History of the Macedonian People from Ancient times to the Present

After the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699 the frontiers of the Ottoman Empire were retracted as far south as the Sava and Danube Rivers. By this treaty, the Ottoman Empire lost Hungary to the Habsburgs (Austria) and parts of the Ukraine to Russia. The Ottoman Empire began to lose its economic and political independence and became more and more dependent on the rapidly developing western European states.

After annexing Hungary, the Habsburg Empire became ruler of the Catholic part of eastern Europe while the Ottomans ruled the Orthodox part in the Balkans.

The 18th century witnessed renewed conflicts with several new wars breaking out, resulting in more negative consequences for the Macedonian people.

Internally, the Ottoman Empire was plagued with feudal anarchy, perpetrated by the powerful feudal lords. Some were so powerful that they openly defied the central government by not submitting taxes and by using state money to bolster their own private armies and maintain their own independence.

One such feudal lord was Mahmud Pasha Bushatlija who ruled the districts of Ohrid, Debar and Skopje. Another was Ali Pasha Tepelen of Ioannina who held sway over the southwestern districts of Macedonia. Yet another was Abdul Aga Shabanderoglou whose family estates were scattered throughout Dojran and fourteen other kazas. Shabanderoglou defeated Beg Hasan, a Sultan supporter, and took over his estates. With the wealth he accumulated he built an army, attacked and took over the estates of the feudal lords in Petrich, Melnik and Demir Hisar. Eventually however, the central government caught up with Shabanderoglou and destroyed his power base but by then he was an old man.

Ali Aga and Ismail Beg of the Serres district also defied the central government when together they raised a combined army of six thousand Albanian recruits. The Tetovo Pashas took control of the Skopje, Tetovo, Gostivar and Kichevo districts and Keladin Beg took over Ohrid. All of these feudal lords built their military power base with Albanian mercenaries and terrorized the local population in their districts.

Besides the renegade begs, the 18th century also gave rise to a new breed of bandits who found it easier to rob innocent people than to work. At times these groups numbered as high as five hundred roaming the Macedonian countryside, robbing and looting entire villages at a time. Most of these marauding bandits were of Turkish and Albanian extraction. They often collaborated with the defiant feudal lords and corrupt state officials, doing their dirty work. There was one instance in 1709 when Kadizade Mustapha, the Tax Lessee of Prilep, hired a group of these bandits and through sheer terror exerted pressure on the peasants to pay their taxes. On several occasions in 1711, the Deputy Lieutenant Governor and Tax Collector from Ohrid hired a gang of one thousand bandits from Mat and attacked the town of Bitola.

By 1715 banditry had become a reputable profession and, for some, robbing and looting became a way of life. Some of these gangs were even bold enough to attack larger towns like Prilep and Veles. An Albanian gang desecrated the Slepche Monastery and robbed its furnishings and livestock. When complaints from Turkish merchants and businessmen began to arrive, however, the Ottoman State had no choice but to intervene. In 1779 the Bejlerbeg of Rumelia himself took action against Suljo Starova's gang.

At times even the martolozes, who were hired to protect the population, also contributed to the anarchy. Instead of upholding the law, they held up villages, taking food and materials without paying. Some even committed atrocities under the pretext of pursuing outlaws.

One of the more powerful gangs which, among others, employed the services of two hundred ex-martolozes, led by deserter Martolobasha Hibetulah, roamed, looted and pillaged the Lerin, Bitola, Kostur and Voden districts for half a century.

During the Ottoman war with Austria and Russia, which lasted from 1787 to 1792, a new group of bandits, known as the krcali, appeared in Macedonia. The krcali were a large group who used various mountains throughout Macedonia for cover. The krcali were organized in bands of about two thousand. Their ranks consisted of peasants, army deserters and women, people of all faiths and nationalities. They rode on horseback and were extremely mobile. They were known for their surprise attacks and lightening fast ability to loot whole villages and towns. Many districts were devastated by the krcali who were hunted down by the Sultan's army for a decade before they were eradicated.

