Vardar Macedonia (Macedonian and , Vardarska Makedonija) is a historical term referring to the northern part of the broader region of Macedonia, roughly corresponding to the Republic of North Macedonia. The name derives from the Vardar River and is primarily associated with the period of Serbian (1912–1918) and later Yugoslav rule (1918–1991).
History
Vardar Macedonia refers to the northern part of the broader region of Macedonia, which became part of the Kingdom of Serbia following the Balkan Wars (1912–1913) and was formally assigned to Serbia by the Treaty of Bucharest. It was named after the Vardar River, distinguishing it from Aegean Macedonia in Greece and Pirin Macedonia in Bulgaria.
The region was initially known as Serbian Macedonia () although the use of the name Macedonia was prohibited later in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, due to the implemented policy of Serbianisation of the local Slavic-speakers.Donald Bloxham, The Final Solution: A Genocide, OUP Oxford, 2009, , p. 65.Chris Kostov, Contested Ethnic Identity: The Case of Macedonian Immigrants in Toronto, Peter Lang, 2010, , p. 76. From 1919 to 1922, the area (including parts of today Kosovo and Eastern Serbia) was part of South Serbia (),Victor Roudometof, Collective Memory, National Identity, and Ethnic Conflict: Greece, Bulgaria, and the Macedonian Question, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002, , p. 102.Constantine Panos Danopoulos, Dhirendra K. Vajpeyi, Amir Bar-Or, Civil-military Relations, Nation Building, and National Identity: Comparative Perspectives, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004, , p. 218.Roland Robertson, Victor Roudometof, Nationalism, Globalization, and Orthodoxy: The Social Origins of Ethnic Conflict in the Balkans, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001, , p. 188. In 1929, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was divided into provinces called banovinas. Vardar Macedonia as part of South Serbia then became part of Vardar Banovina.
During World War I it was occupied by Bulgaria as part of the Military Inspection Area of Macedonia. After the war the present-day Strumica and Novo Selo municipalities were broken away from Bulgaria and ceded to Yugoslavia. During the Second World War, Bulgaria established two administrative districts in the region – Bitola and Skopje. In August 1944 the Democratic Federal Macedonia was proclaimed with Vardar Macedonia as part of it. In 1945, it became one of the six constituent countries of SFR Yugoslavia and later was renamed in the People's Republic of Macedonia (1946–1963), and finally to Socialist Republic of Macedonia (1963–1991). Before the independence of the Republic of Macedonia, the region was also called Yugoslav Macedonia.
After the breakup of Yugoslavia, besides North Macedonia, the region also encompasses the Trgovište and Preševo municipalities in Central Serbia,Петър Христов Петров, Македония: история и политическа съдба, том 3, Изд-во "Знание" ООД, 1998, стр. 109. as well as the Elez Han municipality in Kosovo.Стефан Карастоянов, Косово: геополитически анализ, Университетско издателство "Св. Климент Охридски", 2007, , стр. 41.
See also Macedonia (Greece) Geography of North Macedonia Macedonia (terminology) Vardar statistical region Ottoman Vardar Macedonia
References
Further reading Danforth, L.M. (1997). The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World. Princeton University Press. p. 44.