Conquests In the
Battle of Maritsa of 1371, the King of
Lordship of Prilep Vukašin Mrnjavčević and his brother
Jovan Uglješa led 70,000 men against the
Ottomans. Despite having smaller numbers, the Ottomans managed to kill Vukašin and his brother and win the
Battle of Maritsa. After the battle, most of Serbia broke into smaller principalities. One of those principalities is known as the
Kingdom of Prilep, led by Vukašin's son
Marko. Like most regional rulers in the Macedonian region, Marko accepted
vassalage under
Sultan Murad I to preserve his position. The
Battle of Kosovo of 1389 sealed the fate of the region of Macedonia for the next 500 years. While both armies lost leaders and large numbers of soldiers, the Ottomans could easily assemble another army just as large while the locals could not. Marko died alongside
Konstantin Dragaš at the
Battle of Rovine in 1395 and the territory of his realm became the
Sanjak of Ohrid. All of Vardar Macedonia was under Ottoman control by the early 15th century, with Skopje falling under Turkish rule on January 19, 1392. Aside from conflict with
Skanderbeg's forces, in which areas of western part of the region of Macedonia became a battleground of
Ottoman–Albanian war for more than 20 years (1444–1467), the Ottoman Empire ultimately succeeded in taking the region, incorporating it into Rumelia Eyalet.
Rumelia Eyalet From its foundation, the province of Rumelia encompassed the entirety of the Ottoman Empire's European possessions. The first capital of Rumelia was probably
Edirne (Adrianople), which was also, until the
Fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Ottomans' capital city. In the 18th century, Monastir (present day
Bitola) emerged as an alternate residence of the governor, and in 1836, it officially became the capital of the
eyalet. At about the same time, the
Tanzimat reforms, aimed at modernizing the Empire, split off the new
eyalets of
Üsküb,
Yanya and
Selanik and reduced the Rumelia Eyalet to a few provinces around Monastir. The rump
eyalet survived until 1867, when, as part of the transition to the more uniform
vilayet system, it became part of the
Salonica Vilayet. The reduced Rumelia Eyalet, centred at Manastir, encompassed also the
sanjaks of Iskenderiyye (Scutari), Ohri (Ohrid) and Kesrye (Kastoria). In 1855, according to the French traveller A. Viquesnel, it comprised the
sanjaks of Iskenderiyye, with 7
kazas or sub-provinces, Ohri with 8
kazas, Kesrye with 8
kazas and the
pasha-sanjak of Manastir with 11
kazas.
Vilayets After administrative reform in 1860s, the Ottoman Empire was divided into
vilayets which were subdivided into
sanjaks.
Kosovo Vilayet The northern part of the Macedonian region was included in the
Kosovo Vilayet. Sanjaks located in this vilayet that contained territory now within the Republic of North Macedonia were: •
Sanjak of Üsküp, which included the kazas of
Üsküp (Skopje),
Kumanova (Kumanovo),
İştip (Štip),
Karatova (Kratovo),
Planka (Kriva Palanka),
Radovişte (Radoviš) and
Koçana (Kočani). •
Sanjak of Prizren, which included the kaza of
Kalkandelen (Tetovo).
Monastir Vilayet The southwestern part of the region was located in the
Monastir vilayet. Sanjaks located in this vilayet that contained territory now within the Republic of North Macedonia were: •
Sanjak of Monastir, which included the kazas of
Monastir (Bitola),
Ohri (Ohrid) and
Pirlepe (Prilep) •
Sanjak of Dibra, which included the kazas of Debar and
Kırçova (Kičevo) Salonika Vilayet The southeastern part of the region was located in the
Salonika vilayet. Sanjaks located in this vilayet that contained territory now within the Republic of North Macedonia were: •
Sanjak of Selanik, which included the following kazas:
Tikveş (Kavadarci),
Usturumca (Strumica),
Köprülü (Veles)),
Toyran (Dojran) and
Gevgili (Gevgelija) 1881/82 Ottoman census Ottoman censuses did not count ethnic groups, but rather millets, and increasingly from the 1870s onwards, ethnoconfessional groups. Thus, "Muslims" in the 1881/82 census covered all adherents of Islam, regardless if they were ethnic Turks, Slavs, Albanians, Romani, etc. "Greeks" referred to all Greeks and to any Vlachs, Albanians and Slavs, who considered themselves to be Greek (or Serbian). "Bulgarians" comprised only those (Christian) Slavs who considered themselves Bulgarians. Thus, according to the
Ottoman census of 1881/82, the population of the kazas currently falling within the borders of the Republic of North Macedonia is divided into the following ethnoconfessional groups:
Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars consisted of two wars that occurred in 1912 and 1913. The first began on 8 October 1912 when the nations of the
Balkan League, who had large parts of their ethnic populations under Ottoman rule, attacked the Ottoman Empire. It lasted seven months with the Balkan League nations coming up victorious, ending 500 years of Ottoman rule in the Balkans. ==Vardar Macedonian cities under Ottoman rule==