The greatest victims of this anarchy were the defenseless Christians whose only way of getting justice was to become outlaws. As in the 17th century, outlawry exploded again in the 18th century forcing the Ottoman State into crisis. Unable to deal with outlawry on its own, the central government made it the responsibility of the general population. A special budget was set aside dedicated to the pursuit and extermination of outlaws. The money for this budget was raised from imposing additional taxes on the general population. In 1705 the surrounding villages of the Bitola kaza were taxed 103,800 akcis just for the pursuit of outlaws in their own region. For that period, this was an enormous amount of money.

Unable to stop the outlaws by conventional methods, the Ottoman authorities proposed various different schemes including the idea of employing them as martolozes (protectors) with a regular monthly income. The bands that agreed to the terms were pardoned for their past crimes.

Unable to deal with the outlaws on its own was a clear signal that the Ottoman central government was weakening which prompted a further escalation in anarchic activities.

Attacks on the Macedonian peasant population in both villages and towns were carried out on a regular basis. The pressure of violence caused people to leave the dangerous countryside for the safety of larger towns. Macedonians left their rural homes for the urban setting thus opening up opportunities for foreign influx, mostly Albanians, to fill the void. With more Macedonians flooding the towns the economy began to shift from agriculture to craftsmanship and commerce. Also, coincidental with the movement of people, craftsman trades were gradually set free from small individual commissions for local consumption to the large production of goods for export.

With the majority of the trades operated by Macedonians, leadership in the guilds began to slowly change hands. Macedonian merchants began to venture further out to strengthen their links with the outside world. Ohrid merchants began to trade with those of Port Durazzo thus gaining access to cities in Italy. Also merchants from Kostur opened trade with Venice and Austria. Macedonian trading houses were opened in Solun, Kostur, Bansko, Serres, Voden and Ohrid with bureaus in Bucharest, Timisoara, Budapest, Vienna, Livorno, Venice, Odessa and Moscow.

The Vlach population also contributed to the growth of urban economy in Macedonia. There was a strong influx of Vlachs from Moscopolis into Macedonia, especially into the towns of Krushevo and Bitola. Ali Pasha burned the town of Moscopolis in 1769 forcing a mass exodus. In no time the Vlachs were involved in making crafts and in intensive trading activities.

Christians were allowed to trade with the usual restriction both inside and outside of the Ottoman world but Muslims were prohibited to do so by law. According to Muslim law, ordinary Muslims were not allowed to handle money, speak foreign languages, or venture beyond Islamic held lands. Therefore, a select class of Christians known as Phanariots handled official trade, communication and contact with the outside world.

The Phanariots were a group of wealthy Christians who got their name from the "Phanar" or lighthouse district of Tsari Grad where they lived. After the Sultan installed the Patriarch in Tsari Grad, the Phanar became a thriving community of wealthy and educated Christians. As mentioned earlier, the Sultan placed the Phanariot Patriarch in charge of the Christian Millet because he found him more agreeable than his other (poor) Christian counterparts. The Patriarchy functioned like a state within a state with its own administration and services. Having the Sultan's favour, the Patriarch took the opportunity to expand his dominion over the entire Eastern Christian Church by replacing whatever legitimate bishoprics he could with his own corrupt people. For example, the Old Serbian bishoprics were abolished as punishment for helping the Habsburgs. At about the same time the Macedonian bishopric, including the powerful Ohrid bishopric, was also abolished. After becoming gospodars, the Phanariots replaced all the Romanian bishoprics. As gospodars in Romania, the Phanariots abolished the Church Slavonic (Macedonian) liturgy and replaced Macedonian speaking clergy with Romanians. The Romanians, however, didn't care much for the Phanariots and pursued Romanian ways. Eventually as more and more bishoprics were shut down the Phanariots redefined the old culture, Christian faith and Christian education to suit themselves and their corrupt ways.

The Ottomans trusted the Phanariots well enough to give them a role in the central Ottoman administration. This included the office of the "Dragoman", the head of the Sultan's interpreters' service. Phanariots participated in diplomatic negotiations with outsiders and some even became ambassadors for the Ottoman Empire. Phanariots were put in charge of collecting taxes from the Christian Millet for the Ottomans and whatever they could pilfer from the peasants they kept for themselves. Many scholars believe that Romania's peasants have never suffered more than they did during the Phanariot period. Phanariots also secured food and other services for the Ottoman court.

