital and governed by a consularis, counted 32 cities, and Macedonia Secunda in the north, with Stobi as its capital and governed by a praeses, only eight. The approximate boundary between the two ran on a rough line from north of Bitola (which belonged to Macedonia Prima) to the area of Demir Kapija.[8][9]
[edit] Tags:Balkan,Roman Republic,Principate,Central Greece,Diocletian,Thessaly,West Macedonia,Diocese Of Moesia,Diocese Of Dacia,Constantine The Great,Epirus Nova,Praetorian Prefecture Of Illyricum,Notitia Dignitatum,Synecdemus,Thessalonica,Consularis,Stobi,Praeses,Bitola,Demir Kapija, | |
| Byzantine Macedonia | |
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During the 7th century, most of the Balkans were overrun by Slavic invasions, which left only the fortified towns and the coasts in the hands of the Greek-speaking Byzantine Empire. "Macedonia" was then used for a new theme in the late 8th century under Irene of Athens. Geographically however it was located in Thrace and not in Macedonia, which was under the themes of Thessalonica, Strymon and other smaller commands such as Boleron or Drougoubiteia.[10] Themes were not named geographically and the original sense was "army". They became districts during the military and fiscal crisis of the seventh century, when the Byzantine armies were instructed to find their supplies from the locals, wherever they happened to be. Thus the Armeniac theme was considerably west of Armenia; the Thracesian Theme was in Asia Minor, not in Thrace.[11] The Macedonian dynasty of the Byzantine Empire acquired its name from its founder, Basil I the Macedonian, an Armenian by descent, who was born in the theme of Macedonia.[12]
The interior of Macedonia remained in Slavic and later Bulgarian hands until the campaigns of Basil II, which ended the existence of the Bulgarian state and extended Byzantine authority across the central and northern Balkans. Thereafter Macedonia remained under Byzantine control until the Fourth Crusade (1204). A short-lived Latin Kingdom of Thessalonica was established which survived until 1224, when it was captured by Epirus. Most of Macedonia then came under the control of the Empire of Nicaea in 1246, although its northern regions remained disputed with the Serbs and the Bulgarians. Most of the region was conquered by the Serbs under Stephen Dushan during the Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347. Only Thessalonica and its environs remained in Byzantine hands. By the late 14th century, the Ottoman Turks in turn had conquered the region, although Thessalonica held out under Byzantine and later Venetian control until 1430.[13]
[edit] Tags:Bulgaria,Bulgarian,Slavic,Byzantine Empire,Theme,Irene Of Athens,Strymon,Boleron,Drougoubiteia,Armeniac Theme,Armenia,Thracesian Theme,Macedonian Dynasty,Basil I The Macedonian,Armenian,Campaigns,Basil Ii,Fourth Crusade,Kingdom Of Thessalonica,Empire Of Nicaea,Serbs,Bulgarians,Stephen Dushan,Byzantine Civil War Of 1341–1347,Ottoman Turks,Venetian,Until 1430, | |
| Ottoman Macedonia | |
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Main article: Macedonia under the Ottoman Empire
The Ottomans did not keep Macedonia as an administrative unit: since 1864 parts of geographical Macedonia lay in three vilayets, which also comprised some non-Macedonian areas. Northern Macedonia was part of the Kosovo vilayet and then of Skopje; the Thessaloniki (south Macedonia), and the Monastir (Central Macedonia) vilayet were also created. This administrative division lasted until 1912–13, when Macedonia was divided among the Balkan states.[14]
[edit] Tags:Macedonia Under The Ottoman Empire,Vilayets,Skopje,Thessaloniki,Monastir (central Macedonia) Vilayet, | |
| Modern history | |
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Main article: History of modern Macedonia
Since the early stages of the Greek Revolution, the provisional government of Greece claimed Macedonia as part of Greek national territory, but the Treaty of Constantinople (1832), which established a Greek independent state, set its northern boundary between Arta and Volos.[15] When the Ottoman Empire started breaking apart, Macedonia was claimed by all members of the Balkan League (Serbia, Montenegro, Greece and Bulgaria), and by Romania. Under the Treaty of San Stefano that ended the Russo-Turkish War, 1877–78 the entire region, except Thessaloniki, was included in the borders of Bulgaria, but after the Congress of Berlin in 1878 the region was returned to the Ottoman Empire. The armies of the Balkan League advanced and occupied Macedonia in the First Balkan War in 1912. Because of disagreements between the allies about the partition of the region, the Second Balkan War erupted, and in its aftermath the arbitrary region of Macedonia was split into the following entities, that existed or still exist in this region:
Macedonia (as a region of Greece) refers to three regions in northern Greece, incorporated in 1913, as a result of the Balkan Wars between the Ottoman Empire and the Balkan League.[16]
Macedonia (as a People's Republic within Yugoslavia) used to refer to the People's Republic of Macedonia established in 1946, later known as the Socialist Republic of Macedonia, one of the constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, renamed in 1963.[17]
