MaCedonia (FYROM)

History

South Slavs moved into the ancient province of Macedonia in the 6th century. The region was continuously contested by Bulgaria, Serbia, and the Byzantine Empire. In 1345, Serbian Emperor Dušan the Mighty proclaimed Skoplje, the largest city in Macedonia, the capital of Serbia.

However, the region was conquered by the Ottoman Turks at the end of the 14th century. The Balkan wars (1912–13) were followed by the division of Macedonia among Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece. Vardar Macedonia became a part of Serbia, known as South Serbia, and after World War I it was incorporated into the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes.

During World War II, Macedonia was divided between Bulgaria and the Italian-sponsored puppet state [Page 662]of “Greater” Albania. After the war, the communist government of Yugoslavia granted federal status to the territory of Macedonia and created a new ethnic Macedonian identity.

Macedonia peacefully seceded from Yugoslavia in 1992, but was soon embroiled in an internal dispute between ethnic Macedonians and ethnic Albanians. Open hostilities between government forces and Albanian insurgents erupted in March–June 2001. A North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) monitoring force, and diplomatic intervention ended hostilities by granting the Albanian minority substantial political, cultural, and territorial autonomy.

Macedonia was the least developed of the Yugoslav republics. Lack of infrastructure; United Nations sanctions on Serbia and Montenegro, Macedonia's largest trading partner; and a Greek economic embargo over a dispute about the country's constitutional name and flag hindered economic growth until 1996. While Gross Domestic Product (GDP) subsequently rose through 2000, economic development was undermined by the ethnic Albanian insurgency of 2001. The economy shrank 4.5 percent and hardly recovered with an estimated rate of 1.3 percent in 2004. The GDP annually per capita is $7,100 (purchasing power parity) and unemployment is 36 percent.

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