ABSTRACT
Macedonia was the only former Yugoslav republic to acquire its independence without war, and thus it has been hailed as one of the more successful examples of peaceful political transition in Central and Eastern Europe, given the challenging international context in the early years (Figure 16.1). Yet the economic and social legacies of Yugoslav communism, combined with regional political instability, pose an obstacle to more rapid development which could help to resource programmes geared to solving environmental problems. Within the former Yugoslavia, Macedonia was widely seen as an economically underdeveloped area, though this perception does not necessarily reflect historical realities which situated the country at a strategic and relatively prosperous Balkan crossroads, much coveted by the great powers. But its geographic unity was broken in 1913, when Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia partitioned the region into three parts following the withdrawal of the Ottoman Empire.