Macedonia (as a contemporary sovereign state) refersN-[3] to the conventional short form name of the Republic of Macedonia, which held a referendum and established its independence from Yugoslavia on 8 September 1991.[18]
[edit] Tags:Republic Of Macedonia,Serbia,History Of Modern Macedonia,Greek Revolution, | |
| Geography | |
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Macedonia (as a current geographical term) refers to a region of the Balkan peninsula in south-eastern Europe, covering some 60,000 or 70,000 square kilometers. Although the region's borders are not officially defined by any international organization or state, in some contexts, the territory appears to correspond to the basins of (from west to east) the Haliacmon (Aliákmonas), Vardar / Axios and Struma / Strymónas rivers, and the plains around Thessaloniki and Serres.[19]
The borders of the wider region of Macedonia as portrayed by different authors between 1843–1927. Most maps of that period have similar borders, differing slightly from each other; a few maps restrict the region to its southern part.
In a historic context, the term Macedonia was used in various ways. Macedonia was not an administrative division of the Ottoman Empire; its entire territory was part of the beylerbeylik of Rumelia.[20] The geographer H.R. Wilkinson suggests that the region "defies definition" but that many mappers agree "on its general location".[4] Macedonia was well enough defined in 1897 for Gladstone to propose "Macedonia for the Macedonians"; philhellenes argued that the phrase could not be used by a man of impartiallity, while Turcophiles asserted that there are six different kinds of Macedonians, and only Turkish rule could prevail total anarchy in the region.[21] The Balkan nations began to proclaim their rights to it after the Treaty of San Stefano in 1878 and its revision at the Congress of Berlin.[22]
Many ethnographic maps were produced in this period of controversy; these differ primarily in the areas given to each nationality within Macedonia. This was in part a result of the choice of definition: an inhabitant of Macedonia might well have different nationalities depending on whether the basis of classification was denomination, descent, language, self-identification or personal choice. In addition, the Ottoman census, taken on the basis of religion, was misquoted by all sides; descent, or "race", was largely conjectural; inhabitants of Macedonia might speak a different language at the market and at home, and the same Slavic dialect might be called Serbian "with Bulgarian influences", Macedonian, or West-Bulgarian.[23]
These maps also differed somewhat in the boundaries given to Macedonia. Its only inarguable limits were the Aegean Sea and the Serbian and Bulgarian frontiers (as of 1885); where it bordered Old Serbia, Albania, and Thrace (all parts of Ottoman Rumelia) was debatable.[4]
The Greek ethnographer Nicolaides, the Austrian Meinhard, and the Bulgarian Kǎnčev placed the northern boundary of Macedonia at the Šar Mountains and the Crna hills, as had scholars before 1878. The Serb Gopčevič preferred a line much further south, assigning the entire region from Skopje to Strumica to "Old Serbia"; and some later Greek geographers have defined a more restricted Macedonia. In addition, maps might vary in smaller details: as to whether this town or that was Macedonian. One Italian map included Prizren, where Nicolaides and Meinhard had drawn the boundary just south of it. On the south and west, Grevena, Korçë, and Konitsa varied from map to map; on the east, the usual line is the lower Mesta / Nestos river and then north or northwest, but one German geographer takes the line so far west as to exclude Bansko and Nevrokop / Gotse Delchev.[4]
[edit] Tags:Albania, | |
| Subregions | |
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Geographical Macedonia
Major sub-regions:
Aegean MacedoniaN-[1] (or Greek Macedonia)
Pirin MacedoniaN-[2] (or Bulgarian Macedonia)
Vardar Macedonia (or the Republic of Macedonia)
Minor parts:
Mala Prespa and Golo Bardo (in Albania)
Gora (in Kosovo or Serbia) and Prohor Pchinski (in Serbia)
The region of Macedonia is commonly divided into three major and two minor sub-regions.[24] The name Macedonia appears under certain contexts on the major regions, while the smaller ones are traditionally referred to by other local toponyms:
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| Major regions | |
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The region of Macedonia is commonly split geographically into three main sub-regions, especially when discussing the Macedonian Question. The terms are used in non-partisan scholarly works, although they are also used in ethnic Macedonian literature of an irredentist nature.[25]
Aegean MacedoniaN-[1] (or Greek Macedonia) is a term that refers to an area in the south of the Macedonia region. The borders of the area are, overall, those of ancient Macedonia in Greece. It covers an area of 34,200 square kilometres (13,200 sq mi)[26] (for discussion of the reported irredentist origin of this term, see Aegean Macedonia).