The Phanariots, through the Dragoman, were largely responsible for providing "all kinds" of information to the outside world about the Ottoman Empire, including their own desires to rule it some day. Some Phanariots were educated abroad in London and Paris and were responsible for bringing information into the Ottoman Empire. Towards the middle of the 18th century, the Phanariot dream was to replace the Ottoman Empire with a Christian Empire like the Russian model. In theory, they wanted to re-create a multi-cultural Pravoslav Empire but with a Patriarch in charge. The Phanariots believed that with Russian or German help it was possible to achieve their goals.

The power and money hungry Phanariots were not content with only running the Ottoman administration but sought to possess all the eparchies of the Pravoslav Churches. Pressured by the Phanariots, the Patriarchate of Tsari Grad began to interfere more and more into the affairs of the various Archbishoprics including the Church of Ohrid. Using his influence with the Sultan, in May 1763, the Patriarch attempted to appoint a man of his choice, the monk Ananias, as head of Ohrid. Ananias, however, was rejected and the Archbishopric elected Arsenius, the Macedonian Metropolitan from Pelagonia. This unfortunately proved disastrous for the Archbishopric. The Patriarch retaliated and by means of bribery and intrigue, with the aid of the Ottoman authorities and his allies among the higher clergy in the Ohrid Church, he gradually did away with the Archbishopric. On January 16, 1767 Arsenius was forced to resign his office voluntarily, recognize the Patriarchate of Tsari Grad and personally request the abolition of the Ohrid Archbishopric. The Sultan issued a decree making the abolition legal and annexing its eparchies to the Patriarchate of Tsari Grad. The Ohrid Eparchy itself was abolished and the town came under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan of Durazzo. Aiming to eradicate every single trace of the once autocephalous Ohrid church, the Patriarchate even changed Ohrid's name to Lychnidos. The local bishops were replaced with Koine speakers throughout Macedonia and new ecclesiastical taxes were introduced.

After the unfortunate loss of the Ohrid Church to the Patriarchate, monasteries were virtually the only cultural centres left in Macedonia. Having a large number of Slavonic (Macedonian) manuscripts in their possession, the monasteries took over the tradition of copying and reproducing liturgical, philosophical, educational and other ecclesiastical documents. Included among the most important of these monasteries were the Lesnovo Monastery near Kratovo, Matejche and St. Prohor Pchinski near Kumanovo, Slepche near Demir Hisar, Treskavets near Prilep, Prechista near Kichevo, John Bigorski near Debar and Polog in the Tikvesh district. The desire to continue in the Macedonian tradition was provided by Sveta Gora (Holy mountain or Mt. Athos) where the Macedonian culture and Slavonic language continued to be cherished and heard in the monasteries of Chilandar, Zograph and Panteleimon.

Among the various documents kept by the clergy in Sveta Gora were monastic records of the names and donations of all visitors to the monasteries. Important documents of Slavonic literacy such as Clement's Charter, the Slepche Letters, the Macedonian Damascene of the 16th century, the Tikvesh Collection of the 16th and 17th centuries and the Treskavets Codicil of the 17th and 18th centuries were also preserved in Sveta Gora.

Monasteries provided shelter for teaching cleric students to read and write in the Macedonian language. During the 17th and more so during the 18th century, Macedonian monks began to open schools in the towns near their churches where they taught basic literacy to willing students. Such schools were operated in Veles, Skopje and Prilep.

Not to be outdone, the Vlachs also opened schools but in the Koine language. Most of the Vlach schools were founded and materially supported by Vlach Metropolitans and by Vlach immigrants in Macedonia. Then around the middle of the 18th century a Koine speaking school was opened in Ohrid and in 1753 Eugene Vulgaris opened his academy at Sveta Gora, which operated for five years and trained about a hundred and fifty pupils from different regions.

New churches, built mostly by villages in Macedonia during Ottoman rule, were far smaller and more modest than those built in the pre-Ottoman period. Architecturally their form was simple, to make them indistinguishable from the houses in the village. A fresco painting hanging on the interior wall and several icons mounted on wooden iconostases were the only things that distinguished churches from houses.

