History of modern Macedonia (Greece)
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- This article is about the modern history of the Greek region of Macedonia. For the Ancient and Medieval Macedonian History, see Macedonia (region)#History.
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| The contemporary geographical region of Macedonia is not officially defined by any international organisation or state. In some contexts it appears to span five current sovereign countries: Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, and Serbia. For more details see the boundaries and definitions section in Macedonia (region). |
In the 19th cent. the national revival in the Balkans began; national and religious antagonism flared, and conflict was heightened by the Ottoman policy of playing one group against the other. Meanwhile the Ottoman Empire lost control over the major sections of Greece, Serbia, and Bulgaria, each of which claimed Macedonia on historical or ethnical grounds. In the Treaty of San Stefano (1878), which terminated the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78, Bulgaria was awarded the lion's share of Macedonia. However, the settlement was nullified by the European powers in the same year (see Congress of Berlin), and Macedonia was left under direct Ottoman control.
After the Greco-Turkish war of 1897, which proved a disaster for Greece, Bulgarian nationalism started strengthening in Macedonia. Thus it came about that on the feastday (20 July) of the Prophet Elijah in 1903 there was a Bulgarian rising, known as the Ilinden Uprising, which the Ottoman army soon suppressed.
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[edit] Greek Struggle for Macedonia
The rising, however, made plain the danger that Macedonia might be lost for ever, which stimulated a general mobilisation on the part of the Greeks. So it came about, in 1904, that the armed Greek Struggle for Macedonia began, lasting until 1908. During this period, units made up of volunteers from the free Greek state, from Crete and from other areas poured into region of Macedonia in solidarity with the local "Macedonomachoi" (the name of the Greek Macedonian fighters). Together, they confronted the Bulgarian-backed Slav Macedonian forces in an attempt to assert hegemony over the central and southern parts of Macedonia.
[edit] Balkan Wars
The Balkan Wars (First and Second), of 1912-13 put an end to five centuries of Ottoman domination in Macedonia.
[edit] First Balkan War
The antagonisms between the Christian states (Serbia, Montenegro, Greece and Bulgaria) still persisted, and after the successful conclusion of the First Balkan War, they resurfaced, especially over the partition of Macedonia. In Treaty of London, 1913 the allies (see:Balkan League) disagree about the division of Macedonia.
[edit] Second Balkan War
Greece and Serbia turned against Bulgaria in the Second Balkan War, and the Treaty of Bucharest (1913) left Bulgaria only a small share of Macedonia, the rest of which was divided roughly along the present lines.
In 1913 following the Treaty of Bucharest The region was divided among Greece that took Greek Macedonia (composed of most of the vilayets of Thessaloniki and Monastir), Serbia that took Vardar Macedonia (today Republic of Macedonia) and Bulgaria that took what is now Blagoevgrad Province. This was followed by massive population movements. Thousands of Slavophones fled to Bulgaria.
[edit] World War I
In World War I the Salonica (present-day Thessaloníki) campaigns took place in Macedonia. After the war Macedonia became a hotbed of agitation and insurrection, directed largely from Bulgaria.
Bulgaria and Serbia had fought two wars in the last 30 years, the first war in 1885 (see Serbo-Bulgarian War for details), the second in 1913 (see the Second Balkan War for details). The result was, the Bulgarian government felt that Serbia had stolen land which rightfully belonged to them and when the Central Powers offered to give them most of the land they claimed, the Bulgarian government was convinced.
The political situation in Greece was confused. Officially Greece was neutral but the king Constantine I was pro-German while the prime minister, Venizelos was pro-French. At first Greece supported the French-British military support of Serbia, then they opposed it, finally they settled for officially opposing it but not fighting the superior Allied armies that landed in Thessaloníki. The Germans, trying to win Greek to their side in the war, were careful not to cross the Greek border in Macedonia.
In May of 1916, General Sarrail demanded that the Greek army de-mobilize (reduce its strength) and the Greek government complied with this demand. However this action further pushed the Greek government to side with the Central Powers.