Pirin MacedoniaN-[2] (or Bulgarian Macedonia) is an area in the east of the Macedonia region. The borders of the area approximately coincide with those of Blagoevgrad Province in Bulgaria.[24] It covers an area of 6,449 square kilometres (2,490 sq mi).[27]
Vardar Macedonia (formerly Yugoslav Macedonia) is an area in the north of the Macedonia region. The borders of the area are those of the Republic of Macedonia.[24] It covers an area of 25,333 square kilometres (9,781 sq mi).[28]
[edit] Tags:Ethnic Macedonian, | |
| Minor regions | |
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In addition to the above named sub-regions, there are also two smaller regions, in Albania and Serbia respectively. These regions are also considered geographically part of Macedonia. They are referred to by ethnic Macedonians as follows,[25] but typically are not so referred to by non-partisan scholars.[29]
Mala Prespa and Golo Brdo is a small area in the west of the Macedonia region in Albania, mainly around Lake Ohrid. It includes parts of the Korçë, Pogradec and Devoll districts. These districts in whole occupy about 3,000 square kilometres (1,158 sq mi), but the area concerned is significantly smaller.[30] Gora (part of the municipality of Dragaš) and Prohor Pčinjski are minor parts in the north of the Macedonia region in Serbia.[31]
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| Demographics | |
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Main article: Demographic history of Macedonia
The region, as defined above, has a total population of about 5 million. The main disambiguation issue in demographics is the self-identifying name of two contemporary groups. The ethnic Macedonian population of the Republic of Macedonia self-identify as Macedonian on a national level, while the Greek Macedonians self-identify as both Macedonian on a regional, and Greek on a national level. According to the Greek arguments, the ancient Macedonians' nationality was Greek and thus, the use of the term on a national level lays claims to their history. This disambiguation problem has led to a wide variety of terms used to refer to the separate groups, more information of which can be found in the terminology by group section.
Demographic Macedonia
Macedonians
c. 5 million
All inhabitants of the region, irrespective of ethnicity
MacedoniansN-[3]
c. 1.3 million plus diaspora
An ethnic group, more rarely referred to as Macedonian Slavs[32] or Slavomacedonians (used mostly by Greek authorities to refer to the ethnic Macedonian minority in Greece[33])N-[5]
MacedoniansN-[3]
c. 2.0 million
Citizens of the Republic of Macedonia irrespective of ethnicity
Macedonians
c. 2.6 million plus diaspora
An ethnic Greek regional group, also referred to as Greek Macedonians
Macedonians
(unknown population)
A group of antiquity, also referred to as Ancient Macedonians.
Macedonians
c. 0.3 million
A Bulgarian regional group,[34] also referred to as Piriners.