Icon paintings were still painted in the old style but the quality of the work gradually declined. Original works became a rarity and artistic creativity boiled down to nothing more than imitations and copying the great works from previous epochs. The number of painters, journeymen and apprentices also declined and so did their field work.

During the 18th century several painting studios existed, the most significant being located in the Ohrid and Prespa district, the Treskavets and Zrze monasteries in the Prilep district, Slepche, Lesnovo and the Skopje Tsrna Gora.

Some of the works produced during this and earlier periods were of considerable artistic value and of importance to the churches. Examples of these include the paintings in the Church of the Holy Virgin located in a cave at Peshtani. The snake cross in the Church of St. Demetrius in Ohrid was painted at the end of the 15th century. The monk Makarios, from the village of Zrze, painted the icon of the Virgin of Pelagonia in 1422, and the portrait of Kupen, painted in 1607, was in the Church of the Holy Virgin at Slivnitsa Monastery in the village of Slivnitsa in the Prespa district.

The influence of oriental elements in Macedonian woodcarving also increased during the same period. The double braid, carved in shallow and flat carvings, was a pure and exclusive motif right up until the 17th and early 18th centuries when more intricate carvings began to appear. Good examples of shallow carving are the doors of the old monastery, Church of St. John the Baptist at Slepche. Other exceptionally good pieces of woodcarving are the doors of the Treskavets Monastery, probably carved at the end of the 15th century. Shallow woodcarvings can also be found on icon frames from the same period. The most interesting is that of the baptism of Christ found in the Church of the Holy Virgin at the Slivnitsa Monastery.

Deep incisions began to appear at the close of the 17th century, showing superior beauty in contrast to the shallow carvings. Good examples of deep carvings are the iconostases of St. Naum Church near Lake Ohrid (1711) and St. Demetrius Church in Bitola (1775).

On the subject of music, the necessary conditions for the development of professional music in Macedonia were not quite there during the Ottoman era. Folk music, however, flourished and was very popular with the Macedonian people, not only for their entertaining qualities but also for their manifestations of soul, spirit, joy, suffering and pain. Most composers, unfortunately, chose to remain anonymous and cannot be credited for their work. Apart from church music, which continued to be sung in the Pravoslav chant style, folk music dominated Macedonian melodies virtually up until the end of the 19th century.

Apart from being conquerors and tyrants the Ottomans also had positive qualities. Turkish literature in Macedonia started as far back as the second half of the 15th century. Skopje, Enidzhe Vardar, and Endrene (Adrianople) were the largest Turkish cultural centres in the European part of the Ottoman State. Literature and poetry were the most valued and cherished aspects of Turkish culture which flourished during the 15th and 16th centuries but began to decline in the second half of the 17th century. There was not a single town in Macedonia that did not produce a literary name of distinction. The earliest literary works can be traced back to the time of Sultan Bajazit II's rule which lasted from 1481 to1512. Included among the literary artists are Ataj Oskubi, Zari, Feridi and Hakki, all of whom were from Skopje. Also from Skopje were the poets Muhiddi, Riyazi, Isaak Celebi and Valaahi. The best known among them and indeed of all the medieval Turkish poets was Isaak Celebi from Skopje. After completing his education, Celebi became a teacher in Isaak Beg's Medresa in Skopje. Celebi also authored a collection of poems including the poem about the town of Skopje.

Many of the most famous personalities throughout the cultural history of the Ottoman Empire were teachers and judges who worked and lived in Macedonia. Taskopruluzade who justifiably qualifies to be called an Ottoman encyclopedic, was a lecturer at Isaak Beg's Medresa in Skopje in 1529. Isaak Celebi, a very important figure in the history of medieval Turkish literature, died in Skopje where he worked a judge. The poet and scholar Vejsi Effendi, another great medieval Turkish prose writer, was a judge for seven terms in Skopje, where he died. Islamic culture left obvious and lasting traces of art and architecture in Macedonia, some of which have survived to this day.

