North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Europe. It shares borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the north. It constitutes approximately the northern third of the larger geographical region of Macedonia. Skopje, the capital and largest city, is home to a quarter of the country's population of over 1.83 million. The majority of the residents are ethnic Macedonians, a South Slavic people. Albanians form a significant minority at around 25%, followed by Turks, Roma, Serbs, Bosniaks, Aromanians and a few other minorities.
In classical antiquity most of present-day North Macedonia corresponded to the ancient regions of Paeonia and Pelagonia. In the late-6th century BC, most of the area was subjugated by the Persian Empire and then incorporated into the kingdom of Macedonia by the mid-4th century BC. Rome conquered the region by the mid-2nd century BC and made it part of its larger province of Macedonia. The area remained part of the Byzantine Empire but was often raided and settled by Slavic tribes beginning in the 6th century CE. Following centuries of contention between the Byzantine and Bulgarian empires, it became part of the Serbian Empire in the mid-14th century, and then it was part of the Ottoman Empire from the late-14th century until the Balkan Wars (1912-1913), when it came under Serbian rule.
During the First World War, the territory was ruled by Bulgaria. After the end of the war, it returned to Serbian rule as part of the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. During the Second World War, it was again ruled by Bulgaria; and in 1945 it was established as a constituent state of communist Yugoslavia, which it remained until its peaceful secession in 1991. The country became a member of the United Nations (UN) in 1993.
North Macedonia is a member of NATO, the Council of Europe, the World Bank, OSCE, CEFTA, BSEC and the WTO. Since 2005, it has been a candidate for joining the European Union. It is an upper-middle-income country by the World Bank's definitions and has undergone considerable economic reform since its independence in developing an open economy. It is a developing country, ranking 68th on the Human Development Index, with low income inequality. The country provides social security, a universal health care system as well as free primary and secondary education to its citizens.
Etymology
The name derives from the Greek word (),Μακεδονία , Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek–English Lexicon, on PerseusMacedonia , Online Etymology Dictionary a kingdom—and later a region—named after the ancient Macedonians. Their name, (), ultimately derives from the ancient Greek adjective (), meaning 'tall' or 'taper',μακεδνός , Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek–English Lexicon, on Perseus which shares the same root as the adjective (, 'long, tall, high') in ancient Greek.μακρός , Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek–English Lexicon, on Perseus The name is believed to have originally meant either 'highlanders' or 'the tall ones', possibly descriptive of the people.Eugene N. Borza, Makedonika, Regina Books, , p. 114: The "highlanders" or "Makedones" of the mountainous regions of western Macedonia are derived from northwest Greek stock; they were akin both to those who at an earlier time may have migrated south to become the historical "Dorians".Nigel Guy Wilson (2009). Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece, Routledge, p. 439: The latest archaeological findings have confirmed that Macedonia took its name from a tribe of tall, Greek-speaking people, the Makednoi. According to linguist Robert S. P. Beekes, both terms are of pre-Greek substrate origin and cannot be explained in terms of Indo-European morphology. According to linguist Filip De Decker, Beekes's arguments are insufficiently supported.
Apart from the Byzantine theme of Macedonia, the name "Macedonia" was largely forgotten as a geographical denomination through the Byzantine and Ottoman eras but was revived by Bulgarian and Greek nationalist movements from the early 19th century onwards."What is often overlooked is how Bulgarians and Greeks collaborated unknowingly from the middle decades of the 19th century onward in breathing new life into the geographical name Macedonia, which was all but forgotten during the Byzantine and Ottoman periods. In the late Ottoman period, "Macedonia" as such did not exist as an administrative unit in the empire... Greek nationalism, fixated on the continuity between ancient and modern Hellenes, was keen to project the name Macedonia as a way to assert the Greek historical character of the area. In 1845, for instance, the story of Alexander was published in a Slavo-Macedonian dialect scripted in Greek characters... For their part, Bulgarian nationalists readily accepted Macedonia as a regional denomination... Macedonia had become one of the "historic" Bulgarian lands... and "Macedonian Bulgarian" turned into a standard phrase." Dimitar Bechev, Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Macedonia, Scarecrow Press, 2009, , Introduction, p. VII."In the early 19th c. the modern Greeks with their Western-derived obsession with antiquity played a crucial role in reviving the classical name 'Macedonia' in the popular consciousness of the Balkan peoples. For a thousand years before that the name 'Macedonia' had meant different things for Westerners and Balkan Christians: for Westerners it always denoted the territories of the ancient Macedonians, but for the Greeks and all other Balkan Christians the name 'Macedonia' – if at all used – covered the territories of the former Byzantine theme 'Macedonia', situated between Adrianople (Edrine) and the river Nestos (Mesta) in classical and present-day Thrace. The central