History History

The origins ofHomo sapiens on the territory of North Macedonia are badly known. One places them at the end of the paleolithic, towards 20 000 years before our era. But it is undoubtedly older. The country is indeed on the main migration corridor between the Near East and Europe: it was used by modern man from 45,000 BC. Before Homo sapiens, other hominids followed this route through Greece and Bulgaria. Thus, in Bulgaria, the Kozarnika ("goat's shelter") cave delivered the oldest known human fossil in Europe, in a sedimentary layer dated between 1.4 and 1.6 million years. As this site is located about 150 km north of Northern Macedonia, it is easy to imagine that Homo erectus and Homo ergaster were the first "tourists" to visit the country, 1.5 million years before us.

There are several sites that allow one to step back into prehistoric North Macedonia. In the northeast, near Staro Nagoričane, the intriguing rocks of Kokino and Cocev Kamen are among the oldest places occupied by Homo sapiens in the country. Kokino, with traces dating back to the ^19th century BCE, is interesting... but problematic: some local scholars present it as an astronomical observatory. However, this thesis is not supported by any serious international study. In any case, it was during the Neolithic period that sedentary tribes settled permanently on the territory. The oldest human bones date back to 7000 B.C. They were discovered in 2008 in the agglomeration of Skopje. Also on the outskirts of the capital, it is possible to visit the reconstruction of the village of Tumba Madžari (5800-5300 BC). On Lake Ohrid, the lakeside village of " Bay of Bones " is an evocation of the life of fishermen at the end of the Bronze Age.

At the beginning of Antiquity, the current North Macedonia sees arriving various Indo-European people of the close areas: Illyrians, Thracians, Brigians, Aedonians, Peonians, Pelagonians, Dardanians... Illyrians occupy especially the north-western part, along the current Kosovo. The term "Illyrians" is a bit of a catch-all: it groups together various old Balkan peoples of the Adriatic coast, which today are claimed by both the Albanians and the Croats. But most of the territory is marked by the presence of the Peonians who are well established in the Vardar valley. Strongly Hellenized but poorly known, they are of Thracian or Thraco-illyrian origin. In the Iliad, Homer describes them as allies of the Trojans.

After conquering Babylon, the Indus Valley and Egypt, the Persian king Darius launched his armies to attack Europe. From 512 BC, he seized vast territories from the Black Sea to present-day North Macedonia, where the Peonians became his vassals. But his successor Xerxes was finally defeated by the Greeks and the Persians left Europe in 479. That supports the emergence of the kingdom of Macedonia: founded in ^IXe century, this one is of Greek culture and located in the north-western part of current Greece. In 336, Philip II of Macedonia conquers the valley of Vardar and subdues the Peonians. His son Alexander the Great seizes finally all the area until Albania. Important contingents of Peonians and Illyrians take part then at his sides in the conquest of the Persian Empire, from Asia Minor to Egypt and until the valley of Indus.

The vast and ephemeral empire of Alexander the Great broke up after his death in 323 B.C. This benefited the Peonian tribes who organized themselves into a kingdom with Bylazora (Veles) as its capital, then Stobi. But another kingdom emerges in the current Kosovo: that of the Dardanians. This people with vague origins, often considered close to the Illyrians, occupied the region of Skopje and the north of the Vardar valley. The period is marked by regular conflicts between the two kingdoms, but also by cultural exchanges and a strong Hellenization. The contacts are indeed numerous with the kingdom of Macedonia, which always occupies the north of current Greece as well as the southern part of North Macedonia. A turning point takes place in 168 BC with the disappearance of the kingdom of Macedonia following a series of wars against Rome.

Rome takes advantage of its victory against the kingdom of Macedonia to extend to the Danube. In 148 B.C., the current North Macedonia is divided between the provinces of Macedonia (old Macedonian and peonian kingdoms) and of Mésie (Dardanian territories until Serbia). The Romans build the Via Egnatia which connects the Adriatic to the Bosphorus. Along this road were created the cities of Lychnidus (Ohrid) andHeraclea Lyncestis (Bitola), which preserves important ruins and beautiful mosaics. The ancient Peonian capital of Stobi develops strongly: it is today the largest archaeological site of the country. But the main city is then that of Scupi, founded by former legionnaires and which will become later Skopje.

It is during the Roman period, and more particularly during the Pax Romana, in the ^1st and ^2nd centuries, that Christianity takes its rise in the region. In North Macedonia, the local tradition wants that the territory was evangelized very early by one of the apostles of Christ. Towards the year 50 Saint Paul crosses indeed Macedonia. Several texts that appear in the New Testament attest to this: the epistles to the Thessalonians and the Philippians. But these letters are addressed to communities that Paul visited in what is now Greek Macedonia and nothing indicates that the apostle led a mission on the territory of North Macedonia.