Wherever a sizable Muslim population lived in Macedonia, it left its mark in the form of Islamic temples, either as mosques or as mescids (smaller mosques). Among the oldest and most beautiful of these structures are Isaac Beg's mosques. The first, known as the Alaca or Painted Mosque, was built in 1438. The second, built during the second half of the 15th century, stands to this day as the ornament of old Skopje. Several mosques were built in Bitola, among them the Jahdar Kadi Mosque, designed by the eminent Ottoman architect Koca Sinan and built in 1561/2. Another richly decorated mosque was the Painted Mosque of Tetovo, built during the 17th century.

Another form of Ottoman artistic expression was mausoleums, which also left their mark in Macedonia. Distinguished Ottomans were buried in mausoleums. One of the oldest that has been preserved is the mausoleum at Isaac Beg's mosque in Skopje.

Another group of Muslims who left their mark on Macedonian soil were the Dervishes. Wherever dervishes were found, so were their convents and hermitages. In Serres alone there were seven hermitages built by the first half of the 16th century. In Skopje in 1660 there were twenty dervish convents, among them, and most outstanding, was the Sultan Emir Convent. The largest complex of ancillary buildings and most impressive was Arabatibaba's Convent in Tetovo.

More forms of Ottoman architectural expressions in Macedonia were the medresas, or religious schools which occupied a place of distinction among Macedonia's urban panorama. Isaac Beg built one of the first significant medresas in Skopje in 1445. Other prominent Ottoman buildings included large numbers of imarets, or free kitchens for the poor and travelers. Medresas and imarets usually existed as ancillary buildings in complexes among the larger mosques.

The Ottomans also owned numerous inns and caravanserais, which were built in the more important urban and commercial centres at various intervals along the main traffic routes in Macedonia. One of the finest was the Kurshumli Caravanserai in Skopje.

Covered markets or bezsnes were also popular in Macedonia, built to meet the needs of growing commerce in the various towns. One such place was the Mustapha Pasha covered marketplace in Skopje.

We must not forget the famous hamams or Turkish public baths which were offered to the public both in towns and in villages. Some, like the Daut Pasha Baths and the Cift Baths in Skopje, were immensely large and beautiful structures. Also of importance were the public systems of piped water, drinking fountains and wells.

Turkish educational institutions, which were emphatically religious in nature, in addition to teaching religion, offered students the opportunity to study Oriental languages, Islamic law, philosophy and mathematics. Education was conducted in the medresas (religious high schools) and the mektebs (religious elementary schools). By the 15th century two medresas were operating in Skopje. One of them, the Isaac Beg Medresa, was one of the oldest and most famous in the entire Balkans . Books were also important in the cultural life of the Islamic world. Oriental libraries, consisting mostly of religious books, were set up throughout the mosques, medresas and convents all over Macedonia. The oldest, richest and most important of these libraries was the library in Isaac Beg's mosque in Skopje.

Besides the Turks, the Albanians in Macedonia also possessed a rich culture. Life experiences were preserved in calendar songs, cradle songs, wedding and love songs. Some of the oldest and richest epics still exist in the Debar and Kichevo regions and are part of the Albanian mythological heritage. Albanian literature was also rich in folk tales.

Albanian architecture found its expression in religious buildings, churches and mosques, which closely resembled Pravoslav and Islamic structures. Albanian Christian churches existed on masse until the 17th century when most of the Albanian population converted to Islam. After that many were destroyed along with adjacent Christian graveyards.

Albanian houses were not much different from Macedonian houses. Typical Albanian style houses could be found in the Debar and Kichevo regions. Macedonian builders from Dolna Reka probably built them.

With regards to dress, Albanian women wore clothes exceptionally rich in colour with a unique dress design. One could tell which village a woman belonged to by the colours and patterns on her dress. Men's clothing was fairly standard throughout Macedonia.

Unlike Muslim Turks and Albanians, who were free to enjoy their cultures, Christian Macedonians found the Turkish yoke increasingly unbearable, particularly from the Turkish troops who enjoyed abusing, humiliating and harassing them. With bases in Tsari Grad and Solun, troops constantly passed through Macedonia on their way to and from wars. Dissatisfied with their own condition, the soldiers often took their frustration out on the Macedonian population.

