Macedonia

Thus Bitolj, the largest town, had a population of 8o,000 in 1912, which fell to 45,000 in 1914, and was estimated at only 28,000 at the beginning of 1927. The contrast with Greek Mace donia where Salonika has a population of over 350,000, Kavala of over 70,00o, Seres of about 30,000, is striking. The attempts to slavicise the Bulgarian element in Serbian Macedonia has appa rently led to a recrudescence of anti-Serb feeling, but it has to be remembered that Serbia is now merged in the much greater king dom of Yugoslavia, which has serious problems to face else where, and has comparatively little energy to spare for Mace donia. Serbian Macedonia also is of far less importance to Yugo slavia than is Greek Macedonia to the new Greece.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.-Brailsford, Macedonia (1906) ; La Peninsule Balkanique (1918) ; Bouchie de Belle, La Macedoine et les Macedoniens (1922) ; Ancel, Peuples et Nations des Balkans (1926, bibl. French only).

Early History.

(For the history of ancient Macedonia, see MACEDONIAN EMPIRE.) Soon after its conquest by the Romans, Macedonia was constituted a province (146 B.c.) ; on the par tition of the Roman empire, it was assigned to the eastern branch. The original Thraco-Illyrian inhabitants were largely, though not wholly, Latinized or Graecized ; Latin was chiefly spoken in the north, Greek near the coast, where Greek colonies were numerous. Invasions of Goths, Huns, Vandals and Avars, from the 4th cen tury on, left no permanent mark on the country, beyond de vastating it; but the Slays, who entered the Balkans in the 5th and 6th centuries, colonized nearly all Macedonia, a few spots only remaining Greek. It was invaded by the Bulgars under their tsar, Krum (802-814) and became part of the first Bulgarian empire under Symeon (892-927), with the exception of Salonika and the sea-board ; but in 963, on the decay of the Bulgarian empire, the Slays of Macedonia, under the comes Nikola, revolted and made themselves independent. The third ruler of Nikola's dynasty, Tsar Samuel, f ounded a second "Bulgarian" empire, which extended over much of the Balkans with its capital at Prespa ; but on his death, in 1014, Macedonia, which had been partially Bulgarized, came again under Byzantium. Various Asiatic elements were now introduced into the population ; Turk ish immigrants, afterwards known as Vardariotes, the first of their race to appear in Macedonia, had been settled near Salonika in the 9th century; colonies of Petchenegs, Uz and Cumans (all three Turkish tribes of kindred origin) were established in the succeeding centuries. About this period appear the first traces of the Albanians, who were probably descendants of Thracian tribes; and of the Vlachs (q.v.), who are mentioned in the 9th, more frequently the loth century, and in the 12th founded the State of "Great Wallachia" in Thessaly. In 1185 William of Sicily captured and sacked Salonika. After the capture of Con stantinople in 1204, the Latin kingdom of Thessalonica was bestowed on Boniface of Montferrat, who held it until expelled in 1223 by Theodore Angelus, despot of Epirus, who styled him self emperor of Thessalonica, and ruled over almost all Mace donia. He was defeated in 1230 by the Bulgarian tsar, Ivan Asen II. (see AsEN), who reincorporated northern and central Mace donia in the second Bulgarian or Bulgaro-Vlach empire; the re mainder of Macedonia being absorbed in the Nicean (Byzantine) empire in 1246. The power of Bulgaria declined rapidly on the

extinction of the direct line of Asenidae. North-western Mace donia came again under the despotate of Epirus. Meanwhile the Serbian State was growing strong. Stephen Urog II. Milutin took Skoplje, made it his capital, and conquered north-west Mace donia; and Stephen Dugan (1331-55) conquered all Macedonia, except Salonika, with Thessaly, Epirus and parts of Bulgaria. Northern Macedonia was known henceforward as "Old Serbia." Macedonia Under the Turks.—Most of Macedonia came under Turkish rule in 1371; Prilep in 1373, Serres in 1385. After the final defeat of the Balkan Slays at Kossovo, its fate was sealed. Salonika was taken in 1387, and again in 1391-1407. It was finally taken, after a seven years' Venetian occupation, in 1430, and its inhabitants massacred. The towns in the Struma valley were yielded to the Turks by John VII. Palaeologos in 1424. Large tracts of land were distributed among the Ottoman chiefs; a system of feudal tenure was developed by Mohammed II. (1451-81), each fief furnishing a certain number of armed warriors. The Christian peasant owners remained on the lands assigned to the Muslim feudal lords, to whom they paid a tithe. The condition of the subject population was deplorable from the first, and became worse during the period of anarchy which coin cided with the decadence of the central power in the 17th and i8th centuries despite efforts to improve it by the grand viziers Mo hammed and Mustafa Koprillii. The country was policed by the janissaries (q.v.). Numbers of the peasant proprietors were ul timately reduced to serfdom, working as labourers on the farms of the Muslim beys. Towards the end of the i8th century many of the local governors became practically independent ; western Macedonia fell under the sway of Ali Pasha of Iannina ; at Serres, Ismail Bey maintained an army of 10,00o men and exercised a beneficent despotism. The reforms embodied in the Hatt-i Sherif of Gulhane (1839) and in the Hatt-i-humayun (1856), in both of which the perfect equality of races and religions was proclaimed, remained a dead letter ; the first "Law of the Vilayets" (1864), reforming the local administration, brought no relief, while depriving the Christian communities of certain rights which they had hitherto possessed. Under the Turkish sway, the ethnological conditions of Macedonia were still further compli cated. Large colonies of true Turks were settled in it. The Al banians spread eastward and north-eastward and occupied much land in western Macedonia ; the Serb element, which had been strengthened under tsar Dugan, was weakened by the great north ward migrations of 1691 and 1740. The national consciousness of Serbs and Bulgarians alike suffered a heavy blow when the patriarchates of Okhrida and Pet, which had been the chief centres of their intellectuai life, were abolished in 1767 and their dioceses subordinated to the oecumenical patriarch in Constanti nople with the result that the spiritual control of the Christian peoples of the Balkans became vested solely in the Phanariot Greeks. Among other racial elements which now became promi nent in Macedonia should be mentioned the Spaniole Jews of Salonika; while smaller colonies of Armenians, gypsies and Cir cassians were to be found.