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Macedonia (Greece)

Largest Greek region, ancient kingdom of Alexander the Great.

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In the southern Balkans, the geographic and former administrative region known as Macedonia (Greece) or Greek Macedonia is situated.[1] As of 2020, this region, which is Greece's largest geographic area and second in population, had 2.36 million residents.[1] Thessaloniki, Katerini, and Kavala are major urban centers located along the southern coastline of this highly mountainous part of Northern Greece.[1]

Last updated 2026-10-05 from the source article.

Geography and history

According to Herodotus, the history of Macedonia began with the tribe of Makednoi migrating to the region from Histiaeotis in the south.[2] Greek Macedonia incorporates most of the territories of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon, ruled by the Argeads, whose most celebrated members were Alexander the Great and his father Philip II.[3] The name Macedonia disappeared as an administrative designation during Ottoman rule and was revived in the nineteenth century as a geographical term.[4] Macedonia continued as an administrative division of Greece until the reform of 1987, when it was split into Western Macedonia and Central Macedonia.[5]

Evidence from the Petralona cave indicates human presence dating to the Palaeolithic period, representing the earliest known habitation signs.[6] Emmanouel Pappas, who coordinated and led the Greek Revolution in Macedonia, is now honored as a Greek national hero.[7] Following the Balkan Wars and the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest, the southern portion of Macedonia was incorporated into the Greek state.[5]

What the cited sources add

The Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa account states that some 25-30,000 children were exiled from northern Greece in the later phase of its 1945-1949 civil war.[8] According to that same account, most of the children were of Macedonian ethnic origin, whereas several thousand were Greek.[8] The account further notes that after the civil war, their Greek citizenship was revoked and their family's properties in Greece were confiscated.[8] The ancient Macedonians gave their name to Macedonia; this name shares a root with the Ancient Greek word μᾰκεδνός, meaning 'tall, slim'.[9]

Robert S. P. Beekes, a linguist, proposes a Pre-Greek substrate origin for both terms, though this view lacks mainstream acceptance.[10] After the Balkan Wars, the label "Aegean Macedonia" emerged, used by Yugoslavs and Bulgarians as an alternative to "Greek Macedonia".[11]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Macedonia (Greece)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Roy E. H. Mellor, Eastern Europe: A Geography of the Comecon Countries, Macmillan International Higher Education, 1975, , p. 62. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Macedonia (Greece)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Herodotus, History, 1.56.3.; Herodotus, History, 8.137 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Macedonia (Greece)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Thomas, "A Companion to Ancient Macedonia", Wiley-Blackwell, 2010, p. 65–80 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Macedonia (Greece)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "What is often overlooked is how Bulgarians and Greeks collaborated unknowingly from the middle decades of the 19th century onward in breathing new life into th; "In the early 19th c. the modern Greeks with their Western-derived obsession with antiquity played a crucial role in reviving the classical name 'Macedonia' in ; "In 1813 Macedonia did not exist. A century later, it had become a hotly contested nationalist cause, a battlefield, and an obsession. What led to this dramatic; The ancient name "Macedonia" disappeared during the p en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Macedonia (Greece)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Π.Δ. 51/87 "Καθορισμός των Περιφερειών της Χώρας για το σχεδιασμό κ.λ.π. της Περιφερειακής Ανάπτυξης" ("Determination of the Regions of the Country for the plan (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Macedonia (Greece)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Perlès, "The Early Neolithic in Greece: The First Farming Communities in Europe", Cambridge University Press, 2001, p. 1; Merceron, "A New Method of Dental Microwear Analysis: Application to Extant Primates and Ouranopithecus macedoniensis (Late Miocene of Greece)", PALAIOS, 2005-12-01, p. 551–561; Milisauskas, S., "European Prehistory: A Survey", Springer, 2011, p. 182 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Macedonia (Greece)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Vakalopoulos, "Emmanouil Papas: Leader and Defender of Macedonia, The History and the Archive of His Family", 1981 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. "Macedonian Refugee Children: Exodus Anniversary", Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa. facts only, no text reused. balcanicaucaso.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Macedonia (Greece)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Liddell, "Μακεδονία", A Greek-English Lexicon; Harper, "Macedonia"; Poulton, "Who are the Macedonians?", Hurst, 1995, p. 44; Harper, "Macedonia" (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Macedonia (Greece)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Beekes, "Etymological Dictionary of Greek", Brill, 2010, p. 894; De Decker, "An Etymological Case Study on the and Vocabulary in Robert Beekes's New Etymological Dictionary of Greek", Studia Linguistica Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis, 2016 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Wikipedia, "Macedonia (Greece)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The Earliest Stage of Language Planning: "The First Congress" Phenomenon", De Gruyter, 2011, p. 160; R. J. Crampton, "The Balkans Since the Second World War", Taylor & Francis, 2014, p. 28; George C. Papavizas, "Claiming Macedonia: The Struggle for the Heritage, Territory and Name of the Historic Hellenic Land, 1862–2004", McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers, 2015, p. 257; "A Companion to Ancient Macedonia", Wiley, 2011, p. 582 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Macedonia (Greece) (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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