There were always Turkish soldiers in Solun so in spite of harsh living conditions no Solunian dared cause trouble unless living conditions became unbearable. In 1712 a plague broke out as a result of poor living conditions and by 1713 over 8,000 people had lost their lives. In 1720 the people of Solun had just about had enough of Turkish rule and took up arms when their wheat supplies were cut and there was no bread to eat. The same happened in 1753, 1758 and again in1789. According to descriptions of 18th century Solun, the city had not grown beyond the confines of the Pravoslav walls, parts of which still remained in good condition.

Solun had four big towers, three of which were rectangular and one circular, (the White Tower still exists to this day) located at the southern part of the fortified walls.

The population of 18th century Solun numbered approximately 40,000 people, most of whom were Turks and Jews. The streets in the commercial district were covered over with boards forming a continuous roof which provided shade for the shoppers during the hot summer days.

On the international stage, the military balance continued to shift away from the Ottomans as they continued to lose their edge in technology and modern weaponry. While western economies continued to improve, Ottoman economic development remained stagnant. A century of military defeats suffered at the hands of the western Europeans devastated the Ottoman Empire. More recently, the emergence of Russia as another powerful Ottoman foe also added to the Ottoman misery.

Ottoman-Russian wars began as early as 1677. Russia attacked the Crimea in 1689 and in 1695 captured the crucial port of Azov. Russia, up to this point, had been completely cut off from the Black Sea and had suffered immensely both economically and politically at the hands of the Ottomans.

Faced with multiple fronts, the Ottoman Empire began to shrink and for the first time since its invasions of Europe it began to permanently lose conquered lands. By the year 1700 the Sultan had surrendered almost all of Hungary, as well as Transylvania, Croatia and Slovenia to the Habsburgs while yielding Dalmatia, the Morea, and some Aegean islands to Venice and Padolia and the South Ukraine to Poland. Russia had gained some territories north of the Dniester River, lost them for a while and regained them again later.

Another minor but crucial event for the south Balkans took place in 1711 when one of the Moldavian gospodars (prince) was accused of collaborating with the Russian army and was held responsible for the Russian invasion of Romania. As punishment the Ottomans replaced all Romanian and Moldavian gospodars with Phanariots from Tsari Grad.

Ottoman losses were not limited to Europe alone. On the eastern front, in a series of unsuccessful wars between 1723 and 1736, the Turks lost Azerbaijan and other lands to the Persians. A decade later in 1746, after two centuries of war, the Ottomans abandoned the conflict with Iran leaving their Iranian rivals to face political anarchy.

The agreement signed at Kuchuk Kainarji in 1774 with the Russian Romanovs, similar to the 1699 Karlowitz treaty with Austria, highlights the extent of the losses suffered by the Ottomans during the 18th century. The 1768 to 1774 war, the first with Tsaritsa Catherine the Great, included the annihilation of the Ottoman fleet in the Aegean near Chezme. Russian ships sailed from the Baltic Sea through Gibraltar, across the Mediterranean Sea and sank the Ottoman fleet in its home base. By this victorious engagement Russia forced the Sultan to break ties with the Crimean Khan. Without the Sultan's protection, the Khans were left at Russia's mercy. In a sense, the Sultan too lost out because he could no longer count on the Khans for help.

The 1774 Kuchuk Kainarji Treaty gave Russian ships access to the Black Sea, the Bosphorus, and Endrene (the Dardanelles). By this treaty Russia built an Orthodox church in Tsari Grad and became the self appointed "protector of Orthodox Christians" inside the Ottoman domain including Wallachia (Romania) and Moldavia. Also, for the first time, the Ottomans allowed Russian (outside) consular agents inside their empire. Russia at the time did not have enough ships to fill the shipping demands so many of the shipping contracts went to Phanariot captains who were on friendly terms with both the Russians and Ottomans.

Russian gains at the expense of the Ottoman's began to raise suspicions with western States, particularly since Russia appointed herself protector of all Pravoslav Christians.

The next event to shake the world was the French revolution and Napoleon Bonaparte's rise to power. Bonaparte invaded Egypt in 1798 which marked the end of Ottoman dominion in this vital and rich province along the Nile. The Ottoman central government never regained Egypt, which later emerged as a separate state under Muhammad Ali Pasha and his descendants. After Ali's death his successors kept close ties with the Ottomans in Tsari Grad but remained independent.

