Macedonians (, ), also known as Macedonian Greeks, Greek Macedonians or Makedonians, are a regional and historical population group of ethnic Greeks, inhabiting or originating from the Greek region of Macedonia, in Northern Greece. Most Macedonians live in or around the regional capital city of Thessaloniki and other cities and towns in Greek Macedonia, while many have spread across Greece and in the diaspora.
Name
The name Macedonia (, ) comes from the ancient Greek word (). It is commonly explained as having originally meant "a tall one" or "highlander", possibly descriptive of the Makedones. The shorter English name variant Macedon developed in Middle English, based on a borrowing from the French form of the name, Macédoine.Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. 'Macedon'
History
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,Michael Meier-Brügger: Indo-European linguistics. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin and New York 2003, p. 28 (online on Google books): "The Macedonian of the ancient kingdom of northern Greece is probably nothing other than a northern Greek dialect of Doric". 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 which was officially used from the 5th or early 4th century BC, and in the Hellenistic period 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.Donald M. Nicol, The Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261–1453, Cambridge University Press, 1993, p. 12.
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.
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" () is associated with it.
19th century Macedonian rebellions after 1821
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. In the same year the Principality of Bulgaria was established, which along with the Bulgarian Exarchate started to wield on the Slavic-speaking populations of Macedonia, with the foundation of Bulgarian schools and the affiliation of local churches to the Exarchate; Greek, Serbian and Romanian schools were also founded in several parts. After Greece's defeat in the 1897 Greco-Turkish War and 1896–1897 Macedonian rebellion, further Bulgarian involvement was encouraged in Macedonian affairs and their bands invaded the region, terrorizing populations of Greek consciousness.
Macedonian Struggle