and northern parts of present-day 'geographic Macedonia' were traditionally called either 'Bulgaria' and 'Lower Moesia', but within a generation after Greek independence (gained in 1830) these names were replaced by 'Macedonia' in the minds of both Greeks and non-Greeks." Drezov K. (1999) Macedonian identity: an overview of the major claims. In: Pettifer J. (eds) The New Macedonian Question. St Antony's Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London, , pp. 50–51."In 1813 Macedonia did not exist. A century later, it had become a hotly contested nationalist cause, a battlefield, and an obsession. What led to this dramatic transformation was modernity: a chilly wind of West European provenance that propelled to the Balkans concepts that few in the region understood, wanted or cared about. Among these, the idea of nationalism was the most potent, and the most lethal. Before the 1850s, Macedonia was a poverty-stricken province of the Ottoman Empire, where an Orthodox Christian and mostly peasant population speaking a variety of Slavonic idioms, Greek, or Vlach, was trying to eke out a modest living, and protect it from rapacious brigands and a decaying Ottoman administrative system. Religion was the only collective identity that most of them could make sense of, for ethnicity and language played little role in shaping their loyalties. But the winds of change quickly gathered momentum, and eventually shattered that multi-ethnic community, producing a 'Greek', or a 'Bulgarian', out of a 'Christian'." D. Livanios' review of Vemund Aarbakke, Ethnic Rivalry and the Quest for Macedonia, 1870–1913 in The Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 83, No. 1 (Jan. 2005), pp. 141–142 It was revived in middle of the century, with the rise of nationalism in the Ottoman Empire.The ancient name 'Macedonia' disappeared during the period of Ottoman rule and was only restored in the nineteenth century originally as geographical term. The Oxford Handbook of the History of Nationalism, John Breuilly, Oxford University Press, 2013, , p. 192."The region was not called "Macedonia" by the Ottomans, and the name "Macedonia" gained currency together with the ascendance of rival nationalism." Collective Memory, National Identity, and Ethnic Conflict: Greece, Bulgaria, and the Macedonian Question, Victor Roudometof, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002, , p. 89."The Greeks were amongst the first to define these lands since the beginning of the 19th century. For educated Greeks, Macedonia was the historical Greek land of kings Philip and Alexander the Great." John S. Koliopoulos, Thanos M. Veremis, Modern Greece: A History since 1821. A New History of Modern Europe, John Wiley & Sons, 2009, , p. 48. In the early 20th century the region was already a national cause, contested among Bulgarian, Greek, and Serbian nationalists. During the interwar period the use of "Macedonia" was prohibited in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia because of 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. "Macedonia" was adopted officially for the first time at the end of the Second World War by the Socialist Republic of Macedonia, which became one of the six constituent countries of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. After the breakup of Yugoslavia, the federal entity declared independence and proclaimed as its official name the "Republic of Macedonia" in 1991.
Following the Prespa Agreement the country changed its name to the "Republic of North Macedonia" in 2019. A non-binding national referendum on the matter passed with 90% approval but did not reach the required 50% turnout amidst a boycott, leaving the final decision with parliament to ratify the result. The vote to amend the constitution and change the name of the country passed on 11 January 2019 in favour of the amendment. Many citizens and local media outlets unofficially refer to the country as "Macedonia".
History
Ancient period
North Macedonia geographically roughly corresponds to the ancient kingdom of Paeonia, which was located immediately north of the ancient kingdom of Macedonia.Strabo, Geography, Book 7, Frg. 4: In early times, the chief town and seat of the Paeonian kings was Bylazora (in modern Sveti Nikole) on the Vardar; later, the seat of the kings was moved to Stobi (near modern Gradsko). Paeonia was inhabited by the Paeonians, whilst the northwest was inhabited by the Illyrian Dardani and the southwest by the Enchelae (also an Illyrian tribe), as well as Pelagones and Lyncestae of Upper Macedonia (generally regarded as Molossian tribes of the northwestern Greek group).The Cambridge Ancient History Volume 3, Part 3: The Expansion of the Greek World, Eighth to Sixth Centuries BC by John Boardman and N. G. L. Hammond, 1982, , p. 284.
In the late 6th century BC, the Achaemenid Persians under Darius the Great conquered Paeonia, incorporating the area within their vast territories. Following their defeat in the Second Persian invasion of Greece in 479 BC, the Persians withdrew from their European territories.
Philip II of Macedon absorbedWarfare in the ancient world: from the Bronze Age to the fall of Rome. By Stefan G. Chrissanthos, p. 75 the regions of Lynkestis, Pelagonia and the southern part of Paeonia (Deuriopus) into the kingdom of Macedon in 356 BC. After the death of Agis, the kingdom of Paeonia became vassal to Philip II in 356 BC. A Paeonian cavalry contingent led by AristonHeckel 2006, p. 246 was attached to Alexander the Great's army. Alexander wished to bestow the hand of his sister Cynane upon Langarus, king of the Agrianians, who had shown himself loyal to Philip II. Scupi and the surrounding area remained part of Dardania.Macedonia yesterday and today Author Giorgio Nurigiani, Publisher Teleurope, 1967 p. 77.