Macedonians ( ) are a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group native to the region of Macedonia in Southeast Europe. They speak Macedonian, a South Slavic language. The large majority of Macedonians identify as Eastern Orthodox Christians, who share a cultural and historical "Orthodox Byzantine–Slavic heritage" with their neighbours. About two-thirds of all ethnic Macedonians live in North Macedonia; there are also communities in a number of other countries.
The concept of a Macedonian ethnicity, distinct from their Orthodox Balkan neighbours, is seen to be a comparatively newly emergent one. The earliest manifestations of an incipient Macedonian identity emerged during the second half of the 19th century among limited circles of Slavic-speaking intellectuals, predominantly outside the region of Macedonia. They arose after the First World War and especially during the 1930s, and thus were consolidated by Communist Yugoslavia's governmental policy after the Second World War.
Following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, the decisive point in the ethnogenesis of the South Slavic ethnic group was the creation of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia after World War II, a state in the framework of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. This was followed by the development of a separate Macedonian language and national literature, and the foundation of a distinct Macedonian Orthodox Church and national historiography. The formation of the ethnic Macedonians as a separate community has been also shaped by population displacementJames Horncastle, The Macedonian Slavs in the Greek Civil War, 1944–1949; Rowman & Littlefield, 2019, , p. 130. as well as by language shift,Stern, Dieter and Christian Voss (eds). 2006. "Towards the peculiarities of language shift in Northern Greece". In: "Marginal Linguistic Identities: Studies in Slavic Contact and Borderland Varieties." Eurolinguistische Arbeiten. Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz Verlag; , pp. 87–101. both the result of the political developments in the region of Macedonia during the 20th century.
History
Ancient period
In antiquity, much of central-northern modern Macedonia (the Vardar basin) corresponded to Paeonia and was inhabited by the Paeonians; North Macedonia geographically roughly corresponds to the ancient kingdom of Paeonia, which was located north of the ancient kingdom of Macedon.Strabo, Geography, Book 7, Frg. 4: Scupi and the surrounding region was part of the kingdom of Dardania. The Pelagonian plain was inhabited by the Pelagones and the Lyncestae, ancient Greek tribes of Upper Macedonia; whilst the western region (Ohrid-Prespa) was inhabited by Illyrian tribes, such as the Enchelae.A J Toynbee. Some Problems of Greek History, pp. 80, 99–103
During the late Classical Period, in 356 BC, the kingdom of Paeonia ruled by Lyppeius, having already developed several sophisticated polis-type settlements and a thriving economy based on mining,The Problem of the Discontinuity in Classical and Hellenistic Eastern Macedonia, Marjan Jovanonv. УДК 904:711.424(497.73) became subject to Philip II of Macedon,Irwin L. Merker, "The Ancient Kingdom of Paionia", Balkan Studies 6 (1965) 35., p. 44: "show that the Paionians had been overthrown and made subject to Philip. This subjection did not mean that Paionia was incorporated into the Macedonian Kingdom" while its southern part formed 'Macedonian Paeonia'.A Companion to Ancient Macedonia. Wiley -Blackwell, 2011. Map 2 In 279 BC, the Celts attacked deep into the south, subduing various local tribes, such as the Dardanians, the Paeonians and the Triballi.
Roman conquest brought with it a significant Romanization of the region. During the Dominate period, 'barbarian' foederati were settled on Macedonian soil at times; such as the Sarmatians settled by Constantine the Great (330s AD)Peter Heather, Goths and Romans 332–489. p. 129 or the 10-year settlement of Alaric I's Goths.Macedonia in Late Antiquity p. 551. In A Companion to Ancient Macedonia. Wiley -Blackwell, 2011
Medieval period
In contrast to 'frontier provinces', the Diocese of Macedonia continued to be a flourishing Christian, Roman province in Late Antiquity and into the Early Middle Ages. Scupi was one of the main centers of Roman Dardania. The Byzantine emperor Justinian the Great was born in Tauresium of Dardania.
Linguistically, the South Slavic languages from which Macedonian developed are thought to have expanded in the region during the post-Roman period, although the exact mechanisms of this linguistic expansion remains a matter of scholarly discussion. Traditional historiography has equated these changes with the commencement of raids and 'invasions' of Sclaveni and Antes from Wallachia and western Ukraine during the 6th and 7th centuries. However, recent anthropological and archaeological perspectives have viewed the appearance of Slavs in Macedonia, and throughout the Balkans in general, as part of a broad and complex process of transformation of the cultural, political and ethnolinguistic Balkan landscape before the collapse of Roman authority. The exact details and chronology of population shifts remain to be determined.T E Gregory, A History of Byzantium. Wiley- Blackwell, 2010. p. 169 What is beyond dispute is that, in contrast to "barbarian" Bulgaria, northern Macedonia remained Roman in its cultural outlook into the 7th century.
