Macedonia has a fascinating history with the region producing great generals and centres of religious learning. Despite bloody times and years under communist dictatorship, the region has now become a tranquil and blossoming state. However, as you will learn form reading the history, because the ancient lands do not correspond with the current state, the Republic still does not manage to have a name on which all its neighbours can agree.

Ancient History and the Medieval Period

There will people living n the area which is now Macedonia since ancient times. And the people that lived there were expansionist types, taking the territory of the Paeonians, Thracians, and Illyrians under Philip II of Macedon, (359–336 BC) including areas such as Pelagonia and Southern Paionia – which make up part of modern day Macedonia. It was Philips son however, Alexander the great, that of course is well known in history with his conquests over the region and into Asia Minor. For a while the region was under Roman rule after the Roman general Quintus Caecilius Metellus defeated Andriscus of Macedon (around 146BC) until the subsequent decline and fall of the Empire.

During the sixth century Slavs settled in the area, who later engaged in assaults on the Byzantine Empire to the south, who referred to them as Sklavines. However, reprisals from the empire drove many from the area and captured many more forcing them to fight n the Byzantine army. The Bulgarian empire then co-opted many of the remaining Sklavines into their empire and they disappear from the history books as a separate entity. The Slavic influence was of course strong under the Bulgarian state, and the area became important culturally with Saints Cyril and Methodius creating the first Slavic Glagolitic alphabet and Old Church Slavonic language. The spread of these ideas to what was then Bulgaria, led Ohrid to become a centre for ecclesiastical issues with over 3000 being taught the Glagolitic and Cyrillic ways.

The region became even more important as the cultural centre of the Bulgarian Empire. However after many years of fighting the region then fell under the Byzantine Empire in the eleventh century. Then what is present day Macedonia was then conquered and re-conquered by either the Bulgarians, Serbs or Byzantines.

Ottoman Times and Beyond

The area was under Ottoman rule for nearly 500 years, from when it was conquered in the fifteenth century up until the break-up of the Empire at the turn of the twentieth century. During this time the many Muslim influences which can be seen in present day Republic of Macedonia, left their mark. It was fairly peaceful until the first Balkans war in 1912, when it was taken by Serbia and subsequently annexed. The powers who ruled the world at the time decided that it should stay as part of Serbia following the First World War. It was not recognised as a separate place and was simply known as southern Serbia.

Under the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, after Serbia joined the Croats and Slovenes things did start to change and in 1929 the region was given ‘banovina’ status and so had governing rights as a province. It is this province which makes up the borders of the present day Republic of Macedonia. During the Second World War the country was split along ethnic lines with Albania (under Italian rule) taking the more ethnically Albanian west and the Bulgaria taking the rest of the country. People who did not like the new arrangement were treated very harshly by both sides. And whilst man joined the new Bulgarian army, many others thought against it with the Communists under Josip Broz Tito.

After the War

Tito was of course successful in the end and the Yugoslav Communist Party took control over the region along its pre war borders. Soon after this, the People's Republic of Macedonia was formed within Socialist Yugoslavia, and the region acted as a federal state within the country. This new republic was strongly encouraged by Tito to become a culturally and linguistically independent area. Something which worried the Greeks and the Bulgarians because the historical area of Macedonia was actually based more in these regions than the then (and current) Republic. However no territorial claims were made for the Republic of Macedonia.

The Greeks however, continued to fuel bad relations between the countries after they refused to allow entry back into the country any of the fighters who had taken part in the Greek civil war (1944-1949) and did not consider themselves ethnically Greek. The communist ELAS resistance movement was not even on good terms with those communists across the border in Yugoslavia because of Tito’s refusal to swear allegiance to Stalin.

The End of the Century and Present Times

After the death of Tito the Republic of Yugoslavia started to break up and the people in the region were given a referendum in 1991 asking them "Would you support independent Macedonia with the right to enter future union of sovereign states of Yugoslavia?" They voted yes and became a Republic, but even though some states recognised them, the tension with Greece still existed and they refused to do so. They were further upset at what they saw as the use of a Hellenic name and were also angered by the first flag which Macedonia proposed. In a compromise which has existed to this day he state became officially known as ‘the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’. Many countries simply refer to the state as Macedonia, but not Greece nor some official international bodies.

Partly dating back from the large influx of Albania refugees form Kosovo during the Kosovo War from the previous decade, there were big tensions between ethnic Albanians and Macedonians. This, along with other issues, contributed to the setting up of the National Liberation Army which started fighting in the west of Macedonia in the name of the Albanians. There was a crack down on guerrillas in Kosovo and in the weakened position a ceasefire was negotiated which gave the ethnic Albanians greater rights as well as the permanent end of the war and the giving up of all arms on the side of the guerrillas.

These days the country is on the admissions list for European Union membership, but still has not resolved the dispute over its name with Greece, who want the name sounding more Slavic and to include the name of the capital city, Skopje, which would distance it from Greece. However nether sides have been able to agree so far.