What we call today "Byzantines" are in fact Romans. Even before the fall of Rome in 476, the capital was transferred to Byzantium (today Istanbul, Turkey) which took the name of Constantinople in homage to Constantine, the first emperor converted to Christianity in 337. In the^fifth century, the transition from Roman to Byzantine rule was not an event in itself for the contemporaries. If the Byzantines are of Greek and Christian culture, these two aspects were already dominant in all the Eastern part of the Empire. Until its disappearance in 1453, with the capture of Constantinople by the Ottomans, this Eastern Roman Empire will deeply mark the territory of North Macedonia. This one lives under the influence of the second largest city of the Empire, Thessalonica. That is felt in architecture, with the construction of fortresses, churches and monasteries, or in the development of the trade and arts. As for Roman law, it continued and was enriched, especially during the reign of the great emperor Justinian, born in Serbia in 482. On the other hand, this period was not a long quiet river. For eight centuries, Byzantine power was strongly challenged by the Slavs.

From the^5th century onwards, the Balkans were ravaged by the Goths, the Avars and the Huns. If these invaders are only passing, they push before them another people: the Slavs. They settled on the territory of North Macedonia during the ^7th century. These ancestors of the group of population today majority in the country - the Macedonians - are of various origins. One distinguishes in particular the Balto-Slavs, who came from the Baltic and from whom the Serbs are descended, as well as the Bulgarians, who originated in Central Asia and were closer to the Turks. The tribes were organized into sklavinies, autonomous duchies, such as the sklavinie of the Berzites, which covered a large part of the territory from the Ohrid region to the Vardar valley. With the exception of a few groups of Greeks, Aromanians and Illyrians, the ancient populations were assimilated. The Slavic languages and religion imposed themselves, Christianity was in clear retreat and the Byzantines only held certain strongholds.

In 681, the Byzantine Empire recognized for the first time a Slavic state: the Bulgarian Danube Khanate. Established in present-day Romania, this state gradually spread to the territories of Northern Macedonia and Albania. During three centuries, incessant battles opposed Byzantines and Bulgarians. The latter formed the first Bulgarian Empire in 864 and took Skopje as their capital, then Ohrid in 992. In parallel, the Byzantines launched the reconquest. This one is at first religious. The evangelizing saints of Thessalonica Cyril and Methodius succeeded in converting the Bulgarian emperor Boris ^I (852-889) to Christianity. Their disciples, the Bulgarian saints Clement and Naum of Ohrid, continued their work. Thus, at the beginning of the ^tenth century, the great movement of evangelization of the Slavs to Russia started fromOhrid. After a period of peace and the weakening of the Bulgarian Empire, the Byzantine emperor Basil II, known as the Bulgaroctone ("killer of Bulgarians"), crushes the army of the Bulgarian emperor Samuel at the battle of the pass of Kleidion, in current Bulgaria, on July 29, 1014. The territory of North Macedonia returns entirely under Byzantine control during two centuries.

The Byzantine presence in Northern Macedonia was challenged by Slavic revolts, then by four Norman incursions between 1080 and 1108. While the Bulgarian Empire was being reformed, the kingdom of Serbia emerged from 1166 with the Nemanjić dynasty. The most important event was the betrayal of the Venetians and the crusaders: in 1204, they seized Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire temporarily faded away until 1261. Thereafter, it is weakened by the Ottoman push in Asia Minor. In the Balkans, the Nemanjić officially remained the vassals of the Byzantines. However, in 1282, the Serbian king Milutin seized Skopje and soon almost all of geographic Macedonia. On April 16, 1346, his successor Dušan is crowned emperor in the fortress of Skopje: it is then the most powerful sovereign of Europe. But the Serbian Empire disappeared in 1371. The Serbian nobility was massacred during two great Ottoman victories: the battle of Maritsa, in Greece, in 1371, then that of Kosovo Polje, in Kosovo, in 1389. Having become a vassal of the Ottomans, the Serbian prince Marko Mrnjavčević was the last Christian ruler to reign over present-day North Macedonia until 1395. If this period is marked by a strong instability, it is also the richest in terms of heritage for the country: to assert their authority, the Serbian sovereigns built formidable Serbo-Byzantine churches of which magnificent examples remain in Ohrid, in the Skopska Crna Gora massif (near Skopje) or in Staro Nagoričane (near Kumanovo).

