Ancient Macedonians Greek populations have inhabited the regions of
Lower and
Upper Macedonia since ancient times. Macedon started as a small kingdom on the periphery of
Classical Greek affairs, which was ruled by the
Argeads from their capital at
Aigai, until it was moved to
Pella by
Archelaus of Macedon. The
rise of Macedon to become the dominant state of the entire
Hellenic world occurred under the reign of
Philip II, who unified most of
Greece into the
League of Corinth under his hegemony. Philip's son,
Alexander the Great, managed in just ten years to
extend his empire over the entire
Persian empire which he toppled, including
Egypt, and towards lands as far east as the fringes of
India in today
Pakistan. Alexander's adoption of the styles of government of the conquered territories was accompanied by the spread of Greek culture and learning through his vast empire. Although
Alexander's empire fractured into multiple
Macedonian Greek dynasties shortly after his
death, his conquests left a lasting legacy, not least in the new
Greek-speaking cities founded across Persian empire's former territories, heralding the
Hellenistic period. In the partition of Alexander's empire among the
Diadochi following the end of the
Argead dynasty,
Macedon first came under the rule of the
Antipatrid dynasty, which was overthrown by the
Antigonid dynasty after only a few years, in 294 BC. Macedon and the rest of the
Hellenistic world came under the rule of Rome after the
Macedonian Wars.
Ancient Macedonian is usually classified as an
ancient Greek dialect of the
Northwestern Doric group in particular, as findings such as
Pella curse tablet indicate, and occasionally as an
Aeolic Greek dialect or a distinct
Hellenic language. It was gradually replaced by
Attic Greek; the latter came in use from the times of
Philip II of Macedon and later evolved into
Koine Greek.
Roman period After
fourth Macedonian War and the
Roman conquest of
Hellenistic Greece, Macedonians were an integral component of the people of the larger
Roman province of Macedonia, with its seat at
Thessalonica.
Byzantine period Later in the
Byzantine Empire (centered in
Constantinople) the region saw also the influx of many ethnicities (
Armenians,
Slavs,
Aromanians etc.) that settled in the
Diocese of Macedonia where
Byzantine Greeks already lived. The region had also since ancient times a significant
Romaniote Jew population. The
theme of Macedonia included only the further
eastern parts of the previous diocese of Macedonia. After the
Fourth Crusade much of
central Macedonia was ruled by a
Latin Crusader state based in
Thessalonica, before being ruled for a while by the Epirote despot
Theodore Komnenos Doukas of the
Empire of Thessalonica. Subsequently it was incorporated into the
Empire of Nicaea and then the restored Byzantine empire under the Palaeologan dynasty. The territory of
western Macedonia was contested between the main powers in the region: the
Byzantine Empire under the Palaiologos dynasty, the
Despotate of Epirus, the
Bulgarian Empire, and the
Serbian Empire. (
Thessalonicensis)
Ottoman period After the
Ottoman conquest and towards the end of the Ottoman era, the term
Macedonia came to signify a region in the north of the Greek peninsula different from the
previous Byzantine theme. In Ottoman
Macedonia,
Greeks,
Aromanians,
Slavs,
Jews,
Albanians and
Turks lived side-by-side but in self-contained communities, while in western Macedonia there were sizable populations of
Greek Muslims such as the
Vallahades. The matter of the multicultural composition of the people of Macedonia came to be known as the
Macedonian Question.
Thessaloniki remained the largest city where the most Macedonians resided.