Macedo-Romanians
c. 0.3 million
An alternative name for Aromanians
The self-identifying Macedonians (collectively referring to the inhabitants of the region) that inhabit or inhabited the area are:
As an ethnic group, Macedonians refersN-[3] to the majority (64.7%, 2002) of the population of the Republic of Macedonia. Statistics for 2002 indicate the population of ethnic Macedonians within the country as c. 1,300,000.[35] On the other hand, as a legal term, it refers to all the citizens of the Republic of Macedonia, irrespective of their ethnic or religious affiliation.[28] However, the preamble of the constitution[36] distinguishes between "the Macedonian people" and the "Albanians, Turks, Vlachs, Romanics and other nationalities living in the Republic of Macedonia", but for whom "full equality as citizens" is provided. As of 2002 the total population of the country is 2,022,547.[37]
As a regional group in Greece, Macedonians refers to ethnic Greeks (98%, 2001) living in regions referred to as Macedonia, and particularly Greek Macedonia. This group composes the vast majority of the population of the Greek region of Macedonia. The 2001 census for the total population of the Macedonia region in Greece shows 2,625,681.[38]
The same term in antiquity described the inhabitants of the kingdom of Macedon, including their notable rulers Philip II and Alexander the Great who self-identified as Greeks.[39]
As a regional group in Bulgaria, Macedonians refers to the inhabitants of Bulgarian Macedonia, who in their vast majority self-identify as Bulgarians at a national level and as Macedonians at a regional, but not ethnic level.[34] As of 2001, the total population of Bulgarian Macedonia is 341,245, while the ethnic Macedonians living in the same region are 3,117.[40] The Bulgarian Macedonians also self-identify as Piriners (пиринци, pirintsi)[41] to avoid confusion with the neighboring ethnic group.
Macedo-Romanians can be used as an alternative name for Aromanians, people living throughout the southern Balkans, especially in northern Greece, Albania, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria, and as an emigrant community in Northern Dobruja, Romania. According to Ethnologue, their total population in all countries is 306,237.[42] This not very frequent appellation is the only one with the disambiguating portmanteau, both within the members of the same ethnic group and the other ethnic groups in the area.[43] To make matters more confusing, Aromanians are often called "Machedoni" by Romanians, as opposed to the citizens of Macedonia, who are called "Macedoneni".[44]
The ethnic Albanians living in the region of Macedonia, as defined above, are mainly concentrated in the Republic of Macedonia (especially in the northwestern part that borders Kosovo and Albania), and less in the Albanian minor sub-region of Macedonia around the Lake Ohrid. As of 2002, the total population of Albanians within the republic is 509,083 or 25.2% of the country's total population.[37]
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| Linguistics | |
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As language is one of the elements tied in with national identity, the same disputes that are voiced over demographics are also found in linguistics. There are two main disputes about the use of the word Macedonian to describe a linguistic phenomenon, be it a language or a dialect:
Linguistic Macedonia
MacedonianN-[3]
A contemporary Slavic language, also referred to as Slavomacedonian or Macedonian Slavic[45] N-[5]
Macedonian
A dialect of Modern Greek, typically simply referred to as Greek, since its differences with the Greek spoken in the rest of Greece are only a few words, phrases and some features of the pronunciation.
Macedonian
A language or dialect of antiquity, possibly a dialect of ancient Greek
Macedo-Romanian
Another name for the Aromanian language
The origins of the Ancient Macedonian language are currently debated. At this time it is not conclusively determined whether the language / dialect was a Greek dialect related to Doric Greek[46] and/or Aeolic Greek[47] dialects among others, a sibling language of ancient Greek forming a Hellenic[48] (i.e. Greco-Macedonian) supergroup, or viewed as an Indo-European language which is a close cousin to Greek (and perhaps somewhat related to Thracian and/or Phrygian languages).[49] The scientific community generally agrees that, although sources are available (e.g. Hesychius' lexicon, Pella curse tablet)[50] there is no decisive evidence to exclude any of the above hypotheses.[51]
Modern Macedonian language,N-[3] a south Slavic language, is unrelated to the Ancient Macedonian language. It is currently the subject of two major disputes. The first is over the name (alternative ways of referring to this language can be found in the terminology by group section and in the article Macedonian language naming dispute). The second dispute is over the existence of a Macedonian language distinct from Bulgarian, the denial of which is a position supported by nationalist groups, Bulgarian and other linguists and also by many ordinary Bulgarians.[52]
Macedonian is also the name of a dialect of Modern Greek, a language of the Indo-European family. Additionally, Macedo-Romanian is an Eastern Romance language, spoken in Southeastern Europe by the Aromanians.[43]
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| Politics | |
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See also: Macedonia naming dispute
The controversies in geographic, linguistic and demographic terms, are also manifested in international politics. Among the autonomous countries that were formed as a result of the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, was the (until then) subnational entity of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, by the official name of "Socialist Republic of Macedonia", the others being Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. The peaceful break-away of that nation resulted in the change of its name to "Republic of Macedonia".
Political Macedonia
Μακεδονία (Macedonia)
(Macedonia in Greece)
Македонија (Macedonia)
(Republic of Macedonia Tags: | |
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