page_title: Demographic history of Macedonia
section_title: Independent point of view
hierarchical_section_title: Demographic history of Macedonia / Macedonian question / Independent point of view
caption_attribution_description: Ethnic map of Macedonia Dark pink = Turkish Muslims Diagonal green and white stripes = Christian Turks («Gagauzes») Light green = Christian Bulgarians («Slavic speakers») Light brown = Bulgarian Muslims («Pomaks») Diagonal blue and white stripes = Christian Serbs Horizontal black and brown stripes = Serbian Muslims («Gorans») Navy blue = Albanian Muslims with Serbian origin Dark green = «Yörüks»: (Oghuz Turks from Anatolia) Light pink = Albanian Muslims («Tsamides, Chams») Horizontal pink and white stripes = Christian Albanians («Arvanites») Blue = Christian Aromanians («Vlachs») Orange = Aromanian Muslims («Moglenites») Horizontal blue and yellow stripes = Christian Greeks («Yunan rumlar») Yellow = Greek Muslims («Yunan mü'minler») Diagonal blue, white and green stripes = Bulgarians and Serbs mixed Dark brown = Bardoriots (supposed surviving «Vardariotai» observed by Pouqueville) Red = Spanish Jews («Ladino-Sefards»). The «Romaniots» may be confused with the Spanish Jews, or missing)
context_page_description: The region of Macedonia is known to have been inhabited since Paleolithic times.
context_section_description: Independent sources in Europe between 1878 and 1918 generally tended to view the Slavic population of Macedonia in two ways: as Bulgarians and as Macedonian Slavs. German scholar Gustav Weigand was one of the most prominent representatives of the first trend with the books Ethnography of Macedonia (1924, written 1919) and partially with The Aromanians (1905). The author described all ethnic groups living in Macedonia, showed empirically the close connection between the western Bulgarian dialects and the Macedonian dialects and defined the latter as Bulgarian. The International Commission constituted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in 1913 to inquire into causes and conduct of the Balkan Wars also talked about the Slavs of Macedonia as about Bulgarians in its report published in 1914. The Commission had eight members from Great Britain, France, Austria-Hungary, Germany, Russia and the United States.
  The term "Macedonian Slavs" was used by scholars and publicists in three general meanings:
  as a politically convenient term to define the Slavs of Macedonia without offending Serbian and Bulgarian nationalism;
  as a distinct group of Slavs different from both Serbs and Bulgarians, yet closer to the Bulgarians and having predominantly Bulgarian ethnical and political affinities;
  as a distinct group of Slavs different from both Serbs and Bulgarians having no developed national consciousness and no fast ethnical and political affinities (the definition of Cvijic).
  An instance of the use of the first meaning of the term was, for example, the ethnographic map of the Slavic peoples published in (1890) by Russian scholar Zarjanko, which identified the Slavs of Macedonia as Bulgarians. Following an official protest from Serbia the map was later reprinted identifying them under the politically correct name "Macedonian Slavs".
  The term was used in a completely different sense by British journalist Henry Brailsford in Macedonia, its races and their future (1906). The book contains Brailford's impressions from a five-month stay in Macedonia shortly after the suppression of the Ilinden Uprising and represents an ethnographic report. Brailford defines the dialect of Macedonia as neither Serbian, nor Bulgarian, yet closer to the second one. An opinion is delivered that any Slavic nation could "win" Macedonia if it is to use the needed tact and resources, yet it is claimed that the Bulgarians have already done that. Brailsford uses synonymously the terms "Macedonian Slavs" and "Bulgarians", the "Slavic language" and the "Bulgarian language". The chapter on the Macedonians Slavs/the Bulgarians is titled the "Bulgarian movement", the IMRO activists are called "Bulgarophile Macedonians".
  The third use of the term can be noted among scholars from the allied countries (above all France and the United Kingdom) after 1915 and is roughly equal to the definition given by Cvijic (see above).
caption: Austrian ethnographic map from 1892
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