Today, the famous place of Macedonia in the Bible is a state in southeastern Europe. And is located in the Balkan Peninsula and bordered to the north by Kosovo, northeast by Serbia, and east by Bulgaria. To the south by Greece and the southwest and west by Albania.

The geographical sides of Macedonia in the Bible can be seen as largely mountainous. Open by a few basins and valleys (including the Vardar). The country combines livestock and crops (sometimes from irrigation and a locally Mediterranean climate). At last, some extractive activities (lead, zinc). Nowadays, Skopje concentrates about one-fifth of the population, with a notable minority of ethnic Albanians (nearly 25%) located in the western part.

Slavic Macedonia in the Bible

Unlike previous barbarian incursions, the Slavs profoundly changed the rural population by settling permanently in the 6th – 7th century. Their conversion to Christianity was promoted by Saints Cyril and Methodius, natives of Thessaloniki, who translated the sacred texts into the local dialect (Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets). Their disciples, saints Clement and Naoum, made Ohrid an essential center of Slavic culture. The seat of an autocephalous archbishopric (^11th – 18th century ). 

The Slavs of Macedonia in the Bible live under the authority of Byzantium or the Bulgarian kingdoms. Under King Samuel (976-1014), Ohrid was the capital of an empire, soon eradicated by the Byzantine reconquest. Under Serbian domination in the middle of the 14th  century, the Ottoman Turks conquered Macedonia in the Bible after the Battle of Marica (1371). Staying away from military clashes (except in 1689), it shared the fate of the Ottoman Empire’s Balkan provinces.

National struggles in Macedonia

In the 19th century, this poor and isolated province of the Ottoman Empire would become the focus of rivalries between emerging Balkan nationalisms. The population is very mixed, and the statistical evaluations diverge. We can admit that the Orthodox Slavs constitute a small majority, the Muslims (Turks, Albanians, Slavophones, and Greek speakers), about a third, the rest being divided between Greeks and Orthodox Aromanians, Jews, Gypsies, etc.

The national awakening of the Macedonian Slavs first follows the Bulgarian awakening. Therefore, he rejects the influence of Greek worship in churches and schools. After that, after the creation of the Bulgarian Exarchate (1870), the Macedonians (labeled “Bulgarians”) were opposed to the patriarchists (labeled “Greeks”). Indeed, after the creation of the Bulgarian State (1878), a new cleavage appeared between the partisans of joint action, directed from Sofia, and those who advocated an autonomous action by emphasizing more and more Macedonian specificity.

The latter founded, in 1893, the Macedonian Interior Revolutionary Organization (VMRO), which developed a robust, clandestine network. The Ilinden uprising (1903) was bloodily suppressed. L’ inability of the great powers to propose practical solutions (Mürzsteg program, 1903). Rival propaganda emanating from the Balkan capitals and, above all, the escalation of violence (to the rival Macedonian armed bands have added the Greek, Serbian, Albanian, and even Romanians) plunged the region into deep chaos. After a brief respite, the “Young Turk” revolution (1908) introduced a new political factor: Yet, Turkish nationalism broke with Ottoman imperial ideology.

Macedonia’s accession to independence

Having greatly benefited from the Titoist regime, Macedonia, from biblical times, participates little in its questioning. It only proceeded to pluralist elections in November-December 1990. These needed to allow a clear majority to be obtained. And coalition governments with social-democratic tendencies followed one another (Nikola Kljušev [1991-1992], Branko Crvenkovski [1992-1998]). In January 1991, Parliament elected the Communist Kiro Gligorov President of the Republic (he was re-elected by universal suffrage in October 1994).

The rise of centralizing intransigence in Serbia, the proclamations of Slovenian and Croatian independence (June 25, 1991), and the war which settled in Croatia precipitated the independence option. After a referendum (8 September), independence was proclaimed on 17 September 1991. During the winter of 1991-1992, the federal army withdrew from Macedonian territory. The country emerges unscathed from the Yugoslav dislocation.

Map Representation of Macedonia in the Bible

How did Macedonia get independence?

Macedonia, in the Bible, declared independence in September 1991, after which the Yugoslav army peacefully withdrew. So, after independence, a dispute broke out between Greece and Macedonia during biblical times. Over the official name of the Macedonian state. Today, Greece disagrees with the word “Macedonia.” Since Macedonia in the Bible is part of Greek history and was not inhabited by Slavs at the time. For this reason, in 2008, Greece also blocked Macedonia’s intended admission to NATO. Because of this Greek blockade policy, Macedonia in the Bible is still officially called the “former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.”

Since independence, the country’s political situation, like Macedonia’s party landscape, has been characterized by the polarity between ethnic Macedonians and the Albanian minority. Besides these details, the conservative VMRO-DPMNE and the social-democratic SDSM are the dominant parties of the Macedonian ethnic group. Within the Albanian ethnic group, several parties are competing, among which the “Democratic Union for Integration” (BDI) has a prominent position. The Head of government since 2008 is Nikola Gruevski from the VMRO-DPMNE. Who is in coalition with the BDI and a minor party? Gruevski pursued a strongly market-oriented policy (including introducing a “flat tax”). And also advocated a strengthening of Macedonian identity in cultural policy.

Conclusion

Macedonia in the Bible is located on nowadays’ North Macedonia, in the southern Balkan Peninsula. Also, the country borders Serbia to the north, Kosovo to the northwest, Bulgaria to the east, Greece to the south, and Albania to the west. North Macedonia, in the Bible, does not have access to the sea. It is boiling in summer and cold and humid in winter. Greek-influenced ancient Macedonia reached its greatest extent under Alexander the Great and went as far as the Indus. The Slavic conquest permanently influenced the ethnic structure of the region in the 6th century. 

Today, the Macedonians are considered a South Slavic ethnic group close to the Bulgarians. Initially, under Bulgarian and Byzantine rule, Macedonia in the Bible was finally incorporated into the Turkish-Ottoman sphere of influence in the 14th century. The three-part division of the area today goes back to the demarcation of the border after the Balkan Wars of 1912/1913. Serbia, Greece, and Bulgaria made territorial claims on Macedonia, each annexing a part of Macedonian territory to their state.

Also, after the First World War, Serbian Macedonia was incorporated into the “Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes.” Accordingly to historians, after World War II, it became a constituent republic in Yugoslavia’s People’s Socialist Republic.