Yet at the same time, sources attest numerous Slavic tribes in the environs of Thessalonica and further afield, including the Berziti in Pelagonia.Florin Curta. Were there any Slavs in seventh-century Macedonia? 2013 Apart from Slavs and late Byzantines, Kuber's "Sermesianoi"The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia, Denis Sinor, Cambridge University Press, 1990, , pp. 215–216. – a mix of c. 70,000 Byzantine Greeks predominantly, also Kuber's Bulgars and Pannonian Avars – settled the "Keramissian plain" (Pelagonia) around Bitola in the late 7th century. In English: In the necropolis 'Malaka' in the fortress of Debreshte, near Prilep, graves were dug with findings from the late 7th and early 8th century. They are partially or completely cremated and neither Roman nor Slavic. The graves are probably remains from the Kutrigurs. This Bulgar tribe was led by Kuber... Средновековни градови и тврдини во Македонија. Иван Микулчиќ (Скопје, Македонска цивилизација, 1996) стр. 32–33."The" Other Europe in the Middle Ages: Avars, Bulgars, Khazars and Cumans, East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450 – 1450, Florin Curta, Roman Kovalev, BRILL, 2008, , p. 460.W Pohl. The Avars (History) in Regna and Gentes. The Relationship Between Late Antique and Early Medieval Peoples and Kingdoms in the Transformation of the Roman World. pp. 581, 587 Later pockets of settlers included "Danubian" BulgarsThey spread from the original heartland in north-east Bulgaria to the Drina in the west, and to Macedonia in the south-west.; На целиот тој простор, во маса метални производи (делови од воената опрема, облека и накит), меѓу стандардните форми користени од словенското население, одвреме-навреме се појавуваат специфични предмети врзани за бугарско болјарство како носители на новата државна управа. See: Средновековни градови и тврдини во Македонија. Иван Микулчиќ (Скопје, Македонска цивилизација, 1996) стр. 35; 364–365.Dejan Bulić, The Fortifications of the Late Antiquity and the Early Byzantine Period on the Later Territory of the South-Slavic Principalities, and Their Re-occupation in Tibor Živković et al., The World of the Slavs: Studies of the East, West and South Slavs: Civitas, Oppidas, Villas and Archeological Evidence (7th to 11th Centuries AD) with Srđan Rudić as ed. Istorijski institut, 2013, Belgrade; , pp. 186–187. in the 9th century; Magyars (Vardariotai)Florin Curta. 'The Edinburgh History of the Greeks, C. 500 to 1050: The Early Middle Ages. pp. 259, 281 and Armenians in the 10th–12th centuries,Studies on the Internal Diaspora of the Byzantine Empire edited by Hélène Ahrweiler, Angeliki E. Laiou, p. 58. Many were apparently based in Bitola, Stumnitsa and Moglena Cumans and Pechenegs in the 11th–13th centuries,Cumans and Tatars: Oriental Military in the Pre-Ottoman Balkans, 1185–1365. Istvan Varsary. p. 67 and Saxon miners in the 14th and 15th centuries. Vlachs (Aromanians) and Arbanasi (Albanians) also inhabited this area in the Middle Ages and mingeled with the local Slavic-speakers.Czamanska, Ilona. (2016). Vlachs and Slavs in the Middle Ages and Modern Era. Res Historica. 41. 11. 10.17951/rh.2016.0.11.Гюзелев, Боян. Албанци в Източните Балкани, София 2004, Редактор: Василка Танкова, ИМИР (Международен центур за изследване на малцинствата и културните взаимодействия), , стр. 10-22.
Having previously been Byzantine clients, the Sklaviniae of Macedonia switched their allegiance to the Bulgars with their incorporation into the Bulgarian Empire in the mid-800s. In the 860s, Byzantine missionaries Cyril and Methodius created the Glagolitic alphabet and Slavonic liturgy based on the Slavic dialect around Thessaloniki for a mission to Great Moravia.Francis Dvornik. The Slavs p. 167Ostrogorsky, History of the Byzantine State, p. 310 After the demise of the Great Moravian mission in 886, exiled students of the two apostles brought the Glagolitic alphabet to the Bulgarian Empire, where Boris I of Bulgaria () welcomed them. As part of his efforts to limit Byzantine influence and assert Bulgarian independence, he adopted Christianity as official state religion and Old Church Slavic as official ecclesiastical and state language. He established the Preslav Literary School and Ohrid Literary School, which taught Slavonic liturgy and the Glagolitic and subsequently the Cyrillic alphabet. The success of Boris I's efforts was a major factor in making later the Slavs in Macedonia—and the other Slavs within the First Bulgarian State—adopt the common demonym Bulgarians and transforming the Bulgar state into a Bulgarian state. Subsequently, the literary and ecclesiastical centre in Ohrid became a second cultural capital of medieval Bulgaria.Alexander Schenker. The Dawn of Slavic. pp. 188–190. Schenker argues that Ohrid was 'innovative' and 'native Slavic' whilst Preslav very much relied on Greek modelling.Per Curta, Preslav was the center from which the scriptorial innovation associated with the introduction of Cyrillic spread to other regions of Bulgaria. Florin Curta (2006). Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500–1250. Cambridge University Press. p. 221. . Samuel of Bulgaria ruled from 997 to 1014 and is among the most renowned Bulgarian rulers best known for his military struggle with the Byzantine Empire. A Byzantine province called Bulgaria, with its capital in Skopje, was established after the conquest of Bulgaria in 1018.Byzantine Military Organization on the Danube, 10th-12th Centuries, Alexandru Madgearu, BRILL, 2013, p.63.
In the mid-14th century, most of Macedonia became part of the Serbian Empire. Skopje became the capital of Tsar Stefan Dušan's empire. Following Dušan's death, a weak successor appeared, and power struggles between nobles divided the Balkans once again. These events coincided with the entry of the Ottoman Turks into Europe.
The Kingdom of Prilep was one of the short-lived states that emerged from the collapse of the Serbian Empire in the 14th century, and was seized by the Ottomans at the end of the same century.
Ottoman period