14 ATLASES
History of North Macedonia in maps
North Macedonia as it appears in 14 interactive history atlases, from 264 BC to 2015: Macedonia, Yugoslavia, North Macedonia. Each era below lists who ruled the land and when control changed, linked to the dated map that shows it.
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What was North Macedonia before it was North Macedonia? The sections below follow this land through every era covered by the Maps of History atlases: who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed. Each line links to the dated map. Modern borders serve as an approximation, as each atlas says on the map itself.
Macedonia (mod. N. Macedonia) · Ancient Rome
Macedonia, Alexander’s homeland, fought Rome repeatedly. After Pydna in 168 BC, Rome abolished the kingdom and divided it into four republics, restricting trade and intermarriage between them. A pretender’s revolt led to provincial rule after 148. The Via Egnatia carried armies east across Macedonia toward the Bosporus. Philippi lay near the road; Pharsalus, in neighboring Thessaly, was another decisive battlefield of the Republic’s civil wars.
| 264 BC | Hellenistic kingdoms — the opening position |
| 146 BC | Roman territory |
ANCIENT ROME: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
North Macedonia · Norse and Aztecs
| Other peoples and states — the opening position |
NORSE AND AZTECS: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Macedonia (mod. N. Macedonia) · Crusades
| Byzantium (and Latin Constantinople 1204–61) — the opening position |
CRUSADES: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Macedonia · Mongol Empire
| Other settled powers (Jin China, Christendom, Delhi) — the opening position |
MONGOL EMPIRE: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
North Macedonia · Industrial Revolution
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
North Macedonia · Age of Revolutions
| Neutral / uncommitted — the opening position |
AGE OF REVOLUTIONS: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Yugoslavia (Macedonia; independent from 1991) · Meiji Japan and post-Soviet Russia
| Non-aligned or stateless — the opening position | |
| Independent neighbours |
MEIJI JAPAN AND POST-SOVIET RUSSIA: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Macedonia (Serbia) · WWI
Bulgarians, Greeks and Serbs each claimed Macedonia, the Balkans’ most contested land, on grounds of language, church and history. Turks, Albanians, Jews and Vlachs also lived there. Ottoman until 1912, Macedonia was conquered in the First Balkan War, fought over in the Second and divided at Bucharest in 1913 (Ch. 2). The north shown here went to Serbia; Bulgaria entered the world war in 1915 to win it (Ch. 6).
Yugoslavia (Macedonia) · Stalin’s Soviet Union
Tito’s partisans fought German occupiers and their local allies from 1941 and took power in 1945 with little help from the Red Army. Yugoslavia had liberated itself, which helps explain why Tito could defy Moscow. He was initially more radical than Stalin wished, yet refused to take orders. Yugoslavia was expelled from the Cominform in June 1948. It survived Soviet pressure, accepted Western aid and built its own non-aligned communism, opening the first crack in the Soviet bloc.
| Nazi Germany & its allies — the opening position | |
| Nazi Germany & its allies | |
| Satellites & communist allies | |
| Other states |
STALIN’S SOVIET UNION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
North Macedonia · Road to WW2
| Neutral & unaligned — the opening position | |
| Occupied — held by force |
ROAD TO WW2: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
North Macedonia · WW2
| Axis-occupied — the opening position | |
| Axis-occupied | |
| Soviet Union |
North Macedonia · Cold War
| Soviet-aligned states — the opening position | |
| Communist, outside Moscow’s bloc | |
| In upheaval / changing sides | |
| Communist, outside Moscow’s bloc | |
| In upheaval / changing sides |
COLD WAR: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Yugoslavia (Macedonia) · Feminism and the Tunisian Revolution
| Refused: women excluded; ERA never ratified — the opening position | |
| Right won in law | |
| Partial or unequal; treaty signed only; transition | |
| No reform yet / outside this story | |
| Right won in law |
FEMINISM AND THE TUNISIAN REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Yugoslavia (Macedonia) · Refugee crises
| Soviet-occupied or communist — the opening position |
REFUGEE CRISES: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
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