FYR Macedonia: Modern is the New Ancient Quiz

Answer: Philip II

Alexander himself was born in Pella, which is now in modern Greece, though the bulk of Alexander's ancestral kingdom was in present-day FYROM.

Answer: Slavs

The most-accepted theories hold that the South Slavs originated in present-day Ukraine and migrated into the Balkans both to pillage the dominant but lightly-defended Byzantine Empire and to farm new lands, as the soil of their homelands was easily depleted by their farming methods. Though the initial Slavic incursions into the Balkans were bloody raids (Greek chronicles tell lurid tales of invading "Slavic hordes"), Slavs and other ethnic groups eventually reached a kind of homeostasis, with Slavs farming in rural areas and Greeks remaining as merchants in the cities.

Answer: The Bulgars

Byzantine Emperor Basil II (often referred to as "The Bulgar Killer") launched numerous offensives against Bulgaria in the late tenth century, and Bulgaria's capital was moved from Sofia to Skopje, the present-day capital of Macedonia. In 1018, Basil subjugated Bulgaria completely in a marked demonstration of cruelty (blinding thousands of captured soldiers while leaving 1% with one eye to lead the rest home) and statesmanship, integrating many Bulgarian elites into the Byzantine aristocracy.

Answer: Serbia

Dushan was a remarkable leader, establishing a concise Serbian legal codex and more than doubling his territory. Amateur historians love to play the game of "what if...", and many muse over what Eurasia would look like today if Dushan had not died aged 46 in 1355. Serbs today speculate that Serbia would have assumed a leading role in world history, similar to that of France, instead of being overrun in the next generation by the most dominant power in the region.

A note to purists: Dushan's name is usually rendered "Dusan" (with an accented "s" that doesn't show very well on some browsers). This is entirely proper, but in the interests of correct pronunciation by English speakers, I transliterate it phonetically here.

Answer: The Ottoman Turks

The remnants of Dushan's empire fell in 1389 at the battle of Kosovo. The Ottomans dominated the area into the nineteenth century, when revolutions in Serbia and Greece began a national reawakening. The Ottoman system of governance allowed local peoples to continue their religious practices, and the majority of Macedonian Slavs continued as Orthodox Christians. Governors of the region, however, were chosen from Slavic slaves who converted to Islam.

Answer: Yugoslavia

The Balkan Wars concluded in 1912 with Serbia annexing Macedonia. In the aftermath of World War I, the former Austrian territories of Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia joined with Serbia to create the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, renamed Yugoslavia in 1929.

Answer: False

Quite the opposite. Macedonian language and culture was much closer to Bulgarian than Serbian analogues, and Serb nationalists took great pains to address this. Bulgarian schools were closed, Bulgarian priests were expelled, and only Serbs could teach in Macedonian schools.

This process of "Serbianization" rankled most Macedonians, and many of them joined the anti-Serb (but pro-Axis) Bulgarian forces during World War II--though, it must be added, many Macedonians fought in the anti-fascist Partisan forces as well under eventual Yugoslav president Josef Broz Tito.

Answer: It was one of the least-developed areas of Eastern Europe, lagging behind peer republics like Croatia and Slovenia

Despite President Tito's efforts to the contrary, economic development broke down along national lines within Yugoslavia's six republics. Slovenia was probably the gold standard, with perhaps the most thriving economy in Eastern Europe; Croatia was just behind, with well above-average economic performance among Eastern European areas.

The three "southern republics" of Bosnia, Macedonia, and Montenegro, however, did not do as well, while Serbia, though probably the most influential politically, was somewhere in the middle economically. For more detailed examination, see John Allcock's 'Explaining Yugoslavia' from Columbia University Press.

Answer: Macedonia declared independence from Yugoslavia

Amid the dissolution of the USSR and the opening of many Eastern European countries in its aftermath (usually referred to as the "fall of communism"), increasingly nationalist sentiment within Yugoslavia reached a fever pitch, with wealthier republics Slovenia and Croatia wanting closer ties with the West, while more traditionally communist Serbia, which had dominated the executive branch since Tito's death in 1980, wanted to keep Yugoslavia together. On June 25, 1991, Slovenia and Croatia declared independence, sparking a civil war that eventually led to mass ethnic cleansing and rape among other human rights abuses. Macedonia's path to independence was more sedate; though 500 United States troops soon arrived to secure the new country's border, it soon became clear that no major incursions were coming Macedonia's way. Neighboring Greece refused to recognize its name, the "original" Macedonia having been Greek instead of Slavic.

Answer: The Albanians

The Albanian 'National Liberation Army', composed largely of insurgents who had fought in neighboring Kosovo, began commandeering villages along the Macedonia/Kosovo border. Though they were subject to FYROM reprisals, total deaths on both sides were, thankfully, limited to a few dozen. Following 2001's Ohrid Agreements, the FYROM government agreed to extend "second official language" status to Albanian, the native tongue of a quarter of its population.

The Ohrid Agreements also allowed for more local autonomy, another move to placate the Albanian minority.