a dispute that occurred during the 19th and 20th centuries among the Balkan powers over possession of the territory of Macedonia. An attempt by Bulgaria to seize the area from Ottoman Turkey was blocked by Great Britain and the other great powers in 1878. Thereafter, Serbia, Greece, and Bulgaria all laid claim to the disputed territory. They expelled the Turks in 1912, and, after a brief war among themselves, divided Macedonia into three parts in 1913. Bulgaria annexed the Serbian portion during World War I but was forced to return it with some additional territory in 1919. After World War II the Yugoslav portion of Macedonia was organized into a constituent republic of Yugoslavia.

In 1992, when portions of Yugoslavia broke apart, this Slavic republic declared itself an independent Macedonia. Greece, which contained regions officially named “Macedonia,” objected to the Slavic republic's use of the name.