Among the many losses the Ottomans experienced also came some gains. In the 1714 to 1718 war with Venice the Turks took back the Morea.

Towards the end of the 18th century and in the early part of the 19th century, Macedonia, like other parts of European Turkey, was a hotbed of unrest. Trouble was stirred up by the military deserters and by local feudal lords who, in the absence of the Ottoman military, had declared themselves independent and were fighting with one another for greater dominion. Ismail Beg of Serres, Ali Pasha of Ioannina, the Debar Pashas, Recep Pasha of the Skopje Pashalik and Celadin Beg in the Ohrid and Prespa district were but a few who had gained notoriety in this way.

The political and economic insecurity created by this anarchy and by the central government's inability to cope, forced another large migration of Macedonians from the villages into the towns. The sudden growth in the urban population caused an increase in the production of crafts and agricultural products, which became trading commodities for the central European and Russian markets. The fairs in Serres, Prilep, Doyran, Struga, Enidzhe Vardar, Petrich and Nevrokop became commercial trading posts for both domestic and foreign trade. The newly created market network enabled Macedonian businessmen to develop trading ties with the outside world. Businessmen from Veles, Bitola, Serres, Bansko and Ohrid set up their own agencies in Vienna, Leipzig, Trieste and Belgrade. Along with trade also came prosperity and exposure to the outside world. Macedonian merchants became the bearers of progressive ideas, education, culture and Macedonian national sentiment.

To be continued...

And now I leave you with this...

Did you know that the word Morea (Peloponnisos) is a Macedonian word meaning seas (large bodies of water)?

How do you suppose the Greeks gave their Greek heartland, the Peloponnisos, a name like Morea?

Like every other part of Greece, the Slavs overran the Peloponnisos and it was the Slavs who settled there that named the region Morea, because it was surrounded by seas.

Did you ever wonder what happened to the Slavs of Morea?

The Slavs of Morea, along with all other Slavs, Albanians, Vlachs, Turks and Romas who lived south of Olympus, were turned into Greeks during the 19th century. Few generations later, the decedents of these "created Greeks" are now claiming to be the descendents of the ancient Greeks. Don't they know their own history?

You can live your fantasy believing that you are true Greeks, and in some mysterious way connected to the ancient Greeks, but in reality you are not. You can change your names and speak your fake language but deep inside you are what you despise the most, Slavs. Yes, Slav blood flows in your veins and that my Greek friends is reality. So the next time you feel like insulting a Macedonian by calling him or her a Slav take a good look in the mirror, a Slav could be staring back at you. If you don't believe me then do your own research. I guarantee that you will reach the same inevitable conclusion. Macedonians and Greeks have more in common than they have in differences. Isn't it time that you treat us with some respect?

References:

Donald Quataert, The Ottoman Empire, 1700-1922, Binghamton University, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Colin Imber, The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650 The Structure of Power, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.

The University of "Cyril and Methodius", Documents on the Struggle of the Macedonian People for Independence and a Nation-State, Volume One, Skopje, 1985.

John Shea, Macedonia and Greece The Struggle to Define a New Balkan Nation, North Carolina: McFarland, 1997.

Alexandar Donski, The Descendants of Alexander the Great of Macedon The Arguments and Evidence that Today's Macedonians are Descendants of the Ancient Macedonians (Part One - Folklore Elements), Shtip/Sydney - 2004.

A History of the Macedonian People, Institute of National History, Macedonian Review, 1979, Skopje.

Apostolos Papagiannopoulos, Monuments of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki: John Rekos & Co., 1980.

Vasil Bogov, Macedonian Revelation, Historical Documents Rock and Shatter Modern Political Ideology, Western Australia, 1998.

A. Michael Radin, IMRO and the Macedonian Question, Skopje: Kultura, 1993.

H.G. Wells, The Outline of History, New York: Garden City Books, 1961.

L. Sprague De Camp, The Ancient Engineers, New York: Ballantine Books, 1963.

You can contact the author at rstefov@hotmail.com