For more than five centuries, the Ottoman Empire will leave a deep imprint in Northern Macedonia: Sunni mosques and Sufi tekkés, roads and caravanserais for merchants, baths and fountains or urban centers built on the model of the Persian sharia (commercial and religious complex), of which that of Üsküb/Skopje, known as Stara Čaršija, is the best preserved of the Balkans. The Ottomans are Islamicized Turks from Central Asia who undertook the conquest of the Byzantine Empire from the ^12th century. Organized into an empire by Sultan Osman ^I in 1299, they extended their possessions from Mecca to Sarajevo, even occupying Algeria and Hungary in the ^16th century. Even before seizing Constantinople in 1453, which they made their capital, they penetrated into present-day northern Macedonia around 1350, but their complete control was not exercised until the beginning of the ^15th century. While Turkish and Moslem colonists come to settle, the conversions with Islam touch especially Albanians (resulting from Illyrians and Dardanians) and the Roma (arrived towards ^XIIIe century). Slavic, Greek and Aromanian Christians were discriminated against, particularly in terms of taxation. However, they escaped military service and enjoyed a large degree of autonomy in terms of worship, since the sultans relied on the Greek clergy to supervise them. The Ottomans also ensured the protection of the Jews expelled from Spain in 1492, who were mainly concentrated in Monastir, now Bitola.

If the Ottomans are relatively tolerant, a lack of investment and supervision promotes poverty and insecurity. From the ^16th century onwards, the Balkans fell prey to bands of brigands, the haiduks. On the territory of North Macedonia, a first Slavic insurrection bursts in 1564 in Prilep. During the Austro-Turkish war of 1683-1699, the haiduk Petar Karpoš launched a revolt from the west of present-day Bulgaria, before ending up impaled on the stone bridge of Skopje in 1689. The Greek War of Independence of 1821-1829 marked the beginning of the awakening of nationalisms. The Ottoman Empire tried to keep control by replacing the local pashas (governors) with Turks. This provoked the ire of the Albanians who rose up in Tetovo in 1848. However, the Muslims remained attached to the maintenance of the Empire. Among the Christians, the elite of Byzantine origin and the Greek Orthodox Church enjoyed an enviable situation. Their relations became tense with the Slavic majority, who demanded a Bulgarian clergy. Tensions rose again in 1878, when Bulgaria became almost independent. From then on, two insurrectionary movements were set up. On the one hand, the Bulgarians of geographical Macedonia founded the VMRO (or ORIM, Macedonian Internal Revolutionary Organization) to obtain their attachment to Bulgaria. That results in the great insurrection of Ilinden of August 2, 1903, date today retained like the national festival of the country. On the other hand, the Albanians rose up for more autonomy and against the transfer of Albanian-speaking territories to the newly independent Serbia and Montenegro.

The strong instability within the last Ottoman territories of Europe (Northern Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo and Northern Greece) causes the outbreak of the First Balkan War (October 1912-May 1913): the kingdoms of Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro unite and drive the Ottomans out of almost the entire peninsula (only Eastern Thrace remains Turkish today). The territory of Northern Macedonia went to Bulgaria. But this is disputed by the other regional powers. The short Second Balkan War (June-July 1913) ended in the defeat of Bulgaria. Macedonia, known as "Vardar", came under the control of Serbia. These changes are accompanied by massacres of population, by the departure of Greeks and, especially, of tens of thousands of Turkish and Albanian Moslems who find refuge in current Turkey. The Serbs installed settlers and made the Serbian language compulsory. But this "Serbization" was short-lived. In 1915, one year after the beginning of the First World War, Serbia was invaded, and the Vardar Macedonia passed to Bulgaria supported by Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey. The inhabitants of the territory found themselves enrolled sometimes in the Bulgarian forces, sometimes in the Serbian ranks. The front was set on the current Greek border, held by the French Army of the East and its allies. Finally, in September 1918, the French troops launched a victorious offensive on Skopje, known as the "Üsküb maneuver. This maneuver continued northward and led to the withdrawal of Bulgaria, Turkey and Austria-Hungary from the conflict, before Germany signed the armistice on November 11. The important French military cemeteries of Bitola and Skopje remain from this war.

At the end of the First World War, the Macedonia of Vardar becomes Serbian again and integrates what will become the kingdom of Yugoslavia. The policy of "Serbization" resumed. But within this group, which includes the current territories of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo and North Macedonia, Serbian hegemony is contested. In Vardar Macedonia, the VMRO remains active and continues to demand attachment to Bulgaria. But it is especially in Croatia that the anti-Yugoslav movement is powerful. Croatian extremists managed to instrumentalize a Bulgarian VMRO activist, Vlado Černozemski. He assassinated the Serbian king Alexander ^I of Yugoslavia in Marseille on October 9, 1934. The new king was only 11 years old and the kingdom was destabilized. Yugoslavia was easily invaded by Nazi Germany and its allies in April 1941. The largest part of Vardar Macedonia reverted to Bulgaria and the western portion, mostly populated by Albanians, came under the control of Albania, which was then a protectorate of fascist Italy. The Serbs, the Roma and especially the Jews were targeted. The latter were practically all deported and murdered (about 7,000 dead) in 1943. But the majority of the population was in favor of the occupiers: while Bulgaria launched a campaign of "Bulgarianization," the Albanians enjoyed political autonomy and recognition of their language for the first time. With the exception of a few isolated acts of resistance, the territory largely escaped the war of national liberation launched across Yugoslavia by the communist movement of Tito's partisans. It was not until August 1944 that a "Macedonian" partisan movement was officially formed. The following month, Bulgaria suddenly changed sides in the face of the advance of Soviet troops. While the German army retreated, the partisans supported by the Bulgarians and the Soviets liberated the entire territory in November 1944. In the aftermath, hundreds of collaborators but also partisans considered as probulgar or pro-Albanian were executed.

