The rise of Macedon, from a small kingdom at the periphery of Classical Greek affairs, to one which came to dominate the entire Hellenic world, occurred under the reign of Philip II.

Philip's son, Alexander the Great (356–323 BC), managed to briefly extend Macedonian power not only over the central Greek city-states, but also over the entire Persian empire which he toppled, including Egypt, and later went on towards lands as far east as the fringes of India today Pakistan.

[7] Alexander's adoption of the styles of government of the conquered territories was accompanied by the spread of Greek culture and learning through his vast empire.

Although the empire fractured into multiple Hellenic regimes shortly after his death, his conquests left a lasting legacy, not least in the new Greek-speaking cities founded across Persia's western territories, heralding the Hellenistic period.

Macedonian Greeks were actively involved in those early revolutionary movements; among the first was Grigorios Zalykis, a writer, who founded the Hellenoglosso Xenodocheio, a precursor of the Filiki Eteria.

Even after the end of the Greek national revolution, there were several revolts in Macedonia with all of them having as their stated aim the union of the region with the Kingdom of Greece.

At the time that his troops arrived at Polygyros, the local insurgents and monks from Mount Athos rose up and killed the Turkish voivod and his guards, compelling the Ottomans to retire to Thessaloniki.

Yussuf Bey took the revenge by beheading a bishop, impaling three dignitaries while in durance and imprisoning a lot of Christians in Thessaloniki.

[22] Letters from the period show Pappas either being addressed or signing himself as "Leader and Defender of Macedonia" and is today considered a Greek hero along with the unnamed Macedonians that fought with him.

After Greece's defeat in the 1897 Greco-Turkish War, further Bulgarian involvement was encouraged in Macedonian affairs and their bands invaded the region, terrorizing populations of Greek consciousness.

[30] On the eve of the 20th century, Greek Macedonians were a minority population in a number of areas inside the multiethnic region of Macedonia, more so away from the coast.

[42] During the Axis occupation of Greece at World War II, Macedonia suffered thousands of victims due to anti-partisan activity of the German occupying forces and the ethnic cleansing policies of the Bulgarian authorities.

[46] Large numbers of Greeks were expelled and others were deprived of the right to work by a license system that banned the practice of a trade or profession without permission.

[47][48] Bulgarian colonists were encouraged to settle in Macedonia by government credits and incentives, including houses and land confiscated from the natives.

An estimated fifteen thousand Greeks were killed by the Bulgarian occupational army during the next few weeks and in the countryside entire villages were machine gunned and looted.

[49] The Great Famine that broke up in 1941, that killed hundreds of thousands in the occupied country canceled these plans, leaving the population to endure those conditions for another three years.

[50] In the same year the Bulgarian army expanded its zone of control into Central Macedonia under German supervision, although this area was not formally annexed nor administered by Bulgaria.

Evripidis Bakirtzis, a veteran of the Balkan Wars, was commander of Macedonian forces of the Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS) during the Axis Occupation of Greece in the period 1941–1944.

After the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey, half of the refugees from Asia Minor, Pontus, and Eastern Thrace settled in the region.

His songs and traditions, of which he is vastly and justly proud, are often described as having come down " from the times of Philip and Alexander - and Heracles", a comprehensive period to which all remnants of the past are allotted with undiscriminating impartiality.The use of the Macedonian flag is very common in the Macedonian population and the diaspora,[53][54][55] depicting the Vergina Sun as their regional symbol, while "Famous Macedonia" is an unofficial anthem and military march.

It belongs to the northern dialect group, with phonological and few syntactical differences distinguishing it from standard Greek which is spoken in southern Greece.

[63] The dispute over the moral right to the use of the name Macedonia and its derivatives traces its origin to the Macedonian question in the 19th and early-20th century between Greece, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria.

As President of Greece, Konstantinos Karamanlis senior had also expressed his strong sentiments regarding the Macedonian regional identity, most notably in one emotionally charged statement made in 1992.

Their immigration was similar to that of the rest of the Greek diaspora, affected by their socio-economic and political background in their homeland, and has been recorded mainly between 1924 and 1974.

Macedonian families from the regions of Florina and Kastoria established settlements in rural areas, while people from Kozani settled mainly in Melbourne.

Vasilios Kyriazis Blades from Vythos, a village in the prefecture of Kozani, is believed to be the first Macedonian settler to arrive in Australia and was landed in Melbourne in 1915; his arrival exhorted other people from his village and adjacent Pentalofos to settle in Melbourne, while several families from other districts also settled in Australia, bringing with them hundreds of people in the following decades.

During the first years of their settlement, the Macedonians were dispersed in the Australian countryside close to the metropolitan centers, working as market gardeners, farmhands and woodcutters; there was a significant change of their occupational patterns after 1946, when they began to bring with them their families from Greece.

Apart from its regional character, the federation also serves as the voice of the Greek Macedonian communities in Australia and has taken active role in the Macedonia naming dispute.

The main institutions which were established by some of these communities or are closely affiliated with them are: Pan-Macedonian Association USA, founded in 1947 in New York City by Greek Americans whose origins were from Macedonia to unite all the Macedonian communities of the United States, works to collect and distribute information on the land and people of Macedonia, organize lectures, scientific discussions, art exhibitions, educational and philanthropic activities, while they have funded work in the Library of New York University with books about the Macedonian history and culture.