MACEDONIA

MACEDONIA

Macedonia gained its independence peacefully from Yugoslavia in 1991. Greek objection to Macedonia’s name, insisting it implies territorial pretensions to the northern Greek province of the same name, and democratic backsliding have stalled the country’s movement toward Euro-Atlantic integration. Immediately after Macedonia declared independence, Greece sought to block Macedonian efforts to gain UN membership if the name “Macedonia” was used. Macedonia was eventually admitted to the UN in 1993 as “The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia,” and at the same time it agreed to UN-sponsored negotiations on the name dispute. In 1995, Greece lifted a 20-month trade embargo and the two countries agreed to normalize relations, but the issue of the name remained unresolved and negotiations for a solution are ongoing. 

Since 2004, the US and over 130 other nations have recognized Macedonia by its constitutional name, Republic of Macedonia. Ethnic Albanian grievances over perceived political and economic inequities escalated into an insurgency in 2001 that eventually led to the internationally brokered Ohrid Framework Agreement (OFA), which ended the fighting and established guidelines for constitutional amendments and the creation of new laws that enhanced the rights of minorities. Relations between ethnic Macedonians and ethnic Albanians remain fragile, however.

A nearly three-year political crisis that engulfed Macedonia finally ended in June 2017 following a six-month-long government formation period after a closely contested early legislative election in December 2016. The crisis began after the 2014 legislative and presidential election, and escalated in 2015 when the opposition party began releasing wiretap content that it alleged showed widespread government corruption. Although Macedonia became an EU candidate in 2005, the country still faces challenges, including overcoming the political crisis, fully implementing the OFA, resolving the outstanding name dispute with Greece, improving relations with Bulgaria, halting democratic backsliding, and stimulating economic growth and development.

At the 2008 NATO Summit in Bucharest, Romania, the Allies agreed that Macedonia would be invited to join the Alliance as soon as a mutually acceptable resolution to the name dispute was reached with Greece.

Macedonia

ANCIENT KINGDOM, EUROPE

WRITTEN BY: The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica

Macedonia, ancient kingdom centred on the plain in the northeastern corner of the Greek peninsula, at the head of the Gulf of Thérmai. In the 4th century BCE it achieved hegemony over Greece and conquered lands as far east as the Indus River, establishing a short-lived empire that introduced the Hellenistic Age of ancient Greek civilization.

The cultural links of prehistoric Macedonia were mainly with Greece and Anatolia. A people who called themselves Macedonians are known from about 700 BCE, when they pushed eastward from their home on the Haliacmon (Aliákmon) River under the leadership of King Perdiccas I and his successors. The origin and identity of this people are much debated and are at the centre of a heated modern dispute between those who argue that this people should be considered ethnically Greek and those who argue that they were not Greek or that their origin and identity cannot be determined (see Researcher’s Note: Macedonia: a contested name).

This dispute hinges in part on the question of whether this people spoke a form of Greek before the 5th century BCE; it is known, however, that by the 5th century BCE the Macedonian elite had adopted a form of ancient Greek and had also forged a unified kingdom. Athenian control of the coastal regions forced Macedonian rulers to concentrate on bringing the uplands and plains of Macedonia under their sway—a task finally achieved by their king Amyntas III (reigned c. 393–370/369 BCE).

Two of Amyntas’s sons, Alexander II and Perdiccas III, reigned only briefly. Amyntas’s third son, Philip II, assumed control in the name of Perdiccas’s infant heir, but, having restored order, he made himself king (reigned 359–336) and raised Macedonia to a predominant position in Greece.

Philip’s son Alexander III (Alexander the Great; reigned 336–323) overthrew the Achaemenian (Persian) Empire and expanded Macedonia’s dominion to the Nile and Indus rivers. On Alexander’s death at Babylon his generals divided up the satrapies (provinces) of his empire and used them as bases in a struggle to acquire the whole.

From 321 to 301 warfare was almost continual. Macedonia itself remained the heart of the empire, and its possession (along with the control of Greece) was keenly contested. Antipater (Alexander’s regent in Europe) and his son Cassander managed to retain control of Macedonia and Greece until Cassander’s death (297), which threw Macedonia into civil war. After a six-year rule (294–288) by Demetrius I Poliorcetes, Macedonia again fell into a state of internal confusion, intensified by Galatian marauders from the north. In 277 Antigonus II Gonatas, the capable son of Demetrius, repulsed the Galatians and was hailed as king by the Macedonian army. 

Under him the country achieved a stable monarchy—the Antigonid dynasty, which ruled Macedonia from 277 to 168.

Under Philip V (reigned 221–179) and his son Perseus (reigned 179–168), Macedonia clashed with Rome and lost. (See Macedonian Wars.) Under Roman control Macedonia at first (168–146) formed four independent republics without common bonds. In 146, however, it became a Roman province with the four sections as administrative units. Macedonia remained the bulwark of Greece, and the northern frontiers saw frequent campaigning against neighbouring tribes. Toward 400 CE it was divided into the provinces of Macedonia and Macedonia secunda, within the diocese of Moesia.

https://www.britannica.com/place/Macedonia-ancient-kingdom-Europe

Historia de Macedonia: Diferencias con Grecia
http://www.historyofmacedonia.org/AncientMacedonia/gandeto.html

Antigua Macedonia
http://www.ancientmacedonia.com/PhilipofMacedon.html