Contribution to the Greek War of Independence The
Greek War of Independence refers to the efforts of the
Greeks to establish an independent Greek state, at the time that Greece was
part of the Ottoman Empire. The revolution was initially planned and organized through secret organizations, most notable of which the
Filiki Eteria, that operated in Greece and other European regions outside the
Ottoman Empire. Macedonian Greeks were actively involved in those early revolutionary movements; among the first was
Grigorios Zalykis, a writer, who founded the
Hellenoglosso Xenodocheio, a precursor of the Filiki Eteria. Even after the end of the Greek national revolution, there were several revolts in
Macedonia with all of them having as their stated aim the union of the region with the
Kingdom of Greece. in
Athens The Greek revolution in Macedonia started in
Chalkidiki, where the population was almost entirely Greek. On 28 May 1821, Yussuf Bey of Thessaloniki, alarmed by the danger of a general insurrection, demanded hostages from the region. At the time that his troops arrived at
Polygyros, the local insurgents and monks from
Mount Athos rose up and killed the Turkish voivod and his guards, compelling the Ottomans to retire to Thessaloniki. Yussuf Bey took the revenge by beheading a bishop, impaling three dignitaries while in durance and imprisoning a lot of Christians in Thessaloniki. The Ottomans also turned Muslims and Jews against the Greeks, stating that the latter intended to exterminate non-Christian populations. That was the first accomplishment of the Greek side under
Emmanouel Pappas, who had assumed at the time the title of "General of Macedonia"; he managed to capture Chalkidiki and threaten Thessaloniki but, in June, the Greek forces retreated from
Vasilika and were finally superseded. Letters from the period show Pappas either being addressed or signing himself as "Leader and Defender of Macedonia" and is today considered a Greek hero along with the unnamed Macedonians that fought with him. The revolution in Chalkidiki ended on 27 December, with the submission of Mount Athos to the Ottomans. While conflicts endured for some time in Macedonia, such as the one in
Naousa with notable figures being
Anastasios Karatasos,
Aggelis Gatsos and
Zafeirakis Theodosiou, it was the defeat of Pappas that was the turning point in the oppression of the Macedonian revolt in the Greek War of Independence at the time. The
Destruction of Naoussa occurred on 13 April 1822. Following the suppression of the revolution in
Macedonia,
Nikolaos Kasomoulis went to
Thessaly with a band of men from
Siatista, where he joined the forces of
Nikolaos Stournaris and
Georgios Karaiskakis. In 1826, he took part in the
Third Siege of Missolonghi, along with his brothers Dimitrios and Georgios. He composed the written decision for attempting a final sortie, and was responsible for coordinating the actions of the various detachments participating in the sortie. During the sortie, his brother Dimitrios was mortally wounded. During the exit from Messolonghi, the Macedonian Guard consisting of local volunteers from
Samarina, was the vanguard of the besieged, resulting in the most casualties from the Ottomans. The Greek folklore song "Children of Samarina" (Greek: Παιδιά απ'την Σαμαρίνα) is associated with it.
19th century Macedonian rebellions after 1821 ; commander of rebel forces during the 1878 Greek Macedonian rebellion While the revolution led to the establishment of the independent modern Greek state in the south, which earned international recognition in 1832, Greek resistance movements continued to operate in the territories that remained under Ottoman control, including Macedonia as well as
Thessaly,
Epirus and
Crete. Events of the Russo-Turkish
Crimean War in 1854 ignited a new
Macedonian revolt that was spawned in Chalkidiki. One of the prime instigators of the revolt was
Dimitrios Karatasos, son of Anastasios Karatasos, better known as Tsamis Karatasos or Yero Tsamis. The insurrections of the Macedonian Greeks had the support of King
Otto of Greece, who thought that liberation of Macedonia and other parts of Greece was possible, hoping on Russian support. The revolt however failed in its part having deteriorated the Greco-Turkish relations for the years to come. The
1878 Greek Macedonian rebellion was prepared from both the Greek government and the leading Macedonian revolutionaries and took place in southern Macedonia, with large numbers of people from Greek and
Vlach (Aromanian and
Megleno-Romanian) communities taking part.