[edit] Treaty of Lausanne
The Treaty of Lausanne (1923) put an end to the traditional Greek policy of the "Great Idea". This allowed the Greek governments of the inter-war years to turn their attention to the country's domestic affairs and to the building of the modern Greek state. The "new lands", including Macedonia, experienced difficulties at first in absorbing the influx of refugees but were later to play a leading part in the economic and social upsurge of modern Greece and her people.
The population exchanges among Greece, Turkey, and Bulgaria after 1923 resulted in the replacement by Greek refugees from Asia Minor of most of the Slavic and Turkish elements in Greek Macedonia.
Greek Macedonia experienced radical demographic transformations with the arrival of the Greek refugees; the Greeks, who had been the 43% in 1913, were estimated to be the 89% of the population of Greek Macedonia in 1928.
Bulgarian relations with Yugoslavia (before 1929 the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes) remained strained over the Macedonian question. Frontier incidents were frequent, as were Yugoslav charges against Bulgaria for fostering the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO), a nationalist group that used violence, in Yugoslavia. Macedonian Slavs agitation against Serbian rule culminated (1934) in the assassination of King Alexander of Yugoslavia by a Slav Macedonian nationalist at Marseilles.
[edit] World War II
In World War II Thrace and eastern Greek Macedonia were occupied (1941–44) by Bulgaria, which sided with the Axis Powers. The Bulgarian government maintained a course of military passivity until 20 April 1941, when German troops crushed Greece and Yugoslavia. In April 1941, the Bulgarian Army entered the Aegean region, hoping for gaining an Aegean Sea outlet in Thrace and Eastern Macedonia, and occupied a territory between the river Struma and a line of demarcation running through Alexandroupoli and Svilengrad west of Evros with the cities of Alexandroupoli (Дедеагач, Dedeagach), Komotini (Гюмюрджина, Gyumyurdzhina), Serres (Сяр, Syar), Xanthi (Ксанти), Drama (Драма) and Kavala (Кавала) and the islands of Thasos and Samothrace.
The Principality of Pindus and Voivodship of Macedonia an autonomous statelet under Italian control existed between 1941-1943 in the Pindus mountain and some part of both Greek and Slavic Macedonia.
The Bulgarian armistice treaty of 1944 restored the pre-war boundaries, which were confirmed in the peace treaty of 1947. The Yugoslav constitution of 1946 made Yugoslav Macedonia an autonomous unit in a federal state, and the Slav Macedonian people were recognized as a separate nationality.
Tension over Macedonia continued in the early postwar years. During the Greek Civil War there was much conflict between Greece and Yugoslavia over Macedonia, and the breach between Yugoslavia and Bulgaria after 1948 helped to make the Macedonian question explosive. However, with the settlement of the civil war and with the easing of Yugoslav-Bulgarian relations after 1962, tension over Macedonia was reduced. In 1990, Yugoslav Macedonia elected its first non-Communist government and the following year the Republic of Macedonia was born.
[edit] Greek Macedonia today
Today Macedonia (Greek: Μακεδονία, Makedonia) is Greece's largest geographical region and it occupies the northern part of the country.
- West Macedonia, occupies the west section of Macedonia including the prefectures of Kastoria, Florina, Kozani and Grevena.
- Central Macedonia, occupies the central section of Macedonia including the prefectures of Thessaloniki, Chalkidiki, Imathia, Pieria, Pella, Kilkis and Serres.
- and East Macedonia and Thrace, occupies the east section of Macedonia (two prefectures of which are in Macedonia and the rest prefectures are in Thrace) including the prefectures of Drama and Kavala.
The geographical region of Macedonia also includes the male-only autonomous monastic republic of Mount Athos.
[edit] See also
- Macedonia
- Macedonians
- Slav Macedonians
- Macedonian Question
- Macedonia (terminology)
- Demographic History of Macedonia
- History of Modern Greece
- History of Independent Bulgaria
- History of the Republic of Macedonia
[edit] References
- H. N. Brailsford (1971). Macedonia: Its Races and Their Future. ISBN.
- H. Lydall (1989). Yugoslavia in Crisis. ISBN.