Even before the complete liberation of the Balkans, Tito founded the "Socialist Republic of Macedonia. In March 1945, it became part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, along with Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia. For the first time, today's North Macedonia has political autonomy, with Skopje as its capital, and its own official language, "Macedonian", created by Prosee linguists on the basis of local dialects. But it is the least developed of the six Yugoslav republics. Only the Serbian province of Kosovo, with a majority of Albanians, is poorer. Tito was suspicious of the Albanians, who had largely supported the Axis forces during the Second World War. He granted them few rights and the city of Tetovo remained an important Albanian nationalist bastion. The city was under the influence of neighboring Kosovo, where a guerrilla war led by former Nazi collaborators continued until the 1960s. To promote the creation of a Slavic "Macedonian" identity, Tito encouraged Muslims (mainly Turks) to emigrate to Turkey. During the terrible Greek civil war (1946-1949), the Yugoslav army supported the Greek communists and fought along the border. At the end of the conflict, about 60,000 Greeks found refuge in the republic. Following the rupture between Stalin and Tito, in 1948, the republic found itself wedged between two pro-Soviet countries, Albania and Bulgaria. Yugoslavia then moved away from the Stalinist model, opting for collectivism and gradually moving closer to the Western camp. Although Tito reigned as a dictator, most freedoms were respected. For example, Yugoslav citizens could travel abroad without restriction. The Federation benefited from large Western loans to develop, which benefited the Republic of Macedonia, which nevertheless remained very focused on agriculture (wine, tobacco, fruit and vegetables...). After the destruction of Skopje by an earthquake in 1963, the capital saw an influx of international aid. It was rebuilt in a "brutalist" style (in raw concrete) under the direction of the Japanese architect Kenzo Tange. Although relations with Athens were normalized, one point of contention remained: the term "Macedonia" was contested by Greece, which saw it as an appropriation of its historical heritage. After Tito's death in 1980, Yugoslavia was in the grip of an economic crisis and a rise in nationalism. During the 1980s, the Albanian independence movement in Kosovo spread to the Tetovo region.

On September 8, 1991, the "Republic of Macedonia" proclaims its independence. Although it managed to escape the conflicts that tore apart the former Yugoslavia, it attracted the wrath of Greece, which was opposed to the use of the name "Macedonia. Athens organized a blockade in 1995, forcing the country to change its flag and preventing it from joining certain international bodies. The young nation is only recognized internationally as the "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" (FYROM). Tensions with Bulgaria are also very high, the neighboring country refuses to recognize the existence of a "Macedonian people": for Sofia, the majority of the Slavic inhabitants of the country are Bulgarians. In short, the "Republic of Macedonia" was born under difficult conditions and its isolation led to an economic crisis. The conflict in Kosovo (1998-1999) caused a massive influx of Albanian refugees and a civil war broke out on 22 January 2001 in the Tetovo region: the Albanian independents of the KLA-M demanded their attachment to Kosovo. The conflict caused between 150 and 250 deaths and ended nine months later with the Ohrid agreements, which recognized more rights for the country's Albanians. However, the "Albanian question" is not settled and frequent incidents occur, such as the 2015 Kumanovo attack, which leaves 18 people dead. Inter-communal tensions also led to an authoritarian and nationalistic drift of the VMRO-DPMNE, the main political party of the Slav Macedonians. For ten years, starting in 2006, Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski ruled the country with an iron fist and formed alliances with Albanian parties against a backdrop of widespread corruption and Turkish and Russian interference. With unemployment at over 30 per cent, he launched the costly "Skopje 2014" project to transform the center of the capital with a multitude of statues and buildings loaded with symbols borrowed from neighbouring countries. Social tensions and institutional blockages are such that the European Union has to intervene to organize a transition. Now on the run and wanted by the courts, Gruevski finally left power in 2016. The social climate quickly calmed down. The year 2019 marks a turning point. On the one hand, Albanians gain new rights and Albanian is recognized as the second official language. On the other, the Prespa agreement signed on December 12, 2019 with Greece finally allows the country to be internationally recognized as "North Macedonia." This paves the way for better regional cooperation, greater political stability and new negotiations to join the EU.