Macedonian Struggle . , whose family descended from
Vogatsiko,
Kastoria On the eve of the 20th century, Greek Macedonians were a minority population in a number of areas inside the multiethnic region of
Macedonia, more so away from the coast. They lived alongside
Slavic-speaking populations, most of whom had come to be identified as
Bulgarians, while some continued to identify as members of the
Rum millet (being called
Grecomans by the
Bulgarians), as well as other ethnicities such as
Jews,
Turks and
Albanians. However, the Greek speakers were the predominant population in the southern zone of the region which comprised two-thirds of modern
Greek Macedonia. Bulgarian actions to exploit the Bulgarian population of Macedonia with the foundation of the
Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization and the influence of the
Bulgarian Exarchate on the region, led to the
Ilinden Uprising which was shut down by
Ottoman forces; these events provoked
Greece to help the Macedonian supporters of the
Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople to resist both Ottoman and Bulgarian forces, by sending military officers who formed bands made up of Macedonians and other Greek volunteers, something that resulted in the
Macedonian Struggle from 1904 to 1908, which ended with the
Young Turk Revolution. According to the 1904 census, conducted by
Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha for the Ottoman authorities,
Greeks were the predominant population in the vilayets of
Thessaloniki and
Monastir, outnumbered in the
vilayet of Kosovo by the Bulgarians. The Macedonian Greeks fought alongside the regular Greek army during the struggle for Macedonia, with many victims from the local population, to resist the Bulgarian expansionism and
pan-Slavic danger. There are monuments in Macedonia commemorating the
Makedonomachi, the local Macedonian and other Greek fighters, who took part in the wars and died to liberate Macedonia from the Ottoman rule, officially memorialized as heroes. Several of the Macedonian revolutionaries that were instrumental in the war later became politicians of the modern Greek state. The most notable of them were writer and diplomat
Ion Dragoumis and his father
Stephanos Dragoumis, a judge who became
Prime Minister of Greece in 1910. The Dragoumis family, originating from Vogatsiko, in the
Kastoria region, had a long history of participation in the Greek revolutions with Markos Dragoumis being a member of
Filiki Eteria. Heroic stories from the Macedonian struggle were transcribed in many of the novels of Greek writer
Penelope Delta, from narratives collected in 1932–1935 by her secretary Antigone Bellou-Threpsiadi, who was herself a daughter of a Macedonian fighter. Ion Dragoumis also wrote about his personal recollections of the Macedonian struggle in his books.
Balkan Wars, WWI and Population exchanges During the
Balkan Wars,
Thessaloniki became the prize city for the struggling parties, Greece, Bulgaria, and
Serbia. Greece claimed the southern region which corresponded to that of
ancient Macedonia, attributed as part of
Greek history, and had a strong Greek presence. According to the statistics of the
League of Nations in 1926, the Greeks comprised 88.8% of the total population, the
Slavic-speakers 5.1%, while the remainder was mostly made up of Muslims and Jews. In Greek Macedonia, Bulgarian policy was that of extermination or expulsion, aiming to forcibly
Bulgarize as many Greeks as possible and expel or kill the rest. A massive campaign was launched right from the start, which saw all Greek officials (mayors, judges, lawyers and gendarmes) deported. The Bulgarians closed the Greek schools and expelled the teachers, replaced Greek clergymen with priests from Bulgaria, and sharply repressed the use of the
Greek language: the names of towns and places changed to the forms traditional in Bulgarian, , leading member of the
Greek Resistance and
Chairman of the PEEA, addresses the National Council in
Evrytania, May 1944. Large numbers of Greeks were expelled and others were deprived of the right to work by a license system that banned the practice of a trade or profession without permission. Forced labour was introduced, and the authorities confiscated the Greek business property and gave it to Bulgarian colonists. Bulgarian colonists were encouraged to settle in Macedonia by government credits and incentives, including houses and land confiscated from the natives. In this situation, a revolt broke out on 28 September 1941, known as the Drama revolt. It started from the city of
Drama and quickly spread throughout Macedonia. In
Drama,
Doxato,
Khoristi and many other towns and villages clashes broke out with the occupying forces. On 29 September Bulgarian troops moved into Drama and the other rebellious cities to suppress the uprising. They seized all men between 18 and 45, and executed over three thousand people in Drama alone. An estimated fifteen thousand Greeks were killed by the Bulgarian occupational army during the next few weeks and in the countryside entire villages were machine gunned and looted. The
Great Famine that broke up in 1941, that killed hundreds of thousands in the occupied country canceled these plans, leaving the population to endure those conditions for another three years. In May 1943 deportation of Jews from the Bulgarian occupation zone began as well. In the same year the Bulgarian army expanded its zone of control into
Central Macedonia under German supervision, although this area was not formally annexed nor administered by Bulgaria. Two of the leading members of the Greek resistance were Macedonians.
Evripidis Bakirtzis, a veteran of the
Balkan Wars, was commander of Macedonian forces of the
Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS) during the
Axis Occupation of Greece in the period 1941–1944. He became the first president of the
Political Committee of National Liberation — also referred to as the "Mountain Government" — an opposition government separate to the
royal government-in-exile of Greece. Bakirtzis was succeeded by the second president, jurist
Alexandros Svolos (an
Aromanian). It was Svolos who attended the Lebanon conference in 1944 when the organization was dissolved in the wake of the formation of the
national unity government of
Georgios Papandreou, with Svolos later becoming a minister. Later, during the
Greek Civil War, the region of Macedonia suffered a lot due to the battles between the
Hellenic Army and the
Democratic